Getting Started In early Spring, we had lots of fun starting seeds indoors! This helped to give Emily an appreciation for how long it takes plants to grow. She took very good care of her seedlings.
Next, we planted seeds and transfered some of the seedlings over to the garden plot. We found it helpful to have a kid-friendly garden layout, so as to avoid any little feet accidently squashing plants. Some good options include: raised beds, container gardening, or going with a square foot garden layout.
Kid-Friendly Garden Ideas
1. Raised Beds
2. Container Gardening
3. Square Foot Garden Layout
We chose to go with a square foot layout, which gave us plenty of vegetables and was a clear way for Emily to navigate her way around the garden without fear of stepping on any of the seedlings.
To be even more kid-friendly, we even gave Emily her very own space within our lot where she could grow whatever vegetables or flowers she wanted. She chose lots of broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce, and marigolds!
If possible, give your child his/her own special garden space!
Ten Gardening Chores Kids Can Do:
- Planting Seeds
- Making Seed Markers
- Watering Plants
- Weeding (with supervision)
- Harvesting Vegetables
- Loosening Soil
- Laying Down Straw
- Decorating the Garden (handmade mobiles, pinwheels, banners, etc.)
- Picking off bugs.
- Collecting Seeds for Next Year’s Garden
Garden Themed Books! Of course, we took advantage of our local public library as much as possible over the course of the Summer. Our favorite “garden” reads are The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss….
….and Seeds! Seeds! Seeds! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.
….and decorating a photo frame with dried beans (which Emily learned are also seeds). There are many more gardening craft ideas on Frugal Family Fun Blog too!
With lots of hard work, our garden was in full bloom!
Gardening is one of the best ways for kids to learn about where their food comes from, basic plant biology, and exposes kids to nature. As an added bonus, we saved lots of money by growing our own organic vegetables! I made a fun garden goody bag for Emily to harvest her vegetables in, and it was a great hit! I love to share good things, so I thought you might like one too!
Good luck!!
Congrats Luna!! You Won. Check your email !
61 Responses to “Gardening With Kids and Giveaway!”
What a cute little bag! We are definitely going to make gardening a part of our homeschool next year-waited too late to start our plants this time around. Thanks for some great ideas!
This is so great! We have a garden in our backyard and our son loves it! He is still a bit young for actual planting, but he did help with the peas. Now that they are starting to become ready for harvesting, he has been eating them straight from the pod. He waters as much as we will allow him with his little yellow watering can. And just yesterday he “helped” weed with his hand rake.
Thanks for your gardening craft ideas. We started our garden a little late this year…so we haven’t been able to pick our vegetables, but we are very excited, as well as, our 2 year old. I have been wanting to do some garden crafts with her.
.-= Marla´s last blog ..if you give an inch…they will surely take a mile…. =-.
Looks like she’s really enjoying the gardening! I may need to look at the square foot layout for next year….we’ve had some stuff get squished by the girls (and dad). What a great giveaway!
Joesette
(tjohuffman at verizon dot net)
.-= Joesette´s last blog ..Field Trips and Hospital Visits =-.
I’m not much of a gardener, but last month my 2 year old and I planted some flower seeds in our backyard. So far we only have a few sprouts, but it was a great experience. DD loved planting the flowers and even walks around the house saying, ‘I plant flowers’. Thanks for sharing these ideas and for your blog.
Great guest post! Valerie is Amazing!!!
Thanks for the chance to win!
Jody
mommymomentblog AT gmail DOT com
.-= Jody from Mommy Moment´s last blog ..Itty-Bitty Borkworm Curriculum $300 Value! =-.
This has inspired me to try again… I think… I hope!
We are growing carrots on the deck, and my son checks them every day. This would be the perfect bag to harvest them in. It is fun to see two of my favorite blogs together here. My e-mail is tthorme at yahoo.
I love it! We started a garden this year and are attempting to grow potatoes, tomatoes, green beens and cucumbers. We live in such a dry climate and recently had snow so it’s hard to explain to my child why the seeds aren’t sprouting yet!!
I wish I was better at gardening…would love to win this giveaway!
I love this idea, we just started a garden in our yard, right now it’s just flowers…but if all goes well we hope to add a vegetable section next year. We have planted all flowers that attract butterflies, and we enjoy seeing all of the different color butterflies, and then learning about them! Thanks for sharing!
I love the harvest bag and I love Valerie’s blog!
This is just our second year to have a (very tiny) garden. I hope to grow it each year~the kiddos love it!
Lora @ my blessed life
(vincenlora@juno.com)
.-= Lora´s last blog ..Menu Plan Monday {on Tuesday} =-.
My daughter (2 1/2) loves helping with the garden. It is my first year with a vegie garden and we have both learned so much!
I would love to be able to give her such a sweet little bag, she would love it!
Very sweet! We love gardening – we have a container for each of the girls and we even measure the tomato plant
We started a garden this year with the vegetables that my daughter loves to eat. She loves to watch Daddy water and weed. Our only problem is that the bunnies keep eating our plants.
I’ve really been wanting to start a garden. Thanks for the tips!
.-= Amy @ Serving Pink Lemonade´s last blog ..Dinosaur Play Mat =-.
Great post! Such great tips! We would love the goody bag. I know my Michael would love it!
beccathorn7(at)gmail(dot)com
Thanks
I’m new to your blog but I really enjoy all the fun ideas for kiddos! Love this post on gardening!
We have our own little garden and 3 year old Emma LOVES to plant and watch the seeds grow. Great post! (kwtexas AT gmail DOT com)
Yay! Open to Canadian residents!
What a great give away. We are fairly new to gardening and something like this would be very handy indeed!
Thanks,
Tricia
triciaorchard at gmail dot com
.-= The Orchard´s last blog ..Even More Postcards! =-.
We did square foot gardening too and my 2 1/2 year old loves watching her “baby” vegetables grow! A harvesting sack would be great for her!
Great guest blog and I was glad to see that Valerie is a fellow Bucknell grad! Thanks for introducing another great blog. I tend to have a black thumb when it comes to plants so I stick w/trips to the farmer’s market.
What a great post! One of our favourite gardening books is called Tops and Bottoms! It always gets the kids in the helping mode!
Not too many cool things for kids these days, but my daughter is growing a real plant that MOVES when you Tickle IT! It’s called the TickleMe Plant The leaves instantly close and the branches move when Tickled. It even produces candy cotton like pink flowers!
It’s a must have grow kit. We found it at http://www.ticklemeplant.com you gotta love that video!
We so wanted to do a garden this year, but there has been nothing but rain here, no chance for the ground to dry out enough to till. We have 3 in. of standing water all over our yard. Do you think it is too late to plant if it dries by Saturday? Anyway, those bags are so sweet. Would love to win, thanks for a chance at it!
I loved all your gardening ideas and pics and that garden goodie bag is adorable. Great idea!
.-= Michelle´s last blog ..My Blue Boat =-.
I love the gardening craft ideas. My daughter would love to do these things.
What a cute bag, my little girl would love it.
Thanks!
My older daughter loves to get out to garden. If it wasn’t for her, our plants would never get watered. =p
joycelau319 at yahoo dot com
.-= Joyce´s last blog ..What We’re Eating: Baked Cheese Crisps =-.
What a great little bag! We have planted a tiny little garden for the first time ever – three weeks ago, and my 5-year old daughter loves to look every morning to see how much things have grown.
That little bag is adorable
This is our first year with our daughter and we just secured membership in a local community garden. When we moved in February, we lost our backyard space, so we’re back to communal gardening this season. We’re looking forward to showing her the ropes!
.-= Jo @ Parenting Poppy´s last blog ..Oh, Books! How I’ve Missed You! =-.
What a great post. We have a nice little tomato crop growing, as well as a few spices, and hope to expand it next year.
What a great post and what a cute bag!!! I introduced my daughter to gardening last year when she was 3. We recently moved and are renting while we get to know the area, so we don’t have a dig-able yard. I miss having my hands in the earth. Thanks for the giveaway.
hjnagel at hotmail dot com
What a neat post! I’ve thought of doing some gardening with my son. He sure loves dirt! Maybe a gardening gift bag would give me a kick start
Cutie patootie!! We started our 20 month old gardening this year! She wants to dig in the dirt all the time! She’d love the bag for harvesting or tool carrying.
We love hanging out in the backyard garden. That goody bag would really please the kiddos. Pick me! (And we’re going to make some stepping stones soon. Thanks for the reminder). nancywalters44@hotmail.com
i love your website. thank you for the ideas on how to introduce gardening to the very young.
Gardening is just one of those things that I love in theory, but when it comes to actually doing it, I’m not very good at it! I’d love to check out the book, “The Carrot Seed” though, and maybe give gardening another whirl
That is really cute! I have been meaning to work on my garden, I’m just not really that great at it.
I like your ideas. We have a very small area that would actually be in front of our house probably.
Great post! My 4 yr old loves helping with the garden!
Love the idea of letting the kids have their very own lot for growing veggies! What a great way to let them explore! mwilson518 at gmail dot com
I loved your idea about the garden stepping stone with a cereal box mold….so resourceful….I too wanted to start a garden this year but didn’t get to, but I want to do it next year with my boys. It will be a great learning time for them as I will be home schooling them as well. thanks for the ideas.
Thanks for the great tips! I just reserved those books online at our local library. I think my son, Alistair would love to have his own gardening bag.
My son and I started a container garden this summer. We planted the seeds and watched them grow together. It’s been a great summer project.
We’d love to win!
katkirkwood@gmail.com
My kids love to help in the garden! Thanks for the ideas of more ways to involve them and for the giveaway
.-= Stacy´s last blog ..Tot School Tuesdays (Ella is 25 months old) =-.
Cute! My daughter needs this!
.-= greedygrace´s last blog ..The ultimate gift =-.
Gardening has been such a great way to connect my kids with their food. We’ve even been able to share our “bounty” of snails with a snail-loving classmate. We’re lucky to have a Community Garden plot just up the hill. Lots of sun, new friends, and the chance to see what all sorts of things look like when they’re growing.
Alexa (at) Ogno (dot) org
And to all those who don’t think they have room to grow anything, think about the sidewalk or the fire escape. Any spot of sun will do. We’ve got nothing but asphalt out front and shade in back, but we make do. I trash-picked some big containers and set them on the sidewalk. A few have perennials (mint, chives, sage, oregano), so there’s almost always something growing. Self-seeding morning glories climb the porch rail from their pot and also come back every year. I pick up herb plants at the grocery store, too. A few more pots have stuff I actually attempt to grow from seed, but if I don’t get around to it, they fill up with verdant weeds. So it’s not a Martha Stewart show piece, but it’s nicer than the asphalt.
I mark the pots of the edibles with sidewalk chalk and offer them up to passers-by who comment while I’m out working on them.
I love your garden!
.-= stacy´s last blog ..Evernote Challenge # 7~Food~Low Fat Banana Bread =-.
We are growing our own herbs and a few vegetables this year. Im always looking for ways to make the garden ‘new’ and exciting for my 3.5 and 10 mos old. The goody bag is a great idea!
We love gardening too! It’s so much fun having a little one who gets such joy from all the surprises that gardening can bring. Thanks so much for offering such a nice giveaway.
.-= Kara´s last blog ..The Ants Go Marching… =-.
I love the gardening bag! We are growing a garden for the first year and the kids are learning all about what it takes for a fruitful harvest. Thanks for sharing your ideas.
My boys and I are enjoying gardening this summer as well. I’m glad I found your site. I’ll be reading more.
Love your blog… It has brought so much family to my family! Cannot wait to make cereal box stepping stones for our garden!
We LOVE gardening at our house. Love your ideas and need to come here more often!!!!
What a cute post and giveaway. I like the list of gardening chores kids can do – a lot of times I have a hard time thinking of what exactly we can let our preschooler help with. He planted flowers for the first time this year and it was very exciting for him to watch them grow
.-= Larry @ Cakeblast´s last blog ..(3 Winners) Children’s Scholastic Books – Funny Lunch and Firehouse =-.
[...] This is an excellent resource for kids and gardening.Great ideas for hands on interactive learning in the garden from starting and planning the garden to indoor play and activities. Love the book resources as well! Gardening is one of the best ways for kids to learn about where their food comes from, basic plant biology, and exposes kids to nature. As an added bonus, we saved lots of money by growing our own organic vegetables! via notimeforflashcards.com [...]
[...] Make a stepping stone for your garden. [...]