Gardening For Children

Each year, during the winter, I sit down with my girls and we plan our garden. I find so much pleasure as they joyfully make their seed selections. Seeing a 5 year old get excited about kale and carrots makes me smile.

As we await the arrival of our vegetable seeds (I order them online)we make our way out to our square foot beds to prepare them for spring.

Don't forget your worm bin! Worm bins are super fun for kids.

I use my little Black and Decker cordless garden cultivator(my favorite garden machine) to gently till the beds, then we add in manure and of course worm castings. Then we top the bed with 2-3" of straw or mulch to await planting.

We germinate our seeds by placing hard seeds in a wet paper towel then place them in a plastic bag in a warm place for a few days until they sprout, all other seeds go directly into pots with our starter mix soil.

When they are all ready to plant, we simply move some mulch aside and plant the seedlings. Each of my kids have their own square foot bed to plant as they wish. Next we water, wait, water, wait. And every 6-8 weeks I make compost tea and use it as a foliar spray and root drench for my entire garden. The kids love using the pump up sprayer and take turns nourishing all of our plants with the nutrient rich worm tea.

And before we know it we have a yummy healthy harvest.

Here are some fun garden activities for kids:

• Pick seeds/help with planning
• Preparing the beds
• Planting the seedlings
• Weeding the garden
• Daily watering of the garden
• Applying compost tea
• HARVESTING and EATING!

Here are some great books to encourage little gardeners:

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