Spending time with the family is important, but it isn't always easy to find things everyone is interested in. Planting a garden brings you and your family outdoors, lets them get down and dirty in a constructive manner, and lets them watch the power of nature up close and personal.

 If you're ready to grow a garden and are hoping to include the kids, here are a few tips to help get you started.

 Let them have a say

No one enjoys being ordered about, and if all you do is assign one kid to watering and another to weeding, they'll look at gardening as a chore instead of an experience. Instead, let the kids have an active role with what happens in the garden. When you let them help pick out the seeds, or even have a corner or a plant all their own, it gives them ownership over the garden. That degree of control can help them enjoy gardening so much more.

Grow something quick

Children are not the best at waiting, and many of the summer crops such as tomato or squash take a long time to see results. If you're growing from seed choose something that pops up fast and that you can eat right way, such as lettuce, to help them get gratification out of the garden sooner.

Let them help

Make no mistake, when kids help in the garden there will be some accidents. Tomatoes will get planted upside down. The radishes will get weeded and the dandelions left. Someone will forget and play explorer in the corner and stomp half of it down.

It's important not to get mad when these things happen, but instead turn them into teachable moments. If they plant a tomato upside down, take a moment to show them the root vs the leaves, and explain why the roots go in the dirt and the leaves stretch up to the sun.

Did they pull the wrong thing? Take a magnifying glass and look at the different leaf types, explain how to identify different plants. If your child loves tech, there are many plant ID apps for smart phones that will allow your kids to find out what plants are with just a quick snap of the camera.

Let them eat

There is a saying that goes a child who grows vegetables, eats vegetables. You may be surprised to find your months old daughter with a tomato in hand, most of it smeared all over her face. You might go to pick peas and discover all the peas have mysteriously disappeared off the vine. Of course, your child also may not eat them at all and still refuse them at the table. It happens.

Still, if your child decides to play forager and browse their way through veggies, let them do it. The lessons learned from the garden will be something they carry their whole lives, and it's worth the price of a pea or two.

You might be surprised at just what growing a garden can do for those picky eaters, and even if they don't enjoy vegetables even after growing them, you'll still have had that wonderful time in the garden together.