kids

Monarch butterfly on butterfly bush (image by Denise Pierce).

There goes my daughter, Maya, helping her "papa" (grandpa) feed the birds again. It's a very important job for her when she goes over to visit – scooping the bird seed from the big plastic bins in his garage and carefully pouring it into one of the many bird feeders hanging from his front tree like so much ripe fruit.

Now 4 years old, Maya has been doing this as long as she's been able to walk. And her love of Papa's birds has only grown through the years, as we've made peanut butter-and-birdseed pinecone feeders every winter and later on in the season, watched the hummingbirds and other feathered friends visit plants like our Tropicanna cannas, Volcano phlox, Sun Parasol mandevillas and Blue Storm agapanthus.

(Back row, from left): purple-tinged, dark green-leaved plectranthus, Tropicanna Gold cannas, Tropicanna Black cannas, Sun Parasol mandevillas. (Front row, from left): ornamental peppers, thread-leaved croton, lime green heuchera.

Blue Storm agapanthus in a container on my deck

Volcano phlox (Red) near my deck 

Last year, Maya fell in love with butterflies, too, after a visit to the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden at Rochester, NY's National Museum of Play. After that, we always noticed butterflies hovering around our Volcano phlox, black-eyed Susans, bee balm, Blue Storm agapanthus, coreopsis, stonecrop and chocolate eupatorium (Joe Pye weed).

Of course, we've never been able to get a shot of these winged friends in action – hence my borrowed pic of a butterfly (above) from one of Tesselaar's regional garden bloggers, Denise Pierce of Red Bay, Alabama. 

This year, Maya definitely wants more plants that will attract birds and butterflies in the garden, and of course I’m inclined to buy a full-grown plant from the garden center. But she seems to want to start everything from seed (sigh) –even these dying, leggy sunflowers she insisted on sowing in pots in the middle of winter, so the birds would have seeds to eat. (I told her sunflowers should be direct-sown into the ground later in the season, but she was so excited about gardening, I couldn't crush her spirits):

Leggy sunflower seeds sown indoors in pots

Now she wants to try this butterfly bush kit (lower right, $9.99 from Wegmans):

Butterfly bush garden kit for kids (Wegmans, $9.99)

I’ve never started a butterfly bush from seed, but I’m sure it’ll be interesting.

Speaking of butterflies, Maya also went bonkers over an Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden butterfly hatching kit she saw at Lowe's ($13.95 through Amazon). I don't know about this – little kids and fragile, live creatures just don't seem to be a good mix. Plus, I found out that the kit basically just includes a netted cage and a coupon in you send in to get the live caterpillars and food. I guess that makes sense, because you can't keep caterpillars alive in a box, but still – one more step? Ugh).

Maybe when Maya's older, we'll try to grow some milkweed, since that's what the Monarch butterfly caterpillars eat (I understand the milky white sap is poisonous, so I think I'd like to wait a few years on that one).

Regardless, I've learned that gardening is a great way to keep kids active and connected to their environment, and as with everything else, there's a fine line to walk between ensuring success and fostering independence. So I've gotta roll with what my daughter likes – right now, it's birds and butterflies – and let her call some shots and pick out and sow some plants, so she sort of "owns" the experience. I've also learned to let her experiment, even if it means dead plants on the windowsill. I think I'm just not ready for dead butterflies yet!

Maya sowing her sunflower seeds for the birdies

So tell me – what are some of your favorite bird- and butterfly-friendly plants that can encourage kids to get out in the garden? Post a comment and lemme know!

Looks like kids gardening is going to be bigger than ever in 2012, by the looks of all the yowza grow kits marketed to them on the shelves.

Seems the gardening industry has caught wind of the fact that those Gen X and Y consumers they've been trying to reach have kids, and that a good chunk of any disposable income Mommy and Daddy have for gardening is probably going to go toward something they can do with their children. Same goes for the Baby Boomers and their grandkids.

And I don't think it'll just stop at grow kits. After all, Netherlands-based flower auction company FloraHolland just announced the release of its Hello Kitty line of plants, aimed at girls and young women. Now that's marketing MEOW!

Hello Kitty plants

Obviously, the industry also knows that kids will go for anything with a character on it – from breakfast cereal to bandages to toothbrushes and toilet seats.  Hence the Growums garden kits (tagline: "Add a little character to your garden!") retailing for $39.98 at my neighborhood Home Depot. The 50-plus characters - with names like Adam Apple, Duke the Cuke and Elvis Parsley are part of six themed edible gardening kits (pizza, taco, herb, salad, ratatouille and stirfy).

Growums ($39.98 at Home Depot)

And of course, there's an online component at Growums.com, where you can learn about the characters and their gardens, play games, use Growums for fundraisers, follow Growums on Twitter and Facebook and even "track your Growems" (I don't know what this means, since I didn't buy one and you have to enter the UPC code from the kit to find out). I think it's smart marketing - and as the mom of a 4-year-old, I'll know to steer clear of it in Home Depot if she's with me and I don't want to spend the extra cash. Kudos to Bonnie Plants for really thinkin' this one through!

$39.98 a little much for ya? How 'bout the $2.99 "Eco Plant Pals" (also available at Amazon.com). I found as part of a mondo kids' grow kit display in my Wegmans supermarket. These kits, too, feature their own cartoon characters, like Strawberry Sarah, Aloe Alin and Basil Bob:

Eco Plant Pals ($2.99 at Wegmans)

Princess Garden ($14.99 at Wegmans)

Carnivorous Creations ($24.99 at Wegmans)

Looks like "fairy gardening"– that gardening trend in which tiny plants are grown as part of a miniature scene fit for a fairy - has really taken off. I know I saw a lot of fairy gardening stuff on display, at least, at the 2011 Garden Writers Association symposium this past summer in Indianapolis: 

Fairy Triad grow kit ($24.99 at Wegmans)

But the most exciting thing for me personally, as an incurable plant nerd, were all the kits offering the opportunity to grow exotic edibles (well, exotic in my western NY Zone 6ish garden, that is).  baThere were kits for bananas, peanuts, coffee and even pomegranate trees. And as the kid who always wanted to sprout an avocado pit on the windowsill to make my own tree, I'm willing to slap down the $4 or $10 to see if it actually works.

. P

Pomegranate grow kit ($4 at Wegmans)