On Mother's Day, my family and I did something kind of unconventional.  We didn't have brunch at a fancy restaurant.  We didn't go to Oma's house.  We didn't get dressed up at all.  Instead, we put on jeans and headed down to a plant nursery in the city.  The nursery is called Greensgrow Farms and it is smack in the middle of a Philadelphia neighborhood.  I wasn't sure what to expect since last time we came at the end of the season and there were few plants remaining.  But this time?  It was plant heaven.

I absolutely love to garden.  It is probably one of my favorite things to do in the world.  And gardening with my kids?  Even better.

Gardening with your children is so great for a number of reasons:

1. Gardening helps your children connect with nature.  Whether you live in the city, suburbs or "boonies" (like how I grew up), it's important to establish some sense of relationship to nature.  I want my children to know where food comes from, why we have bugs (even though I don't want them in the house, bug catcher or no bug catcher), how plants grow - all of those things.  My children, all under the age of 5, understand the importance of rain and sunshine, why we must treat flowers nicely (no decapitating the tulips!), why we have earthworms...  They are developing an appreciation for nature and they're learning at the same time (me too - I learned that not all snakes are bad and some of them eat mice).
2. Gardening is healthy.  It's exercise.  Weeding, planting, pruning.  It's moving.  And moving is good.  No gym membership required, no fancy fitness equipment.  Just you, your kids and a backyard.
   
3. Gardening saves money.  Okay, anybody that's ever developed an unnatural attachment to gardening catalogs knows that you can also spend a lot of money.  But if you are careful, gardening does save money.  Let's take tomatoes, for example.  A packet of seeds costs about $2.  I am terrible with seeds, so I bought plants.  My four pack of plants was $4.50.  I expect that I will get at least 50 tomatoes out of those plants this summer.  Where can you get 50 beefsteak tomatoes for less than $4.50?  I also bought zucchini, eggplant, peppers, leeks and chard.  Some of these are experiments and I expect to have some "throw-aways".  But I also expect to have lots of fresh produce (and herbs, did I mention the herbs?) throughout the summer and fall.  
4. Gardening demands your time - and that can mean time with the kids.  Sometimes, my hobbies are very me-oriented.  My writing is all about me.  My sewing doesn't lend itself to kid-participation.  But gardening?  There are tons of jobs that kids can do, from weeding to watering to picking up sticks and pine cones.  And we can do those things together.  On Mother's Day, we spent a whole afternoon planting the cool things that we bought.  The kids loved it, were exhausted (and terribly dirty) when the day was over.  And that was a good thing.  We spent a day doing something fun... together.

I could go on and on about why gardening with children works so well.  But I think you get the point.  It's fun, it's healthy, it's economical, it's educational.  Give it a try.  I think you'll enjoy it.