This summer, kids can be couch potatoes or explore the great outdoors.

They can stay glued to television or pick sweet vine-ripened blue­berries, raspberries and strawberries.

They can stay indoors with computer games, or plant, harvest and prepare tasty meals from the fruits of their labor.

And they don’t have to go farther than Wonderland Gardens and Healing Acres Summer Camp on Rainbow Drive in Decatur.

Sheldon Fleming, Wonderland Gardens founder and director, said their nine-week camp from May 25 to Aug. 7 will definitely give youngsters, ages 9 to 12, a better appreciation of nature.

“They will learn gardening, horticulture and the wonders of nature,” he said.

But most of all, Fleming said the kids will get to play in the dirt.

“A lot of kids don’t get to play in the dirt,” said Fleming, co-host of the TV One cable television show Can You Dig It. “We have to expose them. They are going to get their hands dirty. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Once kids are exposed to nature, Fleming said they begin to dream and see new possibilities.

“They look at trees a little differently,” he said. Their appreciation for growing things increased. Even the number of vegetables they eat increases.”

Campers will also learn to identify the birds and array butterflies at the 10-acre gardens on Rainbow Drive, will pick berries at Wonderland Gardens and take field trips to area berry-picking farms a local black-owned farm, Fernbank and the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

They also participate in arts programming next door at the new Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center and visit the George Washington Carver exhibit that Wonderland Gardens is sponsoring at the arts center through September.

Fleming said there will be a heavy emphasis on academics through study of nature.

This year, he has space for 50 campers. Campers pay $85 weekly. Camp hours are 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.weekdays.

This summer, the gardens are also open for other summer camps to take their campers on field trips there.

For more information, visit www.wonderlandgardens.org or call 404-286-6163.