Vertical Gardening For Children

Vertical gardening has a lot to offer the space deprived gardener. As our dwellings seem to become larger and the surrounding open space reduced, the need to turn open space into green space is even more pressing. A sad part of this loss of space is the lost opportunity for gardens and gardening, particularly for the children in our communities.

Whereas once a garden for free, open play would have been the norm in almost every Australian child's life, these days, those spaces are often compromised. Children can become disconnected from the natural world and some children might be limited to accessing public gardens to have any sort of 'hands on' understanding and relationship with nature including growing plants, food production and the quality of the air we breathe. Vertical gardening might hold the key for families wanting to nurture a relationship with nature in their children who are challenged with limited space.

Vertical gardening offers parents an opportunity to inject much needed greenery into a small space but to importantly provide an active gardening 'experience' for their children so that they can enjoy the sensory experience and satisfaction of growing plants to fruition. Vertical garden systems that are soil media based and open tiered, offer a traditional gardening 'experience' in that the kids (and adults) can dig in them with their trowels and plant seeds, seedlings or even advanced plants.

Benefits of vertical gardening for kids

fast growing plants
bright colours
edibles
quirky foliage
hardy plants
plants that they can trim
all the fun stuff, planting, watering and harvesting without the chores!

The kinds of plants that kids will really enjoy growing in their vertical gardens are hardy, reliable performers that germinate and or mature fairly quickly. Lettuce, rocket and radishes are fairly quick from seed. Hardy flowers like dwarf marigolds and calendulas add colour and interest and combine gorgeously with edibles in the vertical garden. Kids also like quirky flowers and veggies so look for odd colour mixes and dwarf or novelty coloured vegetable varieties. Of course, favourites like strawberries will always be highly desirable and they grow so well in vertical gardens, you'd be mad not to plant at least a few.

It's a fantastic feeling for parents to give their children some exposure to how produce is grown and why it's great to grow your own - vertical gardening can provide that in an aesthetically pleasing and space saving way. Knowing also that all of the goodies you and your kids produce are pesticide and herbicide residue free is also reassuring, particularly when the produce is plucked fresh from the Vertical Garden before making it into the kitchen!

Of course, gardeners (even non-gardeners) of all ages will be drawn to a Vertical Garden; these living walls provide beauty and nourishment on many levels. People find common ground, conversation and so many opportunities for sharing. Whether it be knowledge, produce or any of the myriad of other ways that gardening seems to bring out the best in people - even if we do garden in many different ways these days!

Carolyn Blackman is the co-director of http://edennow.com.au. edenNOW is the sole distributor for the open tiered, steel GARSY range of vertical garden products in Australia. Carolyn has over 20 years experience in Horticulture and Landscape Design- she is a regular guest on Saturday Morning Gardening program on Melbourne radio ABC 774

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