One thing I am anxiously awaiting about the spring is the opportunity to start our first vegetable garden! Unfortunately, I do not have a green thumb, and my somewhat pitiful previous attempts have not yielded many results. Before Little Lion came along I never could find the motivation to learn about what it takes to be successful and to get out there in the dirt.
But now that I am a parent, I am seeing gardening in a new light… not as a chore, but as an activity with many wonderful benefits. As a stay at home mom I know that I will have more time than parents who also have full time jobs, but I hope I can convince you that gardening with your kids is worth it, even if all you have time for is a couple small pots on your porch.
1. It can be easy! – As I have started researching for our own garden, I am learning that getting started doesn’t have to be as hard as I thought! Container gardens can produce vegetables and flowers just as easily as large flower beds. Children don’t need a huge plot of land to reap the benefits of gardening. It is okay to start small! A small container garden can easily be maintained with short amounts of time in the afternoon or on weekends.
2. It draws out children’s natural curiosity- Watching a seed change to a plant before their eyes is pure magic to children. Plants that grow and change quickly will be especially miraculous to little ones.
3. It teaches children to be gentle – Children old enough to understand cause and effect will learn quickly how fragile their small plants are. Most children will want to nurture and care for their plants, and will go to great lengths to use their “gentle hands” when working in their garden.
4. It teaches children to be patient – Plants take time to grow and develop. Children will want to see results right away, but gardening provides an opportunity to show children that sometimes things take time, and that the results are worth the wait.
5. It connects us with nature – In today’s go-go-go world, it is easy to become disconnected from the natural world around us. More and more time is spent inside. Gardening is an opportunity to get outdoors, to dig our hands in the dirt, and to experience the earth in a unique way.
6. It is a chance to get messy – As long as you are gardening without chemicals, there is no reason not to allow your children to dig their hands into the soil. Playing in the dirt is an incredible sensory experience!
7. It is a chance for the even smallest children to produce something tangible and important – Children thrive when they are allowed to participate in meaningful work. Seeing the results of that work over time helps build a child’s confidence and self esteem in a very authentic way.
8. It provides children a safe place to try new things and experiment (important science skills!) – Children are full of questions and are constantly wondering about what would happen if variables changed (“I wonder what would happen if we didn’t water our plant today.” “What would happen if I planted these in the shade instead of in the sun?”) Gardening gives them a safe place to experiment when we are willing to give them the independence to test their theories.
9. It provides authentic opportunities for reading and writing – Children who are invested in their garden will want to learn more about how to care for it, or about why certain things are happening. This is an incredible opportunity for research. Children can also journal and draw about what is happening in their garden.
10. It encourages children to try the foods they grow! – Kids can’t wait to taste the vegetables that they grow themselves! They may discover that they like things that they were unwilling to try before. And what kid doesn’t need a few more veggies in their diet.
Since we don’t have any pictures of Little Lion in our garden yet, I asked some friends to share pictures of their kiddos doing some gardening for this post instead Thanks for sharing your cuties!
Do you garden with your little ones?
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
I have tried and failed at gardening several times (pots on porch) but this post has me tempted to try again.
blogger / coconut / 8306 posts
This is perfect timing! After we cleared out our backyard last summer, we decided to start a garden & landscape the rest of the yard.
Were really excited to garden for the first time, and Chloe is having fun telling us what she’d like to plant! If it were up to her, we’d have a garden full of green beans.
guest
Mia loves to garden. Every year she gets out there with her daddy planting the seeds with a little cow manure, wearing her princess garden gloves. She is especially excited when the veges start to come in. One year we got a 22lb pumpkin that we painted for Halloween.
Best of luck this year.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
YAY! We had a veg garden at our last house and can’t wait to start one at the new house this Spring!
It’s super important to me that LO knows food doesn’t come prepackaged from the grocery store so this is definitely something that will be a big part of our lives.
@Mrs. Jump Rope: M loves green beans too and they do really well in our climate!
pomelo / 5621 posts
I can’t wait to garden this spring! We have done some amazing porch gardens all in pots and now this year we have our very own yard to garden in. I think it will be a great experience for DS.
grape / 90 posts
Amen to #10! My little guy was pretty small this past summer, but he was able to toddle out to the garden with me and he learned pretty quickly that there are tasty snacks to be had: he’d beg me for tomatoes and snap peas, so of course I would oblige. I don’t recall many snap peas actually making it in to the house…
I’m looking forward to when he can help more. I loved helping my dad with the garden when I was a kid.
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
I’ve kept a veggie garden off and on for years. I gave it a lot more attention before I had a child though! The year he was younger than 1 year and the year I was pregnant were difficult. I just didn’t have the energy to be out there when I was preg, and he never liked being in a pack and play so I only gardened while he was napping. It was too much to get ‘real’ work done and have a baby to tend to. This year he is walking so maybe it will be easier for us to enjoy together!
coffee bean / 48 posts
I tried a square foot garden a few years ago and it did pretty well, most of it went to waste though because I wasn’t very honest with myself about what veggies we *really* eat.
we’ve been getting a CSA for a while now though so I feel like I’m more in touch with out actual veggie consumption.
I also tried growing herbs in pots and that was a big failure, I think small pots that get a lot of sun dry out too easily for my novice self to maintain. I had a lot more luck this year buying some 6′ cedar fencing boards (not pressure treated) and constructing 3 ft x 1 ft boxes to grow herbs in. That worked great! It was so nice to walk 6 steps out of the kitchen and grab a handful of thyme and parsley for whatever I was cooking. I’m definitely going to try again on the bigger square foot garden boxes this year, my 9 month old already loves getting her little hands dirty in my herb boxes!