By Wes Duren

Drift back in time for a moment, and imagine yourself again as a child. Do you remember playing outside, your youthful curiosity urging you to explore the wild world beyond your home? Maybe you can recall memories of a childhood adventure amidst seemingly vast woodlands or a babbling creek that appeared larger than life.  Perhaps there was a favorite tree you used to sit beneath or dangle from, or a garden that you helped nurture to maturity.  Can you remember digging in the dirt or lifting the edge of a rock to discover the wild creatures that dwelt beneath?

While many of us can recollect warmhearted memories of playing outdoors in our youth, scores of children today have never had the opportunity to embrace nature and benefit from its many healing qualities. In an age where visual and audio technology have become the dominant entertainment and educational tools, gardening is one way to bring peace and the natural rhythm of life to a child.  Numerous studies have shown a connection between spending more time in front of the TV and the computer, with the ever-growing obesity challenge among both children and adults. Unlike TV and computers, nature does not steal our time- it amplifies it.  According to a study performed at the University of Maryland, from 1997 to 2003, there was a decline of 50 percent in the number of children ages nine to twelve who spent time in outdoor activities such as gardening, hiking, fishing and beach play. In the gardens and natural world just outside our homes, neighborhoods and cities, children’s creative imagination is evoked and there they can find freedom, adventure and time for reflection, while exercising full use of the senses.

An easy way to introduce children to nature is through the practice of organic gardening. Such practices include working with nature to promote safer, more sustainably grown and nutrient dense food, while helping to protect our wildlife, soil, water, farmers, and ultimately the health of future generations. Because organic gardening is an action-oriented activity, it helps children to channel their energy in positive and constructive ways. Gardening can be an educational tool for children because it helps them develop cognitive skills such as problem solving, a sense of responsibility and purpose, as well as improved focus and patience. Many aspects of organic gardening can be therapeutic for children by improving self-esteem, confidence and interpersonal relationships. When adults and children garden together, it is well known that children feel more useful, productive and possess a profound sense of belonging. Organic gardening and playing outside teaches children how to nurture and respect all life forms, from the tiniest insect to their gardening helpmates. The mind and spirit of a child is a lot like wet cement. When a child is young, it takes little effort to make an impression that can last a lifetime.

Think about what it means to be a child growing up in today’s media driven society, inundated with technologies that distract them from a close connection with nature and their community. We are spending more time communicating with each other through cell phones and computers, rather than quality face-to-face time with our friends and family. Nature captivated the imagination of older generations, but now many of our youth are lured indoors with a bombardment of media driven messages telling them what to wear and how to live. We’ve become disconnected with our natural areas, whether it is a garden, woodland, field or ponds edge, and many do not even realize what they are missing. One of the greatest benefits of gardening and of unstructured outdoor recreation is that it doesn’t cost anything. Because organic gardening and nature exploration are free, or very inexpensive, there is no major economic interest involved. Rather than allowing media to manipulate and define our youth with profit focused messages of self absorbed materialism, let us help to guide our youth towards the ever enriching outdoors, filled with adventure and age-old positive life lessons.

Organic gardening helps children to develop practical skills that they can use throughout their lives, while reducing their exposure to dangerous and persistent garden chemicals, such as pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. More crucial now than any other time in history, we need to help reduce our children’s risk of exposure to harmful pesticides, which have been directly linked to ADHD and childhood cancer. While gardening organically, children are able to learn about plants, their environment and themselves. It begins now, here, and with you! We can all help to positively impact our youth by trying some of the suggestions below:

1. Build an edible organic garden together. Help to plan, plant, maintain, harvest, prepare and eat the fruits and vegetables that you grow together. Teach the children about the health benefits of eating more fruits and vegetable grown organically. Let the children help make decisions regarding what to grow, and guide them to patiently and steadily culture the garden to final harvest. Take time together to savor the sweet, dripping flavor of your own summer plucked watermelon, or of the fresh picked asparagus stalks which can be easily snapped at ground level by hand and eaten raw. There are many edible and equally ornamental trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, vegetables and herbs, so it can be very exciting to explore new fruits, nuts, flowers, herbs, veggies and berries that could enhance your child’s gardening and culinary experience. If you do not have land or gardening knowledge, let the children join a farming camp at your local not-for-profit learning farm such as Gorman Farm (http://www.gormanfarm.org/) , Green Acres (http://www.green-acres.org/GAF_sitepages/GAF_MAIN/GAF_MAIN-Home.html) and Turner Farm (http://www.localharvest.org/turner-farm-M343).

2. Construct a compost pile together. Collect kitchen scraps, garden debris, lawn clippings, fallen leaves and animal manure from local livestock farms (if available), and mix all ingredients in a pile, tumbler, bin or other compost containment system.  Allow children to see, touch and smell each material before it is incorporated into the compost pile, and then let them help to turn (or tumble) the compost to speed up decomposition. Once the compost is well broken down into a usable garden amendment, show the children how to incorporate compost into the soil around plants, making sure they get to work with their hands as much as possible. Children love learning that soil is alive and that we shouldn’t treat it like dirt.

3. Plant native Ohio flora in your yard and community together to encourage wildlife. From birds, bees, bats, butterflies and other bugs, children can help you integrate plants that predate European settlement in our area, many of which help cater to our abundance of local wildlife. By spending more time outdoors, children will begin to see and enjoy the infinite wonders our wild natural world has to offer.  Television, computers and video games will never replace the enchanting chorus of frogs and toads belching in harmony along the rim of a muddy pond, or the song of a myriad of migrating birds as they flutter effortlessly amid the tree canopy of colorful autumn foliage. By learning to enjoy plants and wildlife, children become more competent and confident and are more likely to protect and preserve nature as they get older.

What greater gift can we give our children than the opportunity to care and share and to be a positive force in their community? The oldest children’s garden in the United States was built in 1914 at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and a quote printed from within the garden gates that resonates through the ages proclaims, “He is happiest who gathers power from the wisdom of a flower.” While simple, this passage magnifies the importance of interconnectedness with nature and humans. Together, we can nurture positive childhood development in our community through the support of organic gardening and outdoor activities. Share your love of gardening or nature with a child, and watch them bloom into a beautiful, loving adult. Please contact us at Marvin’s Organic Gardens to discuss ways we can help you and your community develop an organic children’s garden or build educational hiking trails through a local wooded area. Go organic. It’s only natural!