How to Plant a Garden With Kids

First you need to decide whether to plant in the ground or build raised beds. We laid down cardboard layers, screwed together a few pieces of cedar, (Because we live on hard clay soil), lined it with landscape fabric and filled it with 1/3 pine bark mulch, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost. It has worked great for us. Check out the blog for benefits of gardening in raised beds.

We have over 50 raised beds and containers in our preschool garden now, but you just need a few five gallon buckets or a 3 x 3 bed to get started and teach kids everything imaginable in the garden.

Next you need to gather the kids and some seeds or seedlings or both and let them know what needs to be done. Kids as young as one plant seeds and seedlings unattended on our garden. Here we are planting onion sets. Check out the blog for some help in planting with very young kids.

Help them grab one seed at a time and show them where and how you want them planted. They love planting seeds and picking produce. It's a great learning experience.

Then let them work at it until they get it all planted. A few seeds may go awry here and there, but you can either fix it or chalk it up to learning. Being laid back is a must when gardening with kids. The garden isn't going to be perfect. It shouldn't be either!

Soon, you'll have things popping up and growing bigger.

Before you know it, your kids will be harvesting all kinds of things from the garden. They and you will be in love with growing! There is so much you can teach them in the garden about watering, weeding, and tending the crops they grow.

Check out this eager garden crew. Could they be any cuter?

There are tons of articles on the blog to help you in your gardening with kids journey, check it out at Little Sprouts Learning!