Images: Tim Sandall
Start children off in the garden by stimulating their senses with brightly coloured flowers, aromatic foliage and scented blooms, tactile leaves and quick-to-crop edible plants.
Inspire children to garden by starting with easy-to-grow plants, either from seed such as sunflower (left), marigolds (French or English), poppies (right) and Cosmos or as plants such as primulas, pansies, wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca), lavender and hardy geraniums.
Big seeds, oak or sycamore for instance, are great for very young children to sow.
Stimulate their interest with plants that make noise, such as rattling Nigella and poppy seedheads, rustling grasses and bamboos (left), or fun-to-touch plants like furry Stachys byzantina, sticky Petunia or prickly Eryngium). Also try plants with a distinctive smell such as the curry plant (Helichrysum italicum), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), cherry pie heliotrope or chocolate cosmos.
Edible plants are always a favourite, especially if they also look good. Get them to try Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’, radish, lettuce, courgettes and runner beans. Discovering edible flowers such as sweet-tasting day lily (Hemerocallis) or peppery nasturtium will make the garden a much more exciting place.
Helen Bostock