I can’t believe it’s Christmas time again soon! And it is a wonderful, exciting time of the year that brings with it fabulous summer weather and a chance for everyone to spend more time outdoors. There can’t be a better time of the year for gardening lovers.

Since Christmas is a festival centred more on entertaining kids in the form of Santa’s gifts and treats, this time we will talk about how to make our kids interested and involved in the joys of gardening, and its creation and design.

A good starting point is to give your child his or her own small section of the larger family garden to encourage a sense of ownership without being overwhelming. Talking to your child about where to put the garden gives them an opportunity to share ideas and learn more about the responsibilities involved in maintaining it as well. It can be designed in any shape as long as it includes paths or stepping-stones for easy access to plants. The design can be based on a few different interesting ideas – habitat based, theme based or based on a food product.

So the options can range from a butterfly garden, a bird garden, to Soup Garden or a Stir-Fry Garden. The design of the garden involves: deciding on a concept, what you will plant and how the plantings will be arranged. The garden can also be decorated with some outdoor objects created by your child.

For older kids, the design can be decided according to taste to include some funky kid objects to personalise the space, making the garden look ‘cool’, which will also make it easier to get kids to stay with the project.

If it is a vegetable garden, you should be growing crops that interest the kids, and they love to eat, or could learn to, and are easy to grow from seed sown directly in the garden. Large seeds, such as beans, cucumbers, pumpkins and zucchini are easiest to plant and sprout quickly. Radishes are the quickest to grow, though seeds are small.

If it’s an ornamental garden, try to grow some vibrant and dramatic flowers such as sunflowers and zinnias, which have large, fast-growing seeds and produce bold, colourful blossoms. You can also include fragrant plants such as rose-scented geraniums, pineapple salvia and lemon verbena.

Involve the kids by going with them to the nursery to get ideas and choose plants. Include some seedlings, which provide instant gratification and great opportunities to dig holes when transplanting. Sweet cherry tomatoes are a popular choice because they produce loads of bite-size treats that children can pick and eat straight from the garden.

The kids can also be encouraged to make a sign for the garden such as ‘Patricia’s Plot’ or ‘Greg’s Garden’ to make them feel proud of their fruit of labour. Some other creative ideas to enliven their little garden can be constructing a scarecrow, painting stepping-stones or building a twig teepee.

A bit of thought needs to be given to how your kids approach the plants and take care of their gardens. Raised beds minimise trampling and opportunities for children to feel clumsy or embarrassed. Care and caution while gardening can make it a safe, fun-filled exercise for the kids.