One of the interesting developments of the last decade or so has been that as we have all become more tech savvy and more gadget reliant, we have also grown closer to the land and to nature.

Whether it’s creating a beautiful flower-filled garden or growing veg on an allotment there’s no doubt that many people are keener than ever to get their hands dirty in their own homes, and it’s vital that this passion and interest is passed down the generations.

As well as being a healthy and rewarding outdoor activity gardening, and particularly shared garden projects where the whole family gets involved, can also be a great way of spending quality time together.

When given responsibility for a task, and the suitable tools, children almost always respond positively and the rewards can last a lifetime.

So in that spirit, here are some suggestions, hints and thoughts to encourage children to become interested in gardening.

Keep it fun.

First off, here’s a suggestion of what not to do. Although gardening certainly has it’s fair share of dull, repetitive, but very necessary tasks, please don’t offload these onto the kids. It’s pretty tempting (for both parties) to enter into a garden-chores-for-cash type arrangement too, but doing so is likely to have your children categorise gardening firmly in the drudge department. There are at least as many tasks and projects the completion of which offer rewards in themselves, and these are far more likely to engage young minds and fire imaginations.

Get down and dirty.

From a very young age many children enjoy digging in and playing around with and in soil – it’s the same principal as building sandcastles on the beach really.

It might be easy to find this inconvenient or messy, but with a bit of forethought it can be the perfect introduction to the world of the garden.

Try to find an area that can be just for the kids or let them mess around in newly dug areas before they are planted. Get them kitted out in old clothes that you don’t mind getting muddy, and let nature take it’s course.

Tools for the job.

All young children like to imitate adults, it’s a large part of how they learn, so giving them their very own set of garden tools not only allows them to get involved with all the same sort of activities as the adults but also gives them something uniquely their own.

Many garden tools also come in child friendly, mini sizes, and buckets, spades, rakes, gloves, watering cans and wheelbarrows are all ideal.

Either allocate the children their own patch of the garden, or get them involved in all of your gardening tasks – making a potentially dull set of jobs into fun family activities.

Planting seeds.

Growing plants from seed is a basic task for most gardeners, and perfect one for children to learn too. Sowing and growing from seeds allows kids control of a whole little project and lets them see the effect of their attentions on a day-by-day, leaf -by leaf-basis.

It can be immensely rewarding and a source of great pride to grow something as mighty and downright impressive as a sunflower or a sweet pea from a seed. Start small, with a few seeds in few old margarine pots, or even in an egg carton, and see how they get on.

You can enlarge the task further by getting children to record their plants progress – they could measure or draw them at each stage of growth for instance. Stick with fast germinating, and quick flowering annuals for the most immediate results, if all goes well then try some vegetables from seed – whatever your child best likes to eat.

Collecting and categorising.

Like the adults that they will some day become, many children enjoy collecting “things” and then arranging or categorising them into groups.

Think about what’s prolific on your plot – leaves, flowers, seeds, bark are just a few of many possibilities – and they can all be collected, decorated, drawn, identified and used to create other things.

Think also about expanding and building up on your child’s’ existing interests and seeing how you can incorporate the garden into them. A spin off activity might also be designing, decorating or making labels for the garden.

Using containers.

A great way of getting creative in the garden is to encourage children to decorate and then plant up their own containers. You can start with a basic terracotta or plastic pot, although any suitable container will do just fine.

Decorations can be painted, glued or tied, shells, seedcases, leaves, paint, sand & stones are just a few of the possible materials that can be tried. Then take the children along to a nursery or garden centre, give them a small budget and let them choose something suitable to plant.

They can even research a bit about their chosen plant, where in the world it comes from, how to look after it and so on. Again, the whole idea is to encourage their ownership of the plant and the planter, to get thoroughly involved and let those green fingers start to grow.

The birds and the bees.

Many kids have a natural affinity with and fascination for animals of all shapes and sizes, so exploring the greenery in search of insects is often a very popular pastime. Some of these can also be collected, identified and released once again…maybe not the vine weevils though.

Keeping a list of birds that visit the garden, and what they do when they’re there is a good alternative. The ultimate garden biosphere is definitely the garden pond, the number and variety of creatures that will call it home is really astonishing, and often a source of wonder to even the most jaded tot. If that seems to be working well then the next stage would be to build feeders, nestboxes, habitats and food plants, maybe even create a new pond.