A Garden Center Field Trip
Written By Beth Wolfensberger Singer
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Toddlers.
Keep novice walkers from straying by announcing that you're going on a sniff-and-touch safari. Try the azalea: smelled okay to me, but my kids winced, fanned their faces, and enthusiastically pretended to faint. Say you're hunting a plant that feels like a lamb's ear (it's actually called lamb's ear). Visit the cacti, gingerly tap a large needle, and talk about how the plant protects itself. One inspired grandmother I know, realizing how much a toddler yearns to touch, steers her grandson to the sturdy decoratives like birdbaths and iron frogs. Garden gnomes are great sports about being poked up the nostril while hearing all about those nasty azaleas.
Preschoolers.
At this age, kids' empathy for small things looms large, so let them follow their instinct to rescue and tend. ("Look how little the plants are," says Phoebe wistfully. "They need someone to take care of them.") Laura MacKeil, a mom and former general manager of a garden center, recommends giving preschoolers a treasure list of plants to locate. That can mean a verbal "find a pink flower" or matching the photos from a garden circular or catalog. Let your kids identify and cherish any stray blossoms they see on the pathways. Take a journal or hardback book to use as a flower press. Or take a cue from California gardener Adeline Mascareno, who designates her younger son "the official caretaker of each new 'little brother' or 'little sister' we place in the cart. I allow him to hold and baby the plants." For kids, that's a role to relish. For parents, it's a memory to hold dear.
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