Gardening with kids is an excellent way to spend time outdoors as a family, and it can be educational too. Maintaining a healthy garden also helps improve your home’s curb appeal. Read on for tips on making the most of your time gardening together.
Make Gardening with Kids a Learning Opportunity
Before starting your garden, give your kids a short science lesson. Teach them about different plants in a garden, like fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowering plants. Explain how plants need sunlight and water, the best times of year for certain plants to grow, and the difference between seasons.
Eat What You Grow
If you decide to grow fruits or vegetables, establish healthy habits by encouraging kids to eat what they grow and talk to them about the nutritional value of various plants. Picky eaters are more likely to taste something they’ve grown from seed.
Choices When Gardening with Kids
Get your kids involved in gardening by allowing them to pick out fun gardening gear, like shovels, gloves, and watering cans. Let them choose the seeds they want to plant and try to find pictures of what those plants will look like after they sprout. Tour the garden often and show your kids how to track their seeds’ progress with a ruler.
Add a Decorative Touch
If you’re gardening with kids, you probably know that they like to put their own spin on activities. Fun accessories, like garden gnomes and pinwheels, are creative ways to get kids invested and liven up the space.
Gardening with Kids? Get Them Weeding
Gardening with kids is fun, but it’s also a lot of work. Teach your kids how to take care of their garden by weeding. Explain that weeding helps plants thrive by giving their roots space to grow. You can even make a game out of it: challenge them to pull out as many weeds as possible in a given timeframe, like three or four minutes.
Try Gardening Inside
If you don’t have the space for an outdoor garden in the ground, get some containers for the patio, porch, or deck. You can even pick a sunny spot indoors for a container garden and show your kids how to care for it as they would an outside garden. Vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and radishes, are great options for container gardens.
Forget the Mess
Gardening with kids is messy, given the amount of water and dirt involved. Try to enjoy the process without worrying about the mess (even if you’re indoors), and when you’re done, get kids involved with clean-up. Have fun and enjoy introducing your kids to everything gardening has to offer.
Gardening with kids is an enjoyable way to get outdoors and teach children about nature and responsibility. You and your kids will grow a thriving garden with patience and care.
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