How to Teach a Child to Garden 3 Best Tips and Tricks

Gardening with a child can be so fun… for them. The mud, the worms, the edible plants, the mud! So. Fun. I do enjoy gardening with my daughter even though it usually means more work. Cleaning said mud, replanting the beans because she decided to walk ON the rows to sing to the plants, potty breaks every ten minutes, and being urgently called away from what I’m doing to come look at a bug or find a worm.

It’s all worth it though to be able to teach her the love of gardening and nature. She gets so excited when she pulls vegetables from the garden. And this is probably the only time in her life when I will hear her say, “Mom, can I weed with you?” She’s so cute even covered in mud. So, here are some tips I’ve found to help me get some work done with my little one.

3 Tips to Gardening with a Child

First Tip

If your potty training or recently potty trained a toddler then it a great idea to bring the little training potty into the garden. Our yard is big so by the time I raced her to the bathroom she had already had an accident. Often she didn’t want to stop playing to go inside to go potty. Bringing the potty outside saved us from further incidents.

Second- Their Own Spot

Have a little spot where they can garden all by themselves (somewhere you don’t need anything to grow.) Give them some bean or pea seeds and a play trowel and watch them go to work. You’ll be surprised by their creativity and knowledge.

Third- Help

Have them help. There are many things I have my daughter do in the garden even though she’s two. She loves to weed, just watch carefully if they are weeding by plants you want to keep.

Kids are thrilled by harvesting, I have my daughter harvest everything. They want to be told what everything is, and to smell it; and watering plants is their all time favorite. My daughter waters herself more than anything but at least she’s having fun. I love getting miniature versions of my tools for the kids Like these. Gardening with a child is so rewarding.

Bonus- Learning Together

Teach a child to garden. Kids are little sponges for information. My daughter wants to know what every plant is or what every bug can do. She knows that some plants smell good so she’s always asking to smell the plants. Learning to be patient for the plants to grow up big before we can eat them is a learning curve for sure.

Kids can understand the difference between the plants and know that they need to wait for some of the fruits to turn red before they can eat them. They also has learn, the hard way, that when they pick a plant it dies. And children learn about healthy foods by gardening. These are all amazing things for little brains to grow and learn from.

“[…]gardening is good for children. It teaches them hard work and responsibility, since a garden cannot be neglected. It’s meaningful teaching with very tangible results the children can actually eat.” -Terrie Lynn Bittner

Gardening with a Child is Rewarding

Having a child help in the garden is good for them physically as well as mentally and will help them develop. When my daughter spends the day in the garden she eats better, sleeps better and behaves better. While she’s outside she’s not learning bad behaviors from silly cartoons.

Instead of watching someone do something on tv she’s out going and doing those things herself. Gardening is fun and healthy. We love it!

What fun things do you do with your kids in the garden? Do they have a favorite plant? Check out these other posts about gardening with your children.