Gardening With Kids, Tips and Tricks to help include your kids..

 

Hi there!

 If you are reading this, it must be because you're interested in finding a way to be in your garden and bring your kids along. Hopefully, within this article, you will find some tips to help you with that. I am going into my second year of gardening with two-year-old twins. They are a handful! Last year I brought them into the garden a few times to see what they would do, and it was a lot of grabbing, picking, and pulling on things that Mommy didn't really want them to. 

Photo by Greta Hoffman

I did notice that they really enjoyed being out there, copying what I was doing which was heartwarming to see. The gears in my head started to spin, and I bought each kid their own pair of gloves, a bucket/ basket, and a set of gardening tools (spade, rake, etc.). They love having their own tools, tools that look like Mommy's.

                                                    Photo By Kampus Production

When it's time to go out to the garden we gather our tools, and supplies and walk out to the garden together. I give them a little pep talk on our plan (although I know they don't particularly care) and once we get out there, we get to work.

I like to assign little tasks. "Pick up all the yellow flowers" or " Grab all the sticks and put them in this bucket." It gives them something to do, something to focus on and it gives me an extra set of hands.

Below are 5 Tips on things you can do to not only include your kids but also educate and build on their interest in gardening. 

5 Tips on gardening with Kids

1. Get your kids involved by having them help in the garden. Give them tasks that are age-appropriate, such as planting seeds, watering plants, and weeding.
2. Make gardening fun by coming up with creative games or activities to do with your kids. Planting a scavenger hunt with items from the garden or having a race to see who can water the most plants are great ideas.
3. Educate your kids about gardening with age-appropriate books, videos, and websites. Show them how plants grow from seeds, where food comes from, and how to care for plants.
4. Let your kids pick out their own plants to grow. Visit a local nursery or grow plants from seed to give them choices.
5. Give your kids a space of their own in the garden. Let them design and decorate their own garden plot and help them learn to care for their own plants.

Hopefully, this helps let me know of any tips or tricks you have used when gardening with your kids.

-Casey R