Gardening With Kids: Importance Of Gardening In Early Childhood

gardening with kids - tools

Engaging kids in organic gardening from an early age has many benefits: it teaches them about nature, sustainability, the environment, patience, appreciation of food, etc. 

When they are older, gardening will become second nature to them. By doing it themselves and watching the plants grow, kids learn faster than any other way. Above all, gardening with kids is heaps of fun.

Our garden isn’t really big. We gave up more than half of it to our chickens and started container gardening. Kids love it because it is more accessible than our veggie patch. 

The two most exciting moments for them are when the plants sprout from the seeds and harvest. From my experience, children are more likely to eat veggies they’ve grown (see the pictures and comments below).

Last weekend we pulled the last beetroot: time to eat cool weather veggies that are remaining and make space for summer crop:

gardening with kids - beetroot

Our chickens got the leaves (young leaves can be tossed into a salad). We had a simple yet very delicious salad of grated fresh beetroot, carrot and Granny Smith apple. The only seasoning we used was a bit of lemon juice. Colorful and yummy!

We’ve planted a few sprouting spuds a couple of months ago. Here we’ve dug up the most delicious new potatoes. I boiled them and the kids ate them all before they could make it to the plates!

gardening with children - potatoes

Beautiful pink color!

Snow peas are also ready for harvest. I was surprised by how quickly they grow. While picking, our daughter ate a few raw. After a brisk boil, the kids ate them in a minute, our son declaring them delicious! He wasn’t keen to try snow peas before.

 container gardening - snow peas

Whether you have a backyard garden or a few pots on the window sill, get your kids into growing their own plants. 

If the idea of gardening with kids is new to you, start with a small herb garden and then, if interested, expand to a small vegetable garden with some easy-to-grow vegetables like cherry tomatoes. All you need is potting soil, a few containers, some plants, and gardening gloves for your young kids.

Planting your first vegetable with kids is a fun and rewarding activity. It gets the kids outside and lets them be responsible for what they’ve planted.

From planting a few plants, and watering to finally harvesting their own vegetable, it’s an enjoyable experience your children will remember for the rest of their lives.

Resources:

The Benefits of Gardening with Children

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2 Comments

  1. Oh, this is such a great article. Thanks so much for sharing. Terrific photos, too!!
    I would love to share this with others via my website.
    Hope it’s not rude to ask!! If you didn’t mind me using it and giving you credit, let me know….it’s really great stuff!

    Thanks

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