No Dig Gardening for Children
Written by Charles Dowding ● Illustrated by Kristyna Litten
Verdict:
Practical gardening know-how made simple and fun, this book invites families and classrooms to learn by doing, and offers valuable lessons in patience, care, and responsibility along the way.
What is it about?
You want to garden with your children, but have questions you don't even know how to ask? This book asks the questions for you and gives you clear and simple answers, with pictures. It starts with the basics of soils, microbes, and compost, then moves on to questions like "What is a weed?" and "How does seasonal gardening for year-round food work?". Chapters on growing vegetables, a sensory garden, and flowers are interspersed with tips on involving children with special needs, growing and carving a Halloween pumpkin, companion planting, and saving seeds. Illustrations, charts, and lists make all the written information easy to absorb.
Our take:
Summertime is gardening time. Many families would like to know how to start. This book calls itself "fun and easy", and we think it lives up to the claim. The author — himself an avid gardener — gives various strategies for jumping in without too much fuss or preparation. All the basics are covered, so a family can learn by doing and still expect good results. The source of food is one of the most basic pieces of learning parents can give their children, and this book can help make it relatively simple to learn about, with the gratification of eating the results, or making a bouquet, or seeing wildlife come to your yard.
Perfect for:
This book is especially useful for families but also for classrooms, especially if you have a shared plot or space to grow plants. It could also be useful simply to read together. This book shows the benefits of gardening, also for children who cannot do many of the necessary activities, but who will nonetheless have some part in the growing and tending of a garden. Gardening can help these children (and all children) "to concentrate, to manage their feelings, and develop responsibility for plants."
Another bonus of this book, and especially in trying its principles: family members can learn about work being hard but fun. Children see over time that rewards are worth waiting for. They learn about weather effects on plants and use of water and changes by seasons, all of which information is transferable to other parts of their lives. Children of every age can benefit from this book; even ones who might not enjoy getting their hands dirty will like the chapters on recycling things to make the garden pretty, and growing plants to attract birds.
Conversation Starters
Where do vegetables come from?
Where do flowers come from?
What kinds of things do the birds of our area eat?
How long does it take to grow a pumpkin?
When is a plant a weed?
What do seasons do to plants?
What kind of garden shall we plant?
STORYVOR uses affiliate links. When you make a purchase through our buy links, you directly support our mission to spread literacy at no extra cost to you, and help keep free teaching and book resources available to parents and educators around the world.
