Gardening at Home with Kids

If you like digging in the dirt, you might enjoy gardening, too. Growing a garden with your kids will help you learn about plants. You might grow flowers or vegetables in your yard or inside your home in containers. As you work to take care of your plants, you will need to make sure they get water and sun to grow.

Kids can be encouraged and learn a lot by seeing produce results before planting their own seeds. Consider starting your garden before introducing your children to gardening. To get started, you can either start planting yourself or hire a local gardener to help. If you notice that your plants aren’t thriving, try calling a qualified gardener to assess the issue–whether it’s soil nutrients, watering habits, predators, or incompatible neighboring plants. Learning from your own mistakes and a professional consultation can help you answer curious kid questions, avoid disheartening mistakes, and teach them natural solutions.

Gardening Basics

To grow a garden, you will need space for planting, seeds or plants, and tools. An adult can help you work in a garden. Adults can also teach you about caring for plants. Always handle tools carefully with an adult’s supervision so you don’t get hurt.

• Gardening With Children and Youth: Dig in the dirt to grow different flowers and vegetables.
• Garden Safety for Kids Part 2: Using Tools and Preventing Injury: Use tools for gardening carefully.
• Gardening for Kids: People of all ages and abilities can have fun gardening.
• Gardening Ideas for Children with Special Needs: Choose a special gardening project to grow plants.
• Children in the Garden: Vegetables often grow quickly, so you can see what you planted.
• Got Dirt? You don’t need a big space for growing.
• Build a Bean Tower: A bean tower will support bean plants as they grow.
• Gardening With Young Children: Dig in! Garden in the spring with an adult to grow plants.
• Child Safety in the Garden: Stay safe in the garden by using tools carefully.

Vegetable Gardens

Grow food for your family with a vegetable garden. Vegetable gardens can be any size, even as small as a container or two. Plant vegetables that you like or want to eat. You can then watch as they grow and develop into food that is ready to eat.

• Let’s Get Growing in Containers: Grow vegetables in containers if you don’t have room in your yard.
• Kids Thrive with Vegetable Gardening: Growing vegetables might make you healthier because you can eat what you grow.
• Benefits of Growing Your Own Fruits and Vegetables: Planting a vegetable garden can give you exercise.
• Gardening Grows Healthy Kids: Start a small vegetable garden to grow vegetables.
• Kids in the Garden: Nutritious and Fun: Start a garden by planning the vegetables you will grow and planting the seeds.
• Growing Healthy Kids With Gardening: Lots of people have fun digging in the dirt.
• Appetite for Change: Teaching Kids About Organics and Gardening: Learn about organic gardening by planting an organic garden.
• Benefits of Gardening for Children: Learn how to take care of the earth by planting a garden.
• Edible Gardens: An edible garden has plants you can eat.
• Gardening With Kids: Planning a garden can be exciting as you choose the plants you want to grow.
• Planting Pizza: A pizza garden has plants you need to make pizza, such as tomatoes, peppers, onions, and basil.

Flower Gardens

If you like colorful flowers, try growing some in your own garden. Flowers might bloom for one season only, or they could come back every year. Some flowers like the sun, and others like to grow in shady spots. Choose flowers in colors you like, and have fun tending them in your yard. If you need to, consult with a gardening contractor on which ones will thrive best in your climate.

• Keeping Kids Safe in the Flower Garden: Working in the garden can be fun, but stay safe as you use tools.
• My First Garden: Growing a flower garden involves different tasks.
• Garden Themes for Kids: Plan an ABC garden with flowers beginning with different letters of the alphabet.
• Childhood in the Garden: Spending time in a flower garden can teach you about flowers.
• Butterfly Garden Activities Stir Children’s Sense of Wonder: Plant a butterfly garden with colorful flowers.
• Anthurium, Flamingo Flower: Some flowers have unusual names, such as the flamingo flower.
• Kid-Friendly Flower Guide: Learn about different kinds of flowers so you can choose the ones you want to plant.
• How Does Your Garden Grow?: Start with a little garden so you can learn how to grow plants.
• Plants for Kids: Understand how plants grow and then tend them in a garden.
• Exploring Flowers: Learn about flowers by observing how they grow.
• The Sunflower is a Sun Flower: Sunflowers grow quickly into tall, colorful flowers.

Gardening Projects

Projects help you learn about gardening. You can even work on gardening projects during the winter. Try different projects, such as growing plants inside your home or growing a garden with a theme. An adult can help you plan a gardening project.

• Victory Garden Project: During World War II, families planted victory gardens for extra food.
• Flora Explorers: Discovering the Structures and Needs of Plants: Learn about the things plants need to grow.
• Make Your Own Herbarium: Make a herbarium out of dried leaves from herb plants.
• Winter Garden Projects Can Be Fun, Too: Try gardening projects over the winter, such as a windowsill garden.
• Forcing Bulbs for Indoor Beauty in Winter: Plant flower bulbs inside during the winter so they will bloom.
• Easy Water-Wise Gardening: Plant a garden full of plants that don’t need lots of water to thrive.
• The Value of Soil: An apple can teach you about the earth and its soil.
• Traveling Seeds: Plants spread to different places by seeds that travel on the wind or on clothing.
• Vegetable Gardening in Containers: Learn how to grow vegetable plants in containers on a porch or deck.
• Watering Container Gardens: Keep your plants growing in containers healthy with lots of water.
• Teaching Your Kids to Garden with Garbage: Learn how to turn garbage into compost to feed your plants.

Have you caught the gardening bug? Can’t get enough of the fruits of your labor? Consider the < a href="//www.homeadvisor.com/cost/landscape/hire-a-landscape-designer/">cost of hiring a garden designer to help you yield the most produce, color or pollinators in your outdoor space. They’ll know exactly which of your favorite foods and flowers grow best in that shady spot by your shed and which plants to pair with them to protect and improve their growth.

5 Comments

1. Donna A Wruck, July 9:

   Lots of great ideas! I am searching for ideas I can share and teach my classrooms.i teach the mentally and physically handicapped.

2. Josh, March 6:

   Another fun activity for kids is to experiment with hydroponics. For example, you can take a mason jar, cut a hole out of the lid, then use something like a plastic cup to fit inside the jar, add some soil-less grow media like coco coir, and let the roots sit in nutrient-rich water. Of course, you can substitute the glass jar for a larger plastic bucket w/ lid and do the same sort of experiment.

3. Naveen Kumar, March 29:

   I think this basic information is not just for kids because people still want to know how can they start gardening! and this article helps to make a good step & plan with proper discipline…
   Thank you for the article!

4. West Jordan Landscaping Service, August 28:

   These ideas are really helpful, but I agree with Naveen above. This knowledge can be used by anyone wanting to enhance their gardening know-how. I like that there are is a range of different ideas for what to garden. Eating locally should always be encouraged.
   Really appreciate you taking the time to put this together.

5. Lawn care services, August 29:

   Teaching kids how to utilize hydroponics to increase speed of yield. This could also be a great addition to this article, there are so many cheap ways to set up your own hydroponic system.