Gardening with Kids!

By Victoria Fuller

It’s officially the summer holidays! As joyous and exciting as this is, it can mean that for those of us with children we are faced with the daily question: how on earth am I supposed to keep them entertained until September? This is where we are happy to provide a brilliant suggestion (even if we do say so ourselves): gardening!

Gardening can provide kids a great creative outlet while also helping to encourage structure and patience, it’s truly a win-win! So today we are going to give some tips on how to encourage your little ones to discover and nurture their green thumbs!

• Make sure they have their own tools! You don’t have to break the bank here at all as most dollar stores carry child-size gardening tools, but it can really make the little-uns feel included when they have their own little trowels and spades (also they’re adorable so that’s a plus as well)

• Design a gardening plan together! Kids love feeling involved and having their ideas heard! Some ideas for this can be planning out which herbs, flowers, vegetables, and shrubs you are going to plant. You could do a Jurassic Park themed planter with lots of tropical plants, or an Animal Crossing themed planter with some of the in-game flowers featured! Whatever your kids are interested in there’s definitely a way to incorporate this interest into your garden to keep them hooked from the get-go!

• Create a sense of adventure - This doesn’t have to be anything overly extravagant, it can be as simple as adding some cardboard boxes around your Cedar Planters raised garden bed to create a make-shift fort or den! Encouraging our kid’s imaginations and excitement around gardening is important and if we can make gardening feel like play (which it truly is!) we can nurture the hobby for years to come

• Grow exciting plants - Between beautiful bright blooming flowers and carnivorous plants you can recreate your favourite fairy tales and stories right in your own backyard! If we can make gardening feel like an adventure unto itself then it’s quite possible that our kids will want to continue playing at gardening all while actually contributing the whole time!

• Grow your own food - Kids love the satisfaction of knowing that they actually helped create the food that they are eating! Also it can be a lot easier to convince them to eat their veggies when they themselves helped cultivate them! Some vegetables only take 1-2 months to come to harvest so it’s not too late in the season to start, especially if you purchase transplantable plants from your local garden center.

• Encourage your kids to customize their own raised garden bed - With a Cedar Planters raised garden bed the possibilities are endless with ways to make the planter box your own, you could encourage the little ones to paint the sides of the box or include their favourite outdoor-safe figurines in their own personal jungle!

• Get your kids involved in building! Our raised garden beds are so easy to assemble that we are confident you could have your kids help you put yours together, the satisfaction of knowing that they helped is sure to get them hooked on gardening!

• Have them help with the harvest! With child-friendly scissors they can help you pick all of the incredible veggies that you will grow together!

We hope that these tips have given you some ideas and inspiration for ways to include your kids in your gardening adventures! If you have any further tips that you would like to share with the community feel free to send them over to us!