Grow a gardener

Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.

The much-loved children's classic The Secret Garden, written in the early 1900s by Frances Hodgson Burnett, had an early grasp of the benefits of getting kids into the garden. In it a sullen young girl and a sickly boy find health and happiness through thinking positively and plenty of weeding and digging.

Today, with the causes of childhood obesity being lack of exercise and unhealthy eating, children still have much to gain from weeding, digging and perhaps learning how to grow vegetables. They might even have fun.

If, however, the only greenery your children want to see is the colour of the pitch on PlayStation's FIFA 08 or the lurid Dorothy The Dinosaur on TV, you might have to do more than open the back door and push them out.

Chances are you'll find it easier to inspire the children if gardening is your thing. Some parents, though, may not have been taught the basics as children and others may be restricted by time and circumstance.

One way around this is to enlist the experts. "We think it's really important to teach the children as well as the adults," says Trish Brown, general manager of Eden Gardens centre at North Ryde. Gardening is an activity many children are not learning naturally, she says. The popularity of the centre's school holiday programs is due to this and the fact many families now have "smaller backyards and less space". (See www.edengardens.com.au or phone 9491 9900. Check with your local garden centre for its kids' programs.)

Sue Collins and Valerie Maguire, who have five children between them, identified kids' gardening as a gap in the market and just over a year ago established their online business Clever Little Gardeners. They organise delivery of seasonal plant packages (including craft projects, seeds, laminated instruction cards and recipes) that aim to make it easier for parents, grandparents and carers to spend "educational and fun time with a child" outdoors. (See www.cleverlittlegardeners.com or phone 8001 6241.) Continued...