Gardening isn’t just a fun hobby for adults—it’s a wonderful, hands-on way for kids to explore the natural world, develop new skills, and experience the joy of watching something grow.
It doesn’t matter if you have a huge backyard or just a small balcony with a couple containers, gardening can offer children a sense of accomplishment and a chance to connect with nature.
Our family started a backyard vegetable garden in 2021 and our two kids were so excited to be involved every step of the way.
I learned that from planting seeds to harvesting vegetables, every step in the process is a valuable learning opportunity and a way for me and my husband to connect with our daughters.
We love spending time together checking on the garden, watering plants, and yes, snacking on delicious homegrown veggies.
I don’t think the average American child gets to spend enough time in nature (even my own kids could benefit from more outdoor time!), and gardening is a fun way to get our kids (and ourselves, tbh) out there and engaging with the outside world.
In this article, I’m sharing some of my best advice and tips for gardening with kids to make it even more enjoyable for both parties! So, grab a trowel, get your hands dirty, and let’s garden together!
Tips for Gardening with Kids to Cultivate Curiosity and a Love for Nature
Gardening with kids is a fantastic way to spend time together while teaching them valuable lessons about nature, responsibility, and patience.
My goals for gardening with my own kids are
- to teach them to grow food,
- to show them how to appreciate slow, simple living,
- to cultivate curiosity, and
- to inspire a love for nature and the natural world.
Along the way, we get to spend time together, play, make memories, and talk about the things that matter to them.
Here are my top tips to make your gardening experience with kids fun, engaging, and educational.
1. Start Small and Simple
If you don’t already have a garden or if this is your first time gardening, make your first garden small and simple. Whether you’re growing in a raised bed, in the ground, or in containers, keep the set-up small and easy to manage.
Once plants get growing, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the harvest and watering.
A small garden is just as fun to grow as a big one!
2. Invite But Don’t Pressure
This is my biggest piece of advice for parents wanting to garden with their kids: invite but don’t pressure!
Actually, this tip works for a lot of situations between a parent and child!
I have heard adult friends comment that they hated gardening as a child because their parents made them do laborious tasks like weeding and picking green beans. (If you’ve ever had to pick a row of bush beans, you know exactly how tedious that is!)
Rather than nag kids to garden with you, let your kids show you how involved they want to be in the garden.
If they’re not interested, don’t force it. Continue to invite them to tend the garden or check on the plants with you, and if they come along, but don’t want to participate, then that’s fine.
Talk through what you are doing and gently invite them to try. They will jump in as soon as they are ready and willing.
My own kids’ interest levels come and go each year. Sometimes they are so excited to do all the things with me, and other times they are out there for two seconds before running off to do their own thing.
I don’t mind. They know I’m there and excited to garden with them whenever they are ready to return. In the long run, I hope that this strategy will cause them to want to garden for themselves.
I want my kids to have positive associations with the garden!
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3. Make It Hands-On
Kids love hands-on activities. Let them dig, plant, harvest, water, and show them which weeds to pull.
Often I will show them how to do a task and give them a small area to work on on their own while I do the same thing in a separate area.
For example, if I’m watering, I’ll give them a small watering can and have them fill it up themselves and water a row of plants without me.
My youngest daughter loves to help me “prune plants” as well. I just direct her to a patch of weeds and allow her to prune away. When she’s older, I’ll show her exactly what to do, but while she’s young, pruning weeds makes her happy and keeps her away from our prized vegetables and flowers.
Allow kids to garden independently to build their confidence and give them a sense of accomplishment. Try your best not to hover!
I would also recommend investing in a few child-sized gardening tools. My kids love dressing up and getting their gear on to garden was my oldest daughter’s favorite part of “gardening” when she was very young.
Here are a few things I would recommend:
- kids’ gardening gloves (choose their favorite color or a print with their favorite character)
- small watering can
- small spade
- small basket or bucket for harvesting
- kids’ hat (not really gardening-specific but totally adorable!)
4. Grow Kid-Approved Fruit & Veggie Snacks
When designing our first backyard vegetable garden, I was determined to grow fruit and veggies that my kids would love just as much as my husband and I.
Over the years, we’ve honed in on our favorites.
Some have really surprised me. My youngest daughter, for example, absolutely loves homegrown kale. One of my favorite memories is of her on all fours chomping on a kale plant like a wild animal. She was only 3 at the time.
Your kids may not like kale quite as much, but here are a few tried-and-true garden vegetables and fruits that my kids love to snack on:
- cherry tomatoes
- cucumbers
- bush beans
- carrots
- stevia
- strawberries
- raspberries
I also wrote a post about our favorite veggie varieties on my gardening blog, Not Quite a Homestead. You can read the post here if you’re curious.
5. Give Them Their Own Space
If your garden is large enough, set aside a spot for kids to have their own garden. My daughter, Elena, has her own 3’x6′ garden box where she is allowed to grow anything she wants.
She decides what to grow and I help her figure out how many plants she can fit in her garden. I do offer suggestions to help make gardening more enjoyable for her long-term, but in the end, she makes the final decision on what to grow and where to put it.
Her younger sister, Lia, is less interested in having a whole box of her own, and is satisfied with helping me decide what to grow and where to put it in our big garden.
We sit down together in late winter and she tells me all the plants she wants me to grow. Later in the spring, she gets excited when I show her the plants she picked out. She calls them “her plants” and enjoys caring for them occasionally and harvesting from them.
Another kids’ space we have in our garden is a small sandbox. It’s right by all the veggies and herbs and flowers, and the kids enjoy playing there while I garden. Sometimes, they will pick flowers and herbs to play with in their sandbox.
Something similar to this, whether it’s a sandbox, mud kitchen, or sensory bin or table, in the garden could be great to have for kids to be with you while you garden and spark their interest in gardening.
6. Make It a Sensory Experience
Engage all the senses in your garden. Grow plenty of flowers, herbs, and colorful foliage.
My kids love picking flowers and making their own bouquets.
They also love smelling the various herbs that we grow. We have a lemon thyme plant in the corner of one of our raised beds and my kids love to “pet” the plant and smell the wonderful lemony scent released.
Lavender is also a good herb to grow for the scent. Elena enjoys picking lavender flowers to put under her pillow at night.
7. Express Creativity with Garden Decor
Add fun garden decor and solar lights to personalize your garden.
Little touches like these entice kids to explore the garden. We have a little gnome that the kids like to hide in the garden for each other to find.
Garden decor is easy to DIY. Try making stepping stones or one of these plant labels together. Paint some rocks to look like bugs and display them in the garden.
You could also try making this fairy garden pot like we did! Fairy gardens are cute and easy to make and don’t take up much room. You’ll likely be able to tuck in a tiny fairy garden into your existing garden.
Garden crafts are always a fun project to do with kids.
8. Celebrate Successes & Learn from Mistakes
One of my favorite things to do when the garden is in full swing is to point out all the things on our dinner plate that we grew ourselves. If the kids helped harvest or care for the plant, I’ll mention that, too, and we’ll celebrate our homegrown food together.
At the same time, we recognize that not every plant thrives in our garden, and that’s ok. Inevitably the cucumbers get diseased, the zucchini gets powdery mildew (which my kids celebrate as they do not like zucchini!), and strong winds blow our sunflowers over.
Nature is unpredictable and wild, but the beauty of gardening is that we get to try again next year.
Gardens can teach our kids resilience and that failure is a part of learning. Perseverance leads to great rewards, and when you finally get it right, it’s the best feeling in the world!
Your Turn to Try Gardening with Your Kids
Thank you for reading this super long post!
I hope these tips and advice inspire you to garden with your kids and make memories!
If you’d like to learn more about gardening, hop over to my blog, Not Quite a Homestead!
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