Gardening With Kids

Introducing kids to the garden (no, don’t step on that!) can be an exercise in patience. Depending on their age and interests, they may be more or less interested in the paths and processes of a garden. But many a Green Thumb got their start when their thumbs were little. We’ll share a few ideas for keeping kids interested, tips for getting started gardening with older kids, and some easy wins to get kids involved. If you’re a new gardener as well, don’t worry. You can still make it fun for them while honing your own gardening skills and knowledge.

As a child, I had a small corner of my mother’s garden. It was near the sandbox and was doubtless partially just to keep me out from underfoot but near enough to keep an eye on while she worked in the rows. I was allowed to help plan, plant, weed, and water all over, but it was especially encouraged in my plot, where flowers and things with fun leaves like a sensitive plant grew alongside a few radishes or a tomato. 

About the time I became a pre-teen, gardening became a thing to drag your feet at and avoid instead of a hobby or enjoyable activity. Who wants to pull weeds when they can ride their bike and hang out with their friends? But harvest time was different. I never ceased to wonder at the wagons of produce we pulled from that garden.

We tend to think in linear timelines; for example, we first need to gather materials, then prepare the site, plant, weed, and finally harvest. But not all activities are suitable (or interesting) for all ages and all kids. As I mentioned, even when annoyed with the rest, harvest time was always magical for me. If shopping for plants is fun for the child, but then picking stones isn’t, it’s okay to skip a step or two with them. They can learn it at a later date. When gardening, whether with kids or not, doggedly forcing something is rarely the answer.

Letting kids into the garden can introduce a little chaos. Rows may be crooked, a baby plant may get broken off, or a mud hole created. For those of us who feel like the results must be perfect, attempt to relax. Don’t worry about the outcome. Well tended and enjoyed gardens have a way of growing even when we don’t get it exactly right. 

How to Keep Kids Interested in Gardening

We all like to see progress, and new is more exciting than old. With their short attention spans, keep gardening sessions brief for younger kids. Pre-stage plants, prepare planting sites or containers, and be ready to get right to the fun part. Older kids are more suited to learning about the hard work of preparation and the patience required when waiting for seeds to sprout. 

• Tactile plants are fun for all ages, but especially for kids. Check out Sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica), Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina), and Celosia with its feathery blooms. 

• Get dirty! As adults, we often try to keep our feet dry and our hands clean–how boring. Kids love to get down and root around, play in the soil, and get their hands filthy. If they want to use their hands instead of a trowel to make a hole, let them. Look under leaves for toads, slugs, and bugs to inspect.

• Give them their own tools. Tools sized for younger kids eliminate frustration with using adult-sized hoes, spades, or trowels and make it plain that the adults want their help and participation. Who wants to be where they aren’t wanted, right? Let them take ownership of their tools, putting them away or writing their name on the handles.

• Use their favorite colors. If the child you will garden with loves red (it was my favorite color as a kid), then make sure their favorite color is included when you garden: a red-handled tool, red zinnias, red peppers, red gloves, and so on. 

Look at worms, grubs, bees, and other garden dwellers

We big, important grownups often forget the wonder we experienced as kids when looking at the segments on a worm, the stripes on a bumblebee, or the patterns on a butterfly wing as it folds and unfolds while sitting on a flower. 

Take time for show-and-tell, and if your knowledge is a bit rusty, go ahead and brush up a bit first. A four-year-old might want to look at the worm, but an eight-year-old can learn about the difference between native bees, honey bees, wasps, and hornets and what they do in the garden.

Gardening with kids isn’t limited to the garden

Many activities to get kids interested in gardening and learning about the soil, plants, bugs, and weather don’t have to be hands-in-dirt gardening. Just like we often spend a winter day gleefully pouring over seed catalogs, there are out-of-the-garden activities to enjoy with kids, too.

Ideas like drawing a flower, scavenger hunts, painting on a smock, growing plants from kitchen scraps, understanding composting (Ewww, the worms eat that?), and more are all ideas to keep the fun in gardening. 

One favorite activity for all ages is starting seeds in a clear jar. If you’ve not tried it, you might be amazed to watch the normally hidden underground processes play out. 

• Grab a clean, clear glass jar. An old pickle jar or a canning jar will work fine.

• Fill it partway with potting soil, lightly firming the soil as you fill the jar about ¾ full. 

• Grab some big seeds. Beans work well but any large seeds will work.

• Sow 3-4 seeds in the jar at the edge where you can see them through the glass.

• Add half an inch more soil to the top and water the jar, taking care to wet the soil but not cause a muddy mess. Remember, seeds won’t germinate without moisture.

• Set the jar in a warm place and watch it daily. You’ll be surprised how quickly the radicle (new root) starts to emerge well before the young plant ever pops up through the surface.

Gardening with older kids

Gardening with kids as they get older can be more challenging than when they are young. Again, the key is to keep it interesting. Combining something in the garden with what’s going on at school can be a key to getting them involved. Grade school science classes often talk about soil, rocks, rain, how plants grow, life cycles, and more. If they’ve got homework to draw the parts of a flower, take them outside and show them a tulip or zinnia with a magnifying glass (you’ll be amazed, too). 

Older kids like to be involved with the decisions, not just told what to do. Let them help you plan what to grow and learn why the tall flowers shouldn’t be planted in front of the short ones or what the differences are between full sun and partial shade.

Themed gardens are also fun with older kids. Pick something they like and work together to plan and execute (with help from you behind the scenes). Imagine a pizza garden: basil, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Maybe they love lasagna or fruit smoothies. 

Choose easy wins

Children (and adults honestly) can quickly get frustrated and lose interest. For younger children, easy wins and success are important to building a like for gardening, green plants, and seeing value in nature. 

• Choose larger seeds: leave the snapdragons and carrots to older kids. For young fingers, try sunflowers, pumpkins and squash, cucumbers, peas, corn, and beans. All grow readily from seed and are easy to plant. 

• Let them dig the holes, spread some compost, or spread some mulch in the aisles, and leave pruning tomato suckers to older hands.

• Seed tapes can be an easy way for kids to plant a whole row with success. They’re fast and easy.

• If your kid isn’t the only beginner gardener involved in this effort, you’ll likely find it easier to succeed and keep their interest by picking up a few young plants at the garden center. Bring them along to help you choose, keeping in mind the sunlight conditions where you want to garden. However, most annuals sold at garden centers do fine in full or partial sunshine. A few young flowers and a tomato plant provide instant activity and progress while the pumpkin and sunflower seeds sprout.