Gardening can be wonderfully therapuetic for children with all manner of disabilities for many reasons.
A useful printed resource for ideas is "Backyards and Butterflies: Ways to Include Children With Disabilities In Outdoor Activities" by Doreen Greenstein. This is available through the American Horticultural Therapy Association and you can visit their web site at
www.ahta.org In general, when thinking of gardening activities that might captivate the littlest ones interest, it can be a fun idea to plan a theme garden, focussing on size or shapes or colors. Here are some cute concepts that many have found captivating to the kids as suggested by Janeen Adil in "Accessible Gardening":
Make a garden of VERY SMALL VEGETABLES
Miniature or "baby" vegetables such as cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, lettuce, carrots, pac choi, beets, eggplant, and turnips. There are also mini pumpkins such as Jack Be Little in traditional orange and Baby Boo, in white.
Make a garden of VERY LARGE VEGETABLES
Gigantic tomato, cucumber, marrow, squash, carrot, parsnip, cabbage and pumpkin
seeds are carried by Thompson & Morgan catalog. And don't forget the Football Onion weighing in at 5 lbs.
A giant bell
pepper, BIG BERTHA is available through Gurney's & Mellinger's as well as the bushel gourd which weighs around 100 lb on the vine but only 1 pound when dried. This giant could be grown to be used later for craft projects such as a toy box or planter.
Black Diamond Watermelon from Jung can grow up to 40-50 lbs. Cobb Gem from Gurney's can be 130 lbs. Plus, Burpee's carries Caroline Cross #183 which can be 200 lbs.
Make a garden of MAGICAL IDEAS
Moon & Stars Watermelon features yellow moons on a field of stars, as well as having star decorated leaves.
Cinderella's Pumpkin Rouge Vif D'Etampes, a brilliantly red-orange pumpkin that seems to glow.
Grow some Peanut Butter by trying Virginia Jumbo or Valencia Tennessee Red Peanuts.
How about some Spaghetti Squash? Pasta Hybrid or Tivoli might suit your needs.
And of course, there are many varieties of Pop Corn to try....Purdue 410 Hybrid, Burpee's Peppy Hybrid, Japanese Hulless and South American Giant to name a few.
And while you are at it, think of the vast varities of gardens you could create based on color selection alone!
