Before kids, we lived on 5 acres in the middle of nowhere that we made a greenhouse and converted half an acre into a beautiful luscious garden!
One of our favorite things to do in the summer is to have a cookout with food that we just minutes ago harvested from our garden. Our garden literally is sometimes where the best memories are made!
We want to instill this same love of gardening into our kids. This year, my girls have seen their dad and I preparing the garden in the early spring, planting rows of seeds and weeding crab grass and dandelions out of our raised vegetable beds.
This is one of my favorite photos of Aubrey a few years ago after picking a carrot from the garden! She was only two years old at the time. Her dad has the same photo that I plan on putting into a collage.
Did you know that June was Get Outdoors month? We’ve been encouraging them to explore the outdoors by showing them how to have fun in the garden and demonstrating to them the fruits of their hard work!
The girls are now old enough to comprehend results of the work they put in – especially now seeing the cycle of gardening from seed to harvest. With the fall planting season around the corner, I wanted to incorporate a fun outdoor garden theme craft with them.
It is so easy to get your kids excited about going outside and helping with your own garden! Here are five tips to help encourage your littles on having fun and getting dirty in the garden!
5 Tips on How to Garden with Your Little One
1. Let them help you weed. I will forewarn you on this one - you will lose some of your good plants. My girls love helping with this job!
2. Choose a plant with an early harvest date. This will provide that initial momentum of showing them how a little hard work pays off. Vegetables that qualify for this include lettuce, peas and beans!
3. Let them eat directly from the garden! Obviously, wash their hands and rinsing as necessary prior to letting them eat it.
4. Teach them how to cook with the vegetables. Kids love helping in the kitchen especially with the harvest! Show them how. Aubrey loved mashing these potatoes she harvested!
5. Do some fun garden crafts with pots! Have your kids decorate some pots and let them grow some plants in containers so they can have their very own plants they are responsible for. Have them use their imagination on what they could use to decorate their pots!
All of these tips may make for some growling bellies after hard work!
Gardening Ideas to Inspire You
- How to Make an Outdoor Fairy Garden
- Easter Basket Gift Ideas for Gardeners
- What to Expect First Year Gardening
- Covered Outdoor Living Space
- How to Garden with Kids
- Gutter Gardening with Lettuce (Upcycled Rain Gutters)
- How to Incorporate an Existing Sprinkler into a Backyard Garden
