Exposing your children to gardening at a young age is actually very important, not only will they learn about nature, but also science and the importance of being organic.

I recently overheard a friend ask his 6 year old daughter “where do peas come from?” and her reply was “the supermarket” and called her dad silly, how dad could not know that they came from a tin in a supermarket! He asked her again, if she knew where peas really came from before ending up in a supermarket, she didn’t know.

When I was a young boy my dad gave me about 10 square feet of his 5 acres of prime Rhodesian garden, It was my very first exposure to that great big gardening bug, he spent hours with me showing me how to sow seeds, and nurture my own plants and vegetables, My first plants were cannas, and I grew a small number of carrots, onions and beans.

I still remember with tearful pride how my dad announced to a dinner party that his son had grown the horseradish that now graced the roast beef dinner.

I highly recommend that parents give a piece of land to their kids, along with a gift of seeds, seedlings and some kid sized gardening tools, make a ceremony out of it, get granddad to come around, as we all know that our granddads know everything about gardening (even when they don’t) but it will give your kids a very firm foundation for life.

Kids will love growing everything that they enjoy eating, sweet corn for example would be ideal; also sunflowers would look good in your Childs garden. You could even give then a small shed, just like dads. I am sure that as parents you will be able to teach more about life and science to your kids and also show them how to relax, they will find it therapeutic and studies have shown that some problem kids, or sadly those who have suffered abuse will often thrive when they have an outlet, and they can use all 5 senses in their own little gardens.

Just think how proud you will be when your kids will want to select the best fruit and vegetables when at the market, after all they will be the “experts” and will know what is in season and what is not, but hopefully if your kids are successful on a small piece of ground, give them more, if in the UK put their name down for an allotment, if not then let them have as much as they can cope with.