Kids love to dig in the dirt. Why fight it? Just substitute "soil" for dirt and join a fun, family-oriented trend that's becoming big time in the backyard. 

Many parents find gardening an excellent way to spend quality time with their kids, teach lessons such as environmental awareness and the workings of nature, and have a liberal dose of old-fashioned family fun.

Fall: The Perfect Time to Start

Gertrude Jekyll, the celebrated English garden writer, thought so much of introducing little ones to nature's joys she devoted a classic 1908 book to the subject, Children and Gardens. In it she suggested that ". . .autumn is the time to plant little gardens."

Though vegetable gardens are often touted as the best way to plant the gardening seed in children, Ms. Jekyll felt that the pure fun of digging in the dirt was the real key.

Fall, with its many garden tasks, offers plenty of this kind of fun. Raking fallen leaves into piles, for example, is work to an adult but can be satisfying for a child. Planting is another pleasant chore for young and old. Fall is the season to plant trees, turf grasses and spring-blooming flower bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses.

Ms. Jekyll suggested that children begin their garden experience by helping their parents to tend existing plantings. Later, they should be given a spot of their own in which to create a small garden. She counseled her readers not to put the children's garden in a marginal area or back corner, but to give them a prime location where they can take pride in showing off their accomplishments.

Tough Tools for Tiny Hands

The child-sized rakes, hoes and spades available today from trendy garden shops and catalogues are an innovation of which Ms. Jekyll would surely approve. Writing in a "pre-indulgent" age when "spare the rod and spoil the child" was a cherished maxim of proper parenting, she stated firmly that ". . . children should be provided with proper tools." In her day, acceptable implements had to be made by clever country blacksmiths. Today her "necessary" list of well-made children's tools can be filled off the shelf.

From Little Acorns. . .

Trees are one of Nature's more magnificent achievements. Children, who themselves are small, one day to be tall, are fascinated with saplings. Over time the whole family will come to treasure "Bobby's Tree." And when one day "Bobby" ties a rope swing to its branches and tells his children "I was just your age when we planted this tree," the efforts of that long ago autumn day will all seem to have been quite well worth it.

When choosing a young tree, however, be sure to put a tactful check on childish enthusiasm. Find out how tall the tree is likely to become, how fast it grows and (very important) if it's likely to make a mess in your yard in the spring. Mulberry trees, for example, are lovely, grow quickly and yield a sweet fruit. But unless you're planning to spend six weeks each summer gathering fallen berries, you're buying a yard-full of sticky, smelly mess. (If Mulberry it must be, consider the new "fruitless" varieties.)

To ensure that young gardeners aren't disappointed, some tree planting tips:

keep the tree's eventual growth in mind when choosing a site and describe an imaginary "picture of the future" to your young arborist
most young trees should be planted in holes about three feet wide and 18 inches deep
good drainage is essential, add some gravel or other drainage material
stake young trees for support for the first few years
water well when planting and over the winter 

Easy Bulbs Yield Fabulous Flowers

Perhaps no other garden activity is so identified with fall as the planting of spring-flowering bulbs. Fall bulb planting reaches the level of ritual with many serious gardeners. But for all their majesty, tulips, daffodils and other flower bulbs are among the easiest plants for beginners, including children, to grow successfully.

Unlike seeds, bulbs are not dormant. They are already living plants and are practically guaranteed to grow if you put them in the ground in the fall. Slice open a hyacinth, for example, and your child can see the "baby flower" in the middle, just waiting to burst forth in the spring.

Bulbs are planted in two ways: laid out in quantity in large trenches, or placed individually or in small groups in small holes.

Trench plantings offer an ideal way to achieve a formal look, or offer an easy way to lay out patterns. You could, for example, make a crazy quilt pattern of colors or write your children's names in different colored crocuses or tulips.

"Naturalizing" is an easy technique that uses the small hole approach. As a design style, naturalized bulbs are meant to look as if nature planted them. Naturalizing is also a term for planting those types of bulbs that will come back year after year.

Children can have a lot of fun with naturalizing, because the best way to achieve that "natural" look is to grab handfuls of bulbs, toss them out on the target area and plant them where they fall.

Bulbs can actually be planted right on the lawn and will grow through the grass. Everyone would know where the "Smith Family" lived if it were spelled out on the lawn in yellow crocuses!

Instructions for planting bulbs are nearly always included with your purchase. Here are some helpful tips:

bulbs need good drainage, so choose areas where water is not likely to collect and make the soil too soggy
plant large bulbs, such as tulips and daffodils, eight inches deep, small bulbs such Snowdrops or crocuses five inches deep
plant before the first ground-freezing frost
the pointed side of the bulb goes up. 

Indoor Fall Gardening Projects

Another neat thing about bulbs that kids love is their ability to be forced or fooled into flower during the winter. Bulb forcing is  both a fun activity for a rainy day, and chance for children to see very quickly what their spring garden will look like. Potted-up Paperwhites and other bulbs, also make wonderful "hand-made" gifts from children to grandma, teachers and others.

Most bulbs need to be chilled for many weeks before they can be forced. Pre-chilled bulbs can be purchased or you can cool them yourself in the fridge or an unheated garage. But the quickest way is to use two of the bulbs available in fall that need no chilling: Paperwhites and Amaryllis.

These bulbs can be easily brought to flower in about six weeks. They can be bought separately or in kits, often in displays that include pots, soil and everything you need including easy instructions. Look for them in your local garden center.

The first bulbs can be brought to flower in time for the December holidays. And with just a little planning, a child can keep his indoor bulb garden in bloom all winter long.

Tender Care for Turf

Fall is also the season to reseed the lawn, fix bare spots or even renovate the lawn entirely. A full-scale renovation is probably not a job for children, but re-seeding small areas can be fun for kids, and also will help you to convince them to stay off the newly seeded areas, giving the new grass a chance.

In the end, fall is only the beginning of gardening as a family activity. Come spring, while you are enjoying the flowery fruits of your fall labor, it will be time to plan the summer vegetable and flower gardens.

For the children, there are more long term benefits.

Gertrude Jekyll, thinking back to her own youth, wrote that she thought at that time there were ". . .only two types of people in the world -- children and grown-ups, -- and that the world really belonged to children. And I think it is because I have been more or less a gardener all my life that I still feel like a child in many ways. . ."