Gardening For The Whole Family
Gardening is a freeing experience, a chance to connect with small pieces of nature, that with the proper care will yield delicate and beautiful products, whether the gardener is nurturing flowers or cultivating vegetables. This freeing experience is a great way to take some time away from the busy tasks of life and the cares of the world. The garden becomes its own private oasis, spiriting the gardener to a place of content. And while many will use the garden for this exact reasoning, why shouldn’t we take it upon ourselves to pass the love of gardening down to the people who we care about the most.
Growing Little Gardeners
Gardening can often become a family affair as many of us may have already experienced. The joy of having little hands at work in the garden is a fantastic way to share the things that you love with the family that you love so much. But, many forms of gardening involve immense amounts of patience and sometimes a little seriously hard work. These conditions are not always conducive to our wonderful, but perhaps impatient and unfocused younger children, who despite their desire to help in the garden aren’t quite ready to step outside and participate. Likewise, the garden may not be the best way for a busy parent to share their love for gardening and nurturing plants and other greenery. If only there was a way to shrink the garden down, make planting an easy experience, and keep maintenance down to a minimum!
A Solution
It seems as if this attempt to teach your children the basics of gardening and create memories with your family has completely crashed and burned. So it’s a good thing that they had these same issues some 200 years ago, when the first wardian case was invented. Today many of these glass cases are not as large as the originals and you will often find them referred to as terrariums instead of as the original wardian cases.
So Many Options
Today’s terrariums come in a number of different shapes and sizes, with most being able to rest on a table or in the windowsill, and every one of them created to house small plants inside of your home with the greatest of ease. Terrariums may very well be the best possible way to introduce your small children to gardening for a number of different reasons beginning primarily with their size, ease of maintenance, and the infinite different things you can do with each one of them.
Terrariums may very well be the best possible way to introduce your small children to gardening
Setting Up The Terrariums
Terrariums are first of all one of the easiest garden ecosystems to start. To create the mini-ecosystem, you will first want to make sure that water will easily be able to filter and cycle through the materials in the base of the terrarium. There are a number of different terrarium kits that are available for purchase around the internet, or you find or purchase the different components that will be needed to create the base material.
Laying The Foundation
To create this base, you will typically want some type of moss or charcoal to lightly filter the water at the very bottom of the system, some light gravel to act as a sturdy base, and some type of potting soil that will provide nutrients for the plants that will be placed in the soil. These components are incredibly easy to find, but will also be easy for little gardeners to dump into and spread around in the base of the terrarium (as a tip, try doing this in a garage, on the patio, or in the backyard as this step can be a little messy with the kiddos).
Choosing Plants
Plants are also incredibly easy to find for terrariums, as most small plants will grow quite well within the confines of the terrariums glass case, and planting will be a breeze. For a synopsis of some of the most popular plants to put in your terrarium check out our other blog post here. For young gardeners we suggest some type of succulent, as there are many unique kinds and they are extremely resilient to different levels of care and moisture. Adult assistance will likely be necessary here as a guiding hand will help make sure the plants are properly placed, while still allowing for the little artists to do their work.
Sit Back & Relax
Once you’ve planted whatever terrarium sized botanical treasure looks the best, uptake requires minimal effort. Now you can go back through and add whatever artistic pieces you want to the inside of the terrarium, this might include larger rocks to surround your plants or a small layer of moss, but whatever it is make sure to have fun. Help the kids to water the terrarium occasionally so they’ll be prepared for more gardening based projects as they keep growing like the little garden you’ve started. We hope that your terrariums bring your family as much joy as they’ve brought ours, happy gardening!