A Dragon's Garden for Children (Toothy, Pointy, Spiny Plants!)
By Steven Biggs
Kids Gardening…with Fun Themes
A dragon-themed garden never occurred to me.
It was Finn’s idea.
Finn and him mom came to my daughter Emma’s talk about gardens for children.
She told the kids they didn’t have to garden like grown ups. They could make their gardens fun.
Grow a tickling garden with plants that are good for tickling
A purple garden
Or a giant’s garden with giant sunflowers and mammoth pumpkins
Then Emma told the kids about one of her favourite plants that year: a bean with unusual markings called ‘Dragon Tongue.’
Finn Decides on a Theme Garden
The next morning Finn’s mom sent us a note. He loved the ‘Dragon Tongue’ bean. He loved dragons.
So he decided he’d grow a dragon-themed garden.
Emma and I loved Finn’s idea.
So we scoured seed websites for dragon-themed plants. Here’s what we came up with:
Dragon’s Egg cucumber
Purple Dragon carrot
Red Dragon arugula
Dragon’s Fire arugula
Tongue of Fire bean
Snapdragon…and there are so many sizes and colours
Dragon’s Toe pepper
Green Dragon cucumber
Thai Dragon hot pepper
Blue Dragon dracocephalum
Flower Dragon watermelon
Black Dragon coleus
Taking the Dragon Idea Further
Then we thought about how we’d describe a dragon. We came up with ideas like spiny, toothy, winged, and pointy.
That helped us find even more plant ideas for the dragon-themed garden:
Toothy. (An agave looks pretty toothy to my imagination. Or, if you want to stretch things, dandelion comes from French—dent-de-lion—which means "lion's tooth.” I even found a daylily called ‘Snaggle Tooth.’)
Long and pointy for the tail. (Corn? …I’ll let the kids brainstorm this one.)
Leathery or spiny for dragon-like skin. (I’m picturing citrus rind here; and Litchi Tomato would be perfect!)
Serpent-like shape. (I think snake gourds might work!)
Wings (How about a winged bean, angel wing begonia…or maybe something with winged seeds such as maple?)
I’m sure there are lots more plants with a dragon connection. E-mail us if you have any to add to the list!
Another Themed Garden
Check out the picture below of the harvest from Emma’s rainbow-themed garden.
More theme ideas:
Pizza garden
Salsa garden
Bug’s garden (maybe include logs and rocks that kids can lift up to hunt for bugs)
More Ideas for a Garden for Children
Kids Gardening Articles and Interviews
Kids Gardening Books
Want fun books to inspire the kids in your life to explore the garden? Here are kids gardening books, signed by the author, Emma Biggs.