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.

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:

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!