Here are some gardening-related discussion prompts to help you engage in important conversations with your middle and high school students as you’re spending time in the garden this year.

Aside from Adam and Eve being created in the Garden of Eden, they spent time with God there. One of my favorite verses is about the sound of God walking in the garden:

In this chapter of Genesis, we learn that the Lord is looking for Adam. Therefore, we can reason that they spent time together in the garden.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, we learn that Jesus’ sufferings begin and He prays to our Heavenly Father. We also learn that His sufferings end in a garden, for he is mistaken (after He has risen) by Mary Magdalene to be the Gardener just outside the Garden-tomb.

Likewise, a garden can be a beautiful place to meet with the Lord. While we work, we can pray, bring our sufferings before Him, and find healing from Him.

This may seem like an obvious one, and we may feel that our teens are already aware of this principle, but talking about it while in the process of sowing seeds adds another dimension to the conversation.

 

A lot of thinking goes on while gardening. Lovely conversations about how when we read God’s Word, He’s planted seeds in us. And as those seeds grow in us, they’ll eventually “go to seed” and can be “sowed” in the minds and hearts of others as we live it out.

 

Also, we can discuss the effect of reading and meditating on God’s Word, because seeds of Truth are planted in our minds and hearts as we do.

By now, most teens are aware of the life cycle of plants from science study in their younger years. But what about this life cycle can be used as metaphor for your teens?

To wrap it all up, we must talk about the importance of harvesting. Fruit is meant to be picked and eaten to nourish our bodies. In like manner, if we don’t eat of the fresh Fruit of God’s Word, how can it nourish our souls? 

Consider how amazing it is that fruit even grows from tiny seeds. How much more amazing is it that the inward man can change from tiny seeds of Truth planted in us throughout our lives? 

Also, consider how important it is to keep going about our Master Gardener’s work. Being bearers of His image, we’re given an invitation to participate in tending His Garden. We can help tend it by sharing God’s Word with others. And as we plant those seeds of Truth in others, the plant cycle will take place within them. With prayer and care, a wonderful Harvest of bounty will eventually be reaped.

And we must remember, we can’t see what type of soil is in someone’s heart at the time. But each time we share about the Gospel with words and actions, the soil of hearts is being tilled. But we leave that up to the Master Gardener.

Gardens Unit Study

If you are a homeschool mom, you may find this unit study about gardens and gardening a helpful resource. Written at two levels (one for elementary and one for middle and high school), you can use it with all of your students. 

Encompassing the history of gardens, plant science, planning and planting a garden, and the arts, this study is perfect for any time of year. Grow seeds on the windowsill through the wintertime, watch a sweet potato sprout and spread across the top of the refrigerator, and make virtual visits to some world-famous gardens. From pole-bean tepees to sunflower houses, what memories you will make!

To help you bring your gardening conversations full circle, please download this free printable to to use with your teens. Conversations in the Garden contains these discussion prompts for middle and high school with room for them to write down their thoughts.