How does your garden grow?
Posted 11 June 2024
After the incredible designs on display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year and the promotion of National Children’s Gardening Week in half-term, hands up if you’re feeling inspired to get going in the glorious outdoors right now?
You’re not alone. Any trip to your local garden centre over the recent Bank Holiday weekend would have revealed crowds of excited, likeminded folk, all keen to improve their outside space. And with good reason – gardening is great!
There are so many benefits to gardening above and beyond the beautiful rose blooms and BBQ-ready decking. Plus, they aren’t just for grown-ups. Alongside the popular Bridgerton Garden, another firm favourite at Chelsea this year was the No Adults Allowed Garden – designed by children, for children.
The kids involved clearly had a blast, but you don’t need an RHS budget to help your foster children to reap the benefits of gardening.
Big space, small space, or even a window box – grab your wellies and watch your children grow along with the plants. How? Well, maybe grab a cuppa first and read this...
First and most obviously, gardening can help your child’s physical health. The simple act of getting outside in the fresh air and moving around is always a winner. It doesn’t need to be digging either, running, twirling, jumping and worm-catching all count. Throw in some things like planting and picking and you’ve ticked-off fine as well as gross motor development. Then there’s the knock-on effects.
Getting active outdoors can be great for improving sleep, while growing tasty fruit or veggies is a practical way to start a healthy eating mindset.
The benefits don’t stop there though. Mentally and emotionally, gardening can help your child with self-regulation. Getting outside can make us feel free and that freedom can afford children enough space to let their big feelings out. Gardening might not take those feelings away, but it can allow them to be felt and acknowledged freely, which is a great start. Watching their efforts grow can also teach them patience as they wait and resilience when weeds appear or things go wrong.
Clever scientists have even discovered that working with soil causes our bodies to produce the happy hormone serotonin, so gardening can literally be a brilliant child mood-booster.
Getting foster children into gardening can be great for their self-esteem too. Seeing a project through from start to finish and the satisfaction of successfully growing something can be really empowering. Likewise, the fact that gardening doesn’t rely on academic prowess. Finally, working alongside a child in your care can afford you both the chance to relax, open-up and bond as you create. Brill.
Maybe the nursery rhyme shouldn’t have asked how your garden grows, but what it grows? We hope soon you can answer that it grows physical health, self-regulation, resilience, sleep, self-esteem, bonding, patience, happiness and more.
If you have any gardening success stories, please share them on our Facebook page and if you feel like talking with us about anything else, please contact us. We’re off to mow a meadow, well, the back lawn.