Children enjoy planting and watching things grow. By giving them a little garden space or a planter to grow vegetables and flowers in you can teach them about nature and also spend time with them.
photo credit: davidsilver
If you have a larger garden by encouraging them to grow their own plants you will encourage a new gardener and be able to keep an eye on them.
My nephew always had a corner of the garden. They grew a few plants and also had a garden complete with trucks, tractors and plastic animals. It was the most unique spot in the garden but they enjoyed it and a few crops managed to grow. They also took home a few plants to grow and enjoyed showing them off to the neighbors.
Some of the best plants for children to grow are:
Beans. They are easy to grow and fun to watch. The pole beans will fascinate them.
Pumpkins. Watching a small seed turn into their Halloween pumpkin is fun and seeing it start out green and turn orange will amaze them. Plant a few plants just in case a pumpkin doesn’t do well start out green and turn orange as they ripen.
Summer squash or cucumbers are fun to watch and produce vegetable quickly.
photo credit: BaylorBear78 – off for a while – hope to be back s
Lettuce grows fast and they will feel they are doing well in the garden when there is a crop to harvest. They may also learn to like salad!
Three Sisters Garden – Grow a traditional Native American style garden with corn, squash and beans. Check out this link for a three sisters article: Three Sisters Garden – Historical Theme Garden
Flowers. A few fun flowers for children are marigolds, morning glories, daisies, and sunflowers. They grow well and have nice color.
There are many more vegetables and flowers that are good for children to grow. The list above is just a starting point.
Gardening should be fun. By mixing some work with learning you can teach your child working with plants is rewarding.
Leave a Reply