Cultivating and growing a garden with kids is such a beneficial experience for a number of reasons. Some of these include combatting picky eating, teaching responsibility and patience, and practicing some hands-on science! Want to start a garden with your kids but don’t know where to start? Here are a few ideas.

Build the hype

Kids can become involved in the planning, the digging and the planting. This will give them a sense of ownership over their garden. Involving kids in this type of care for the earth helps them develop the skills needed to care for other living things. Additionally, with fewer and fewer opportunities to connect with nature, this interaction is incredibly beneficial to their development.

Start early

If you live in a colder climate, opt to start seeds indoors. There are many different ways to do this from using recyclables to purchasing kits. This process of planting a seed, watching the roots grow, and then watching a plant sprout is the perfect hands-on science experiment for learning about the plant life cycle.

Make it fun

One of the best parts of gardening with kids is watching them actually use and eat the foods that they worked so hard to grow. Keep in mind how you can use what you plant, maybe your picky eater will decide to try something new! Try growing a pizza garden or a salsa garden to make some tasty homemade recipes all summer long.

Track it

Journaling is a really fun way to see the progress of your garden and is another opportunity to engage in hands-on learning. Younger kids can simply draw pictures of what they observe as their garden changes, whereas older children might enjoy measuring and graphing plant progress.

What to plant?

You might feel determined to give this garden with your kids a go now, but still don’t know where to actually start. These ideas for garden starters for kids are excellent. Beans and peas are always an easy way to start as well. These sprout quickly, giving kids gratification for their hard work almost instantly. Sunflowers are a good choice for a flower garden, and as a bonus, their size makes them extra exciting for children!

Often kids love to enter their garden and pick and eat off the vine! Add a kids’ garden washing station to encourage this. It can be as simple as a bucket and a hose, or as elaborate as a mud kitchen. Digging in the dirt and exploring the outdoors has been proven to be beneficial for not only children, but adults as well. This study found that memory performance and attention spans improved after an hour spent out in nature. There’s no better time to start your garden than now!

There are so many benefits to gardening with kids, and fun ways to do so! Think outside the box if you have missed the window of opportunity to start from scratch. Create a flower garden or plant a garden for the fall with pumpkins. Plant some herbs such as mint and rosemary in a pot for sensory purposes. Enjoy the process, and have fun starting a garden with your kids!

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