Container Gardening

It is never too early to start involving your children with your gardening. There are great lessons for children to learn from the garden, and it is a fun activity for them, too. The more your toddlers are involved with your activities, the more quality time they get with you, and the easier it is for you to keep them occupied.

Gardening with toddlers or other small children is very different from gardening with older children. Tasks must be carefully chosen for them, and they have to be supervised. Keep in mind that many tasks we don’t think of as dangerous can be harmful to very young children.

A great first step when starting your kids gardening is getting them the right equipment. Find a pair of toddler-sized gardening gloves just for them, such as these KID’S GARDENING GLOVES (Small) by Toysmith, which will fit ages 3-5. eBay, incidentally, is a great place to search if you need something smaller: you can find cheap gloves there for 2-and-ups as a rule.

You can also get your child his or her own set of child-sized gardening tools. Working with adult tools can be hard for little hands, which aren’t able to grip handles or get leverage the way adults can. Fortunately, there are some great sets of usable tools sized for kids out there. You can also find miniature rakes, watering cans, and wheelbarrows. For your kids, gardening will be more fun with more toys, just like it is for you!

So now that you have your tools, what do you do with them?

Planting with kids can be a really fun project for them and easy for you. Dig holes in the ground and let your child plant the seeds or seedlings in the holes. If you are planting rows this way, prepare to use a lot of seeds: toddlers can have a hard time with moderation, and will often sow very heavily. Don’t worry, though! Many of them also really enjoy thinning seedlings. Watching the seeds come up from the ground and grow bigger every day is very exciting for young children, especially if they link the plants they see to the vegetables they eat.

If you are going to plant from seedlings, you can get your children involved in selecting the seedlings. When I go with my son to garden centers and nurseries, I tell him what to look for in a plant and let him select the seedlings for us to plant. Focus on terms your child can understand, whatever level he or she is at. Tell them to look for plants without brown leaves, plants with lots of leaves, tall plants, short plants, whatever is right for your chosen plant type. Once they’ve chosen, let them carry it to the register to pay for it.

Try to look at the garden with your kids every day. Show them what changes have been happening. Point out the flowers that form on the vegetable plants, or the early green dots that will grow into tomatoes. Teach them about how to keep a garden alive, how to water and fertilize it. Let them help with daily tasks.

From gardening, kids learn about patience, diligence, and being gentle. It shows them some of the wonders of nature, and it can get them started early on a love of science. For kids, gardening is a constant experience of wonder and amazement, finding new bugs, watching plants grow and change. It is also an opportunity for them to spend time with you.

Don’t pass it up.