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Gardening with Kids!
Planted June 27, 2002
Last tended to on November 4, 2024
Reading time: 4 minutes
Gardening with children is rewarding in many ways. It provides personal, quality time to interact with them, as well as provides opportunities for teaching and learning.
Spending time gardening with the children in your life is a great way to teach principles of natural science, agriculture, and depending on your beliefs, spirituality. Gardening also encourages traits of responsibility, self-sufficiency and stewardship as children learn to interact with our planet in this intimate way.
Gardening helps to form a bond with the basic components that make up all life forms on Earth. By raising produce, kids begin to understand that food does not come from a market but instead, is coaxed from the soil through someone’s hard work. This realization helps to form a basis for better understanding the cause and effects of how we live our lives as consumers, and how we are part of the natural world. This will hopefully help them gain a better understanding of, and make better decisions pertaining to, health, ecology, and environmental issues as they mature into adulthood.
The amount of time required by an adult is greatly dependent on the age of the child, the size of the gardening space, and your personal interests. It can be a few minutes a day to several hours per week. You’ll be able to tell by the attention span of the child. When you find that they have wandered off and you are there weeding alone, you have been at it too long!
Figure 1: Watering is a favorite “chore” and provides an opportunity to experience plants growing through these efforts. Responsibility is nurtured as well.
The space required is also very flexible. Apartment dwellers can be creative with containers, LED grow lights, and south-facing windows. Fire escapes, rooftops, and local community garden spaces are also options for some.
Figure 2: Chores aren’t always “work”. A lifelong passion for gardening can start at a very young age.
For those with larger yards, any amount of space can be dedicated. However, it can be overwhelming if too much area is provided.
The example in these photographs are of a small raised bed (3 feet by 7 feet) constructed out of scrap wood. This creates a confined area with clear boundaries and is a manageable size for a small child.
Adult interaction is part of this experience. Every step of the process, from the creation of the garden space to the harvesting of the fruits of their labor, is a possible learning experience for the child.
Figure 3: Small children quickly learn to distinguish a weed seeding from a vegetable seedling.
Don’t make the lessons too hard and never make them tedious. The goal is to foster curiosity and make gardening fun. It helps if it is your passion as well.
You also do not need to focus too much attention to what you are growing. Let the child make choices and guide as necessary. Don’t worry as to whether or not they are going to like and eat everything.
Figure 4: All mine! Responsibility is a great trait to nurture through gardening.
This example garden contains sunflowers, ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ peas, ‘Red Salad Bowl’ and ‘Green Salad Bowl’ leaf lettuce, one tomato plant, ‘White Egg’ and ‘Purple Top White Globe’ turnips, ‘Ruby Queen’ beets, ‘Thumbelina’ carrots, and several radish varieties mixed. This selection provides an interesting diversity of plant to care for, watch grow and harvest.
Although these might not be vegetables that an adult would have chosen for the child’s garden based on what they normally eat, it is interesting that something produced by ones own hands usually tastes better. At the very least, they will usually try a taste or two of something different.
If you have a passion for gardening, share it! Whether it is with your kids, grandkids, or neighbors, it is an awesome opportunity to establish close bonds with others while teaching valuable skills. The world would be a much better place if everyone was a gardener!
Here are some additional resources:
- University of Illinois Extension’s Youth Gardening Website
- The Kids Garden (UK)
- Gardening with Kids: Irrigation – History and Science
- “Ready, Set, Grow: A Kid’s Guide to Gardening in Kentucky” (PDF)
- “One To Grow On” – A Garden-Based Learning Program for Preschoolers, Mississippi State University (PDF)
- “Gardening With Children” (PDF) – ND Extension Service
- U.S. EPA Learning and Teaching about the Environment
- NIEHS Kids Pages – Brainteasers, Riddles, Music, and Games for Children and Teachers
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