Gardening Activities With Children

It has been a long winter but spring will be here before we know it.
Now is the time to start gardening with the kids.

Gardening is an easy way to teach children about fruits and vegetables and maybe even encourage them to try something new or something they may have been reluctant to eat in the past. When they are involved in planting, watering and watching the seeds grow, they are more willing to taste the final product. You can start out by explaining that spring is the time of year that you plant your garden.

To begin you need to choose what you want to plant.
Let them help you pick out several packages of seeds when you are buying them from your local gardening store.
For older children help them make their own compost.
Explain that compost is organic material that is placed around growing plants to give them the food they need to grow big and strong just like we need food to grow.
And here's how to help them make it: Compost Recipe: Put about a quart of fruit or vegetable scraps in a clear zip lock bag.

They may even enjoy peeling a potato or carrot and adding the peels to the scraps.

Add a few handfuls of topsoil. A piece of charcoal added to the bag will help eliminate odors.
Then just close up the bag. Every few days or so, open the bag and have the child stir everything around.
In about three weeks the bag of scraps will become a bag of sweet-smelling compost.

Now they can make their own potting soil. Take one part soil, one part compost and one part vermiculite, tiny white rock like mineral that expands when heat is applied, and mix in a large bucket.

You're now ready to help them plant the seeds.

I like to do a simple herb garden. Fill the individual cups of a muffin tin with the soil they made, add several different kinds of seeds, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, sage and chives for example, one to each cup and label them so the child will know what they are looking at.
Lightly cover the seeds with soil.

Water just enough to moisten the soil in each section and place in a sunny window.
Encourage your child to tend to the plants, making sure they keep the soil moist. I find that a few squirts from a spray bottle works best to keep from over watering. They can watch the seeds grow and when the plants are big enough, snip some and add to the child's soup, sandwiches and salads.
Another way to get your child involved in growing something is to have them paint a clay pot.

They can use their imagination to come up with their own design and make this their little garden. Before painting the pot soak it in water for an hour.
Then just paint with acrylic paints. Using some more of their potting soil plant the seeds and cover lightly with soil and water. Place in a sunny window and wait for the seeds to germinate. This is their garden so they can be responsible for taking care of the plant. So get gardening with your child, there's a lot they can learn, you'll have some fun and enjoy some tasty and nutritious treats too.