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It’s garden season! The weather is warming up (well, it’s kind of a false spring in Wisconsin, and we’re expecting snow again by the weekend ;) and it’s time to get seeds started. Gardening is a really easy activity to get your kids involved and incorporate some natural science learning and life skills.
How much your kids are involved in your garden will obviously depend on their ages, ability, and interest level. Obviously bigger kids are more capable of helping a lot, but sometimes younger kids are a lot more eager to be involved!
No matter what size garden you have, growing food is such a valuable experience for kids – and you – and is a great opportunity for connection. Your kids may or may not want to help you in the garden every day, but even if they participate a small amount, they will learn so much. I’m going to share some ways you can get your kids interested and involved in the garden with you.
Share your why
Why are you gardening? Is it just for fun or are you trying to grow food to feed your family and stock your pantry? If your kids know the purpose behind your garden, it will help them to understand the value behind it. Obviously a hobby garden serves a different purpose than a garden where you’re growing a significant amount of food for the year.
If you are gardening so that you can preserve foods, let your older kids take part in the process of figuring out how much you’ll need to grow in order to preserve enough. Ask your kids what foods they’d like to try to preserve!
Start seeds together
Seed starting is really easy for kids to do, so let them help with this! Let them pick out some seeds of foods they like to eat, because that will get them a little more excited about growing them. Or if you have a reluctant or picky eater, let them choose a food they want to try!
I highly recommend the book The Family Garden Plan by Melissa K Norris to help you decide what to plant, when, and how much. You can see more gardening books I recommend HERE.
Every garden needs flowers, so give your kids some flower seeds to grow! You can find inexpensive flower seeds just about anywhere – even dollar stores. Sunflowers are SO fun for kids to grow!
Give them their own garden bed or pots
If your kids have their own garden bed, section of the garden, or pots to plant their own seeds, they will take more ownership and are more likely to take care of the plants, do weeding, etc. One of my boys – who is my child least likely to eat a vegetable – got so excited to plant kale, carrots, and cabbage. And he tried cabbage for the fist time because of it! (He still didn’t like it.. but you win some, you loose some. ;)
Keep a journal
This is a great opportunity to have your kids keep a journal with records of the garden, what’s planted, how fast or slow things grow, how many plants grew, and how much they produce. You could do this just in a simple notebook and let your kids keep records according to their abilities. If they are not writing yet, let them draw and help them label their drawings. It could be a specific garden journal, or you could use the same nature journaling practices I shared in this post.
I’ve included a few pages from my Outdoor Activity Pack in my shop for you to download and use!
Grow quick growing veggies
Gardening is a lesson in patience, so if your kids are young, choose seeds that won’t take long to germinate. Radishes or greens will sprout much sooner than peppers will! Try germinating them in a plastic bag against a window instead of in soil (this works great for bean seeds!) so they can watch the progress closely. Grow some sprouts in jars (find the tutorial HERE) in a few days so they can see how quickly the seeds can grow.
Read books
Reading books about gardening, plants, and seeds will help connect the science and nature study to real life. It can either draw them into the garden OR draw them into reading. Plus, reading is just fun. ;)
Here are some of my faves:
(I’ve linked to Amazon, but make sure to click to see if you can find them used if you buy them from Amazon!)
From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Elhert (this book has been so well-loved by our family that our first copy was destroyed, and we needed to get a second copy!)
How a Seed Grows by Helene Jordan
Up in the Garden Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner
What’s Inside a Flower by Rachel Ignotofsky
The Journey of Seeds by Soo-Bok Choi
A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston
Global Garden by Kate Petty (this is a super fun pop up book that has a lot of great info!)
The Turnip by Jan Brett
EIEIO How Old MacDonald Got His Farm by Judy Sierra
Vegetables in the Garden
There are so many tangents you can take this, to dive deeper into nature study. Your kids can take their nature journals into the garden to sketch and take notes about the garden and what they see growing or living there. You can study worms, bees, butterflies, birds, flowers… wouldn’t it be fun to read The Secret Garden and make a little secret garden space in your garden for your kids?? There are so many ways that you can take this!
Seed Starting Supplies
I keep it pretty simple when it comes to starting seeds. I have some really basic grow lights, but honestly I don’t use them too much, because we have really big south facing windows and a small greenhouse that works great for starting seeds.
Plastic starting pots
Seed starting trays
Plant Growing Trays
Some of my favorite places to buy seeds:
True Leaf Market
MI Gardener
Azure Standard
I also buy Renee’s Garden seeds, but I buy them locally.
If you aren’t ready to start your own seeds yet, head to your local greenhouse or garden center to buy plants that are already started. This costs a little more, but cuts out a lot of the work. Just make sure you know when your last frost date is, so that you can plant at the appropriate time.
If you don’t have a large gardening space, you can still garden! Grow herbs and sprouts in your windowsill, grow in pots, grow bags, or a Greenstalk vertical garden (use code SILOSAGE for $10 off) on your patio or the side of your house. You’d be amazed how much food you can grow in a few garden beds. My first garden was just a small square tilled in our tiny city backyard. My second garden was just four beds, and it produced an incredible amount of food!
Don’t let seed starting and gardening intimidate you – don’t worry about getting it all perfect. You’re going to make mistakes, so just get started!