Gardening with Kids

Gardening may sound like a lot of work and a time commitment, but it doesn’t have to be. Gardening can be as hard or easy as you want it to be, and surprise…it’s also really fun! If you’re considering starting a garden with kids this year, you’re in the right place! Gardening is an amazing way to connect kids with nature, spend time together outside, instill a sense of responsibility in your child, help develop patience, and more! There are so many amazing benefits of gardening with kids, and we’ve got some great tips below on how to make the experience fun for everyone and how to get them involved in the process.

Starting a garden with kids

A few months ago I decided that the kids and I would plant a garden this year. I used to have a small garden in the backyard before there were any children in my life (oh, glorious free time!), but busy spring months at work and having two summer babies put my gardening on hold for a couple of years.

This year, I decided to give it another go. I knew that it would be a really fun project for the kids to “help” me with and a great way to teach them about nature, food production, and responsibility. 

Start small with the space you have

If you’re new to gardening, start small with just a couple of plants. Plenty of fruits and vegetables grow well with just a little nurturing. You also don’t need a huge amount of space. While a large plot is ideal, lots of plants can be grown in containers on your back porch or windowsill. It’s not too late to start a garden now. A variety of plants can be planted in May to produce this summer and fall.

How to involve kids in garden prep and planning

Planning and prepping for your garden can take a lot of time and effort, so involve your kids from the beginning. Here are a few suggestions for ways to get them involved from the get-go.

• Read a few books with them on gardening to familiarize them with the process.
• Let them scope out the backyard with you to choose the perfect spot for the garden (somewhere that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight a day and good drainage).
• Let them help you measure your plot and build any necessary containers, raised beds, trellises, or fencing.
• Go to the store together to pick out seeds or starter plants. Talk to them about options for your garden, and let them choose at least one plant that’s theirs.
• Discuss how many plants you can fit in your garden space, where they’ll go, and make a map of the garden so they can visualize it.
• When you’re ready to prep, let them help measure the distance between plants (applied math!) and plot out where the plants will go.

Let them get dirty

Half the fun of planting a garden is getting your hands in the dirt – let your kids help! This is definitely the most fun part of gardening for kids. Once you’ve picked your spots for your plants, let them help with prepping the soil and digging the holes. Show them once how to do it and then supervise the planting of the seeds and/or plants.

Teach them to be gentle with the plants and roots. Show them how to pack the soil around the plant to support it. Let them use real tools and be part of the process. Obviously, older kids will be more helpful with this part than little kids. But either way, it’s a great way to get them directly invested and involved.

Grow foods that kids will eat

I know I’m not alone when I say that my kids have a hard time eating vegetables. It doesn’t matter how we prepare them or how much we tout their nutritional value, my kids just aren’t eating them. But, growing our fruits and vegetables in our garden this year made a big difference! 

It’s no surprise that by allowing kids to take responsibility for the veggies in the garden, kids will feel incredibly proud of their bounty and more likely to partake in consuming it! Let your kids choose at least one variety of plant as their own. Whether that’s their favorite fruit or vegetable, or just one that has a funny name (arugula!).

If your kids are not familiar with the plants/fruits/vegetables, take them to your local farmer’s market to show them the options. Then, you can purchase a few seed packets for them to try growing at home in your garden. Chances are, even if they weren’t huge fans of the vegetable before growing them on their own in the garden, they will be once they taste fresh picks straight from their backyard.

Plus, when kids pick and harvest the vegetables in your garden when they ripen, it turns veggies into a reward! How genius is that?

Some of our favorite plants (which are also relatively easy to grow): strawberries, snap peas, zucchini, beets, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, carrots and kale. 

Make gardening a learning opportunity

Nearly everything about gardening is a learning opportunity for kids. From when to plant (and why) to where to plant (and why), planting a garden is all about teaching children about nature, growth, and food production.

When it’s time to get your garden going, start some seeds indoors in small containers that are easily accessible to kids. This allows the kids to learn about how plants grow from seeds with soil, water, and light. They can learn how to use a grow light to replace the sun that plants would get outside or why placing plants near a window is important.

Gardening is also a great way to teach children about the symbiotic relationship between birds, bees, bugs, worms, and plants. Once your plants are outside, explain how certain animals/bugs will help your garden and how others could hurt it.

Teach them to be gentle with the plants and how to handle and harvest the produce carefully. Allow your kids to be a part of the process and learn from the plants that thrive and those that fail.

Gardening teaches responsibility

Planting and tending to a garden gives you a lot of opportunities to give your kids responsibilities. By including your kids in the process of planning and planting your garden, they’ll feel like it’s their garden, too, and take ownership of it.

A great way to get your kids involved in the family garden is by giving them daily and/or weekly responsibilities for the garden. My kids are 2 and 4, and they love watering the plants and checking to see if they’re growing. Every day, they check on their plants and water them with spray bottles (which keep the plants from being majorly over-watered).

They are very proud of their plants and want their garden to grow.

Making gardening fun for kids

• If you’re creative, have your kids make their own plant markers from stones or popsicle sticks.
• Let them measure the plants weekly with a tape measure (my kids LOVE tape measures) and keep a chart of how tall they’re getting.
• Allow them to decorate the garden with fairies, gnomes, princesses, Transformers, Minions or whatever else they’re into right now.
• Give them their own gardening gloves and tools.
• Allow them to help with the sprinkler and watering.
• Reinforce the notion of encouraging plant growth by working with nature and allowing your kids to interact with the bugs and worms that surround your plants. Let kids dig up worms from other areas of your yard and transplant them into your garden. Treat an aphid problem naturally with ladybugs.  
• Come up with new recipes that incorporate the food from your garden and let the kids help with cooking.

Gardening with kids

Our garden is still a work in process. The excessive rains and flooding in our area have damaged a few of our plants, but the rest are hanging in there. I’ll keep you updated on the progress throughout the summer. I’m taking bets on whether or not my children actually eat a single thing we grow (other than the strawberries), so let me know if you want in on that action!

Additional resources on gardening with kids

If you’d like more information on gardening with kids, here are some additional resources and recommendations:

• The Ultimate Guide to Gardening with Kids
• How to Start & Grow a Cut Flower Garden with Kids
• 5 Easy Vegetables to Grow with Kids
• Starting an Outdoor Herb Garden with Kids
• Tips for Fall Gardening with Kids
• Winter Garden Planning Tips
• Gardening with Ladybugs

Do you garden with your kids?
What’s your favorite thing to grow?

About the author

Sara (@sara_mccarty) is the Founder of Run Wild My Child, a resource website, online community, and podcast all about getting kids off screens and outside, one adventure at a time. She’s a mom of 3, wife, and corporate securities lawyer. She grew up in the country, but now lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and is determined to raise her city kids to be as wild and feral as possible. You can usually find her family exploring a creek, fly fishing, hiking, duck hunting, camping, canoeing, biking, or geocaching. She’s passionate about reading, photography, plants, coffee, cooking, and key lime pie.