Gardening with kids is always an adventure and almost always a great way for kids and adults both to learn about gardening and nature. Is there anything better than a child discovering the seed she planted is now sprouting? Or perhaps the look of utter joy when they taste that first delicious strawberry of the season?
Gardening with kids can also test our patience at times. Though they mean well, it’s not unheard of to find that when they pulled all those weeds, the sunflowers came up, too. Of course, that’s really a lesson for us to slow down and remember that gardening with kids is supposed to be fun.
One thing it’s important for adults to understand is that gardening with kids, which seems like the most fun you can have in the backyard, isn’t all that fascinating to the average child with the attention span of a peanut. Or maybe like Anita B. Stone learned in The Little Girl With the Hose, it’s more fascinating than we realize.
Gerald Burke explores a similar question in Kids and Gardening. Will your kids remember gardening with you fondly or is that just another activity gone with the wind of technology?
Beware, though! Not all stories of gardening with kids are just about sharing the love of gardening. Sometimes, the kids team up to trick us. Deborah Young’s story, Outsmarting Mother, is a perfect example of what happens when our kids put their brains together and teach parents a thing or two. But mom is smarter than they think.
When you’re gardening with kids, you might be planting more memories than vegetables. And that’s okay.
Feel free to stay a while and enjoy all the stories we have about gardening with kids, below. And be sure to check out our Gardening with Kids Collection while you’re here, which features a hand-picked selection of our favorite stories from this category.
Imagine buying a home and finding out that someone planted you a surprise garden! I find many sweet stories of mini gardeners when I page through our library of GreenPrints issues, but as the mom of a little sunflower-lover, this one touches my heart a little extra. In this story, “Secret Sunflowers” by Mary Anglin-Coulter, […]
Moms are always up to their tricks, aren’t they? Brush your teeth, wash your hair, eat your dinner. What was up with that? All grown up with kids and grandkids of our own we realize that as young gardeners, our moms weren’t trying to torture us with cavity-free teeth or full bellies, it was just […]
Whether it’s a grandmother’s or mother’s garden, the gardens we remember from childhood are almost always places we can return to in our minds to find a moment of peace or calm. If we’re lucky, we can even go there in person. In story after story as I’ve read through the GreenPrints archives, I see […]
While reading today’s story, I am reminded of my own children when they were young, and how they were always watching and listening, even if they weren’t particularly interested in what we were doing. Gardening with kids is really no different. With no handheld technology in those days, it was quite easy to get children […]
There’s no better friend than a gardening friend. I say that because one good tip from a gardening friend is worth a lifetime in the garden. For example, let’s talk about composting since today’s story is all about composting (and neighborhood raccoons, and a compost smoothie). A few composting facts you might not know: a […]
I like to think that I’ve done my job as a gardener to at least inspire curiosity in my daughter about gardening. Gardening with kids isn’t always pretty, but it’s worthwhile if they’re into it. In the spring, she helps pull up old plants, dig holes, and plant seeds. We make our way out into […]
Trees are honestly a force of nature. Sometimes, I find it so hard to fathom how these giant beings can sprout from a teeny, tiny seed. But here they are, making our world a much more beautiful place to live in! The average life cycle of a tree lasts 300-400 years, which is incredible, but […]
I picked today’s piece, “Radishes,” for everyone who has ever had a little garden helper or has tried gardening with kids. For me, it’s my daughter, who has been my cherry tomato picker since she was able to walk. She could slice soft veggies with a butter knife at the age of two! Whenever I’m […]
Gardening with children is always an adventure. Don’t get me wrong. I love spending time in the garden with my daughter. And as we’ve gardened together, she’s learned more and more. Like many young gardeners, she even has her own set of gardening tools and some specific jobs. As you might imagine, I try to […]
I remember watching a film strip (yes, I’m old) in grade school that showed me how people wasted up to four gallons of water if they left the faucet on while brushing their teeth. That same filmstrip highlighted the environmental benefits of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Since then, my environmental sustainability efforts happen in small steps, especially in the garden.
