Hey there, it’s Julie here.
People of all ages can enjoy gardening, but kids in particular can have lots of fun! What kid does not love to be outdoors, dig in the dirt, and spend time with an adult they love? We learned to garden at an early age from our parents. We learned about growing perennials, annuals, herbs, and vegetables. Being introduced to gardening as kids “planted the seed” (sorry, could not resist), which led us to a lifetime love affair with digging in the dirt.
Gardening is educational and develops new skills. For example, kids can learn responsibility by caring for plants, understanding that plants will die if they don’t get water. They will gain confidence as they achieve their goals and enjoy the food or flowers they have grown. Kids can learn about nutrition and where fresh food comes from.
When my boys were little, they often helped in the garden. We would typically plant carrot and cucumber seeds along with herbs in pots. In the summer, it was fun being able to send one of my boys to the backyard to pick a cucumber for our salad. Our first summer in our new home, we planted carrot and cucumber seeds as usual. We watched the carrots grow and waited to harvest them in the fall. We were so surprised when we pulled out the carrots. We discovered that the carrots were round. We laughed so hard and we called them “baseball” carrots. We did not realize the area where we had planted the seeds had a lot of clay, which did not allow the carrots to root deep into the soil. Luckily, I was able to use this as a lesson and taught the boys about amending the soil. The following year, we added compost and broke down the clay soil. Now that the boys are teenagers, we can look back at these fond memories we spent together outdoors. That time together was priceless.
Gardening is the perfect bonding experience for kids and their parents or grandparents! It is such an amazing way to get the kids off of video games and to instead get physical activity while doing something fun and productive. Take them to the garden center and let them pick out plants, or grab some of these fun products from Amazon. We highly recommend getting your kids interested in gardening!