Children, dirt and imagination: Gardens are a natural attraction

WASHINGTON - Gardeners and kids have a lot in common. The most conspicuous similarities being that both like to pluck flowers, pick fruits and berries, study insects and, not least, get wet and dirty. It's a natural match, and adults can nurture young people's interest in horticulture by inviting them to help weed, water, plant biennials, divide irises, deadhead flowers and learn what various plants look like - especially poison ivy or oak.

Employing some imagination will help make it an adventure. Here are some routine garden maintenance activities that I've framed in a way that children might consider fun.

• Create a space fantasy for weeding. You're the commander. The mission is to collect alien weed specimens. After locating and pulling the invaders, take them to the composting center where organisms will neutralize and transform them into useful members of the planet.

• Deploy moisture-monitoring devices. Your assignment is to teach the crew how to water properly. It's easy to get kids to play with a hose; instead, teach them to stick a screwdriver into the lawn and planting beds to check moisture. Call this a "moisture sensor." If it comes out dry, it's time to irrigate.

• Use "stealth scanners" (lawn sprinklers) when watering is necessary. Challenge children to stay in the spray because that's the only time your communication system can maintain contact. This will keep them from stepping into the beds. Place an all-purpose water-catching device, like a saucer or tuna can, under the spray. When it fills with an inch of water, the mission is accomplished. Switch off the sprinkler and use the "moisture sensor" to determine if water has percolated the necessary depth of six to seven inches.

• Activate a "Biennial Seedling Production Nucleus." The children, the "Biennial Brigade," will start seedlings that will bloom next year. Young cosmic gardeners won't be disappointed by hollyhocks (Alcea), forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica), foxgloves (Digitalis), sweet williams (Dianthus barbatus) and pansies. Some will re-seed and grow back annually. Biennial Brigade children learn patience - a third-grader won't see blooms until the end of fourth grade.

• Form a deadheading crew. This team is responsible for cleanup operation requiring careful removal of spent flowers without affecting other parts of the plant. Sometimes new flowers will form if plants are deadheaded, but many spent blooms will be sent to the compost pile.

• Choose a morale officer or two for cut-flower duty. Send them into the garden to select ornamental blooms such as bee balm, black-eyed Susans, lilies, daylilies, phlox, baby's breath and sunflowers. Teach them to cut the entire flowering stem (called a scape) to the base, to bring cuttings indoors when they are just beginning to open and to place them in water immediately.

• One final order from Mission Control is to prune. Pruning safely is an activity for only the most elite, older cadets. It demands careful attention to detail and safety. At first, only dead wood should be targeted. Then, water shoots or suckers should be removed. Removing them keeps the plant from looking weedy and allows its more ornamental characteristics to show through.

• Lerner is president of Environmental Design in Capitol View Park, Md., and author of "Anyone Can Landscape" (Ball 2001).