Make Gardening a Family Affair - Part 4: Have Fun!

There are a lot of things you can do in the garden that can be a lot of fun for your whole family, while making your garden even better!

For example, composting can be a fun project for adults or kids. Even though it does require some patience and effort, it’s something that kids will enjoy getting to help with. If you have depleted soil, you can give it back its natural vitality and health by using compost.

Compost scraps in a bin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You can easily make your own compost, and it’s a great thing to add to the soil to grow better fruits and vegetables. You can get everyone involved in helping save the household waste that can go into the composting pile instead of into the garbage can.

Your family can learn how composting helps the garden by helping the soil retain moisture so that plants get the water that they need. Kids can learn how to tell when a compost pile is ready and which containers are best or easiest to use when creating a compost pile.

Gardening can be a fun family project when you allow your children to decorate their designated spaces in the garden. They can decorate with little toy butterflies or birds, and of course they can grow flowers as natural decorations!

You can let your child plant a fairy garden somewhere in their garden, and there are kits to help you do this. They can also use small decorative lights in the garden. Just make sure they’re placed far enough away from the plants so nothing hinders their growth.

Another fun thing that you can do is to make sure that every family member has his or her own gardening tools. Kids especially love this idea. You can even get a gardening bag that’s monogrammed with his or her name on it.

Child sized rakes, shovels, watering cans and hoes are good items to get, especially if the children are small - because they won’t be able to use many of the standard full-sized gardening tools.

When they have their own tools, kids will feel more involved in the process. Plus, child-size gardening tools also come in fun colors, which will help make it more interesting for your child. They’re also much safer for small children to use than standard adult-size gardening tools.

Toys gardening together. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Encourage your child to learn how to take care of his tools, how to clean them, and then keep them safely stored with yours until the next time they’re needed.

By teaching your child about the joy of gardening, they’re more likely to enjoy healthier food later in life.

Gardening will also open your child up to the huge variety of different fruits and vegetables available to choose from when it comes to eating. Instead of having to eat standard vegetables like peas and carrots all the time, your child may be open to trying more exotic and unique ones. This is a good way to get your child to eat vegetables. Many times kids don’t like standard vegetables like Brussels sprouts and broccoli, but if you introduce them to different ones - especially vegetables they grew themselves, they may be a lot more open to eating them.

The fun doesn’t have to stop when the garden items are harvested, either. You can teach your child how to make their favorite dishes with the vegetables and fruits that they grew as well! If you have a lot of berries, you can also teach your child how to make jam - or tasty smoothies using fresh fruit from the garden.

Not only can gardening help create special time together, but you’ll also be eating healthier as a family, and teaching your kids healthy habits that can last a lifetime. There's no better gift you can give!


Gardening Tools for Kids:

 

Make Gardening a Family Affair - Part 2: Getting the Kids Involved

It isn’t always easy to get the kids to help around the house or work outside. Gardening can be a great way to change that. Let your entire family be involved from start to finish.

If you’re starting a garden from scratch, it’s a good idea to include your family members when picking a spot for the garden. This will help them feel needed in the garden and will get them excited at the thought of planting.

Make sure you involve the kids when you’re picking out most of the fruits and vegetables to grow. While you may choose something more useful, or a vegetable everyone in the family will eat, younger kids will enjoy a variety of plants. Some kids can have fun picking brightly colored fruits and vegetables.

Miniature bell peppers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bell peppers are great for small children because they’re some of the easiest vegetables to grow. Radishes are also very easy to grow and brightly colored. Snow peas are another great crop to garden with kids.

Both radishes and snow peas grow during the cool seasons. Kids tend to enjoy fruits more than vegetables, so strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries are great choices. Others may like getting fruits and vegetables that are more unique and that they aren’t used to seeing daily.

Also, you can look into miniature vegetables, like baby carrots and potatoes, baby cauliflower, and baby lettuce. These are perfect for little hands and they come in a variety of colors.

Baby vegetables are perfect for helping your child feel more confident when working in the garden because they’re easier. You don’t want to overwhelm him or her by starting with large fruits and vegetables that may be more difficult to care for.

Be careful that you don’t overwhelm your family if you’re someone who’s been gardening for awhile. Keep in mind that a medium-sized garden to you can seem huge to a child and a large garden can seem like it’s a daunting task to someone who isn’t used to it.

A good way to handle this is, if your children are very young, you can assign them each their own “spots” or “plants” in the garden. This way, you can look over them in the overall larger garden, but they’ll be learning how to water and care for a vegetable or fruit on their own, without feeling too overwhelmed.

As your children get older, you can expand their garden spaces so they’re growing more plants. You can also help to make sure as the space expands, that your children learn how to grow a wider variety of fruits and vegetables.

You can also broaden their cultural knowledge by planting fruits and vegetables that are used in different ethnic meals. You can introduce your family to several different vegetables when growing them.

Experimenting with different dishes is a great way to have some fun with your family. Your kids will enjoy picking out new dinners based on the foods that were grown in the garden!

Aside from picking out the seeds to plant, your family can help with the preparation. Kids especially like this part. Most kids love to help with getting the soil ready for planting. Digging is often a kid’s favorite part of working outside, but don’t limit him to just working in the dirt. Kids are very resourceful and will enjoy learning about and working in all parts of the garden.

Girl with Watering Can (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If your children are very young, make sure to let them know they’re doing a great job whenever they’re working. It will help them feel more confident about what they’re doing.

Children can also help plant the seeds and water the fruits and vegetables as they grow. If your children are little, you can purchase tiny plastic watering cans so they’re able to water the plants along with you.

You can also keep a small corner of the garden for growing flowers along with the food items that your family chooses to use. Marigolds are great for gardens because they’re low maintenance and easy to care for.

Whatever flower you decide on, make sure it’s non-toxic if you’re gardening with small kids. When planting and caring for a garden, remember that while you know better, if you’re working with younger ones, they might not realize that they can’t put everything from the garden into their mouths. Some vegetable tops can make a child sick. So make sure they understand the importance of not eating out of the garden unless it’s an appropriate food item and has been washed first.

Engaging your kids in the process of growing a garden can be a great way to help them learn about the world and become more self-sufficient!

It's also a good way to keep your family involved with one another, and give everyone a sense of responsibility over their own area of the garden. We'll discuss this aspect more next week, so be sure to check back then for some more family-friendly gardening tips!

Video - Gardening Tips for Kids

This short video gives some great ideas for things that kids can plant in their gardens in the spring, and it also explains some fun teaching opportunities that gardening provides, so you can teach your kids about nature and how things grow. Getting kids involved in gardening is a great way to give them something to do outdoors, as well as build confidence and skills they can use throughout their lives.

Good Morning - Gardening with kids
You're never too young to start gardening, and if your kids are driving you batty cooped up indoors over the school holidays, why not let them have a crack a...

Video - Fun Garden Ideas to Get Kids Gardening

Getting your kids interested in gardening is a big part of creating a sustainable future for our planet. With the health of our society in decline, lifespans (in Western countries) actually growing SHORTER instead of longer, and the trend towards ever-more processed, modified, and artificial foods, it is more important than ever to re-learn the joy and healthiness of growing our own food - and pass this knowledge on to our kids. (Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now!)  :-)

This quick video offers some fun and creative ideas to get your kids interested in gardening by growing a theme garden. (See below video for some other helpful resources.)

Check it out, and get your kids off the couch and out in the garden this summer! You may be surprised how much they enjoy it....

Herb & Vegetable Gardening with Children.mov
Gardening Expert Melinda Myers appears on the Morning Blend to talk about tomatoes, herbs, a pizza garden and other fun and creative gardens and containers to get the kids excited about gardening. www.bonnieplants.com melindamyers.com www.themorningb...
 

Fun Kids' Gardening Resources: