Easy Gardening With Kids

Girl and mom planting sprout in backyard.

Easy gardening with kids - tips for getting started growing.

Gardening with kids is a natural. Kids start in the right frame of mind. They want to be in the garden, and they like the work. Even toddlers watch sprouts poke their little green heads out of the backyard soil with a sense of awe.

As parents, it's our duty to foster this innate curiosity and not hinder this beautiful journey. It's a challenging task, as gardening can be complex and time-consuming, but it's a commitment we should wholeheartedly embrace.

We must devise ways to keep that sense of wonder alive throughout their childhood. These tips for easy gardening with kids can help.

Easy Gardening With Kids - Making the (Garden) Beds

Garden beds need to be prepared. You don't just march out one day, dig a hole, and stick a plant in it. Well, maybe you do. That might explain your brown thumb!

Let's make it enjoyable. You want your child's first steps into gardening to be a delight. Incorporate a few simple gardening games to add a fun twist before you start the real work.

Begin by tidying up. Rake up all the debris and dead plant material left over from winter and add it to the compost pile.

Now, dig prepared compost into the flowerbeds to reinvigorate the soil for the growing season. This can be composted from the store, from your compost pile (remove the finished compost before adding new material), or even aged manure that you can get for free from area stables. (You haul, though.)

Easy Gardening With Kids Planting Plan

Now it's time to decide which plants go where. Get a big sheet of paper and help the kids draw the garden designs. If you don't want your yard designed by a 4-year-old, consider giving him an area that's just his.

A little patch under the tree in the backyard, perhaps, or some pots for container gardening. Just let him be master of some part of the gardening universe.

I gave a gardening friend signs for her garden with her and her daughter's names on them. Her daughter promptly claimed one front yard area with her sign and has tended it ever since. Ownership is important.

As you're planning your garden, make it a learning experience. Talk to the kids about how different plants have different needs.

Show them how to read plant labels to see how much sun and water particular plants require.

Walk around the yard and discuss which part looks sunny, which sections look shady, and which plants might be happier where.

Talk to the kids about using contrasting textures and complementary colors in their designs for more interest. Explain how putting short plants up front and tall plants in the back makes it easier to see them all.

Next, make it fun by having your child choose a theme for her garden. Some of our favorites include:

A pizza garden: with tomatoes, oregano, and peppers

A salad garden: with lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots

A scented garden: filled with sweet-smelling plants

A snacking garden: of carrots, cherry tomatoes, and celery

A tactile garden: bursting with plants with interesting foliage to touch

A butterfly garden of plants that attract butterflies and provide food for butterfly larvae

An exotic garden of fruits and vegetables in unusual colors, such as yellow tomatoes, orange peppers, and blue potatoes; and an edible flower garden.

Choosing a theme makes gardening much more special.

Garden planning is a fun activity for the whole family. Kids love going to nurseries and poking around. Let them help you pick out plants, Give them a budget, and let them choose the plants for their plots.

This will be honing artistic and mathematical skills while they shop. The more kids are involved in gardening, the more they will be interested in the maintenance. You need to make them feel responsible.

Easy Gardening With Kids - Planting Time

Once your kids have their little plots, help them be successful gardeners.

Mom and daughter planting in backyard garden.

Show them how to dig a bigger, better hole for a happier plant. Teach them how to handle the roots carefully to prevent injury.

Help them gently water the plant and return to water it after the initial watering settles. Explain how just-planted plants will need more water until they get established.

If you still need to prepare the soil, this is your last opportunity to work some finished compost or aged (not fresh) manure into the top few inches of soil.

Versatile Vegetable Easy Gardening With Kids

While any gardening with kids' help is good, having kids help with veggie gardens is especially great. Nothing encourages children to eat their vegetables more than growing the vegetables themselves.

Plus, when you grow your vegetables, you can be sure they have not been sprayed with pesticides.

Birds and bugs will be your problem if you grow seeds. You will have these cute little seedlings poking up through the soil one day and not the next. Protect your seedlings with a special cloth called a spunbonded row cover until they are a couple of inches tall.

Here's an important safety tip: Never let your kids taste the seeds they are planting. Many have been treated with fungicides to help them grow, and these are poisonous to kids.

Some plants, such as root vegetables like carrots and radishes, must be started from seeds. But you can get a head start on tomatoes, peppers, and other plants by buying growing seedlings, called transplants.

When gardening with kids, remind them not to rush the season, especially with seedlings and tomatoes. If you plant before the warm nights, tomatoes are susceptible to fungus. Be patient!

The Marvels of Mulch

After you've planted, it's helpful to mulch—and mulch again. And mulch some more. You can use wood chips, straw, or even compost. I prefer using organic material because it eventually releases nutrients to the soil after it breaks down.

Mulch accomplishes three things: It helps hold water in the ground so you don't have to water as often; it helps maintain warmth in the ground, so plants grow faster; and it helps keep weeds from sprouting.

Mulch is a serious weed deterrent only if it is 4 inches deep. But any mulch helps because weeds in mulched soil are easier to pull. After planting, encourage kids to make little markers for their plants, saying things such as, "Hi, I'm Marigold."

Easy Gardening with Kids: Harvesting

You don't need to motivate your kids for this one! Kids love to pick veggies and fruits.

Father and son harvesting backyard vegetables.

This could be one of the gardening chore motivators. Tell kids they can't pick the produce until they've picked off the pests.

(Or weeded. Or watered.) However, be sure to supervise at harvest time, or you may be dining on those trendy "baby" veggies. Kids usually can't wait to pick veggies until they're fully grown!

Show them which colors mean "ripe" for which veggies. (A yellow tomato is usually only half-ripe, for example, unless it happens to be a yellow-fruited variety like "Yellow Pear.")
Now for the best part of easy gardening with kids: Go and enjoy the fruits of your labors!