Chandra,

I do lots of things to involve my kids in gardening. I'll toss out a few now and add to the thread as time allows.

Last year I bought the Burpee seeds with Disney characters on them. Although I paid a bit more for the packaging than I would have liked, nothing says fun like Tow-mater. The kids received these seeds in their Christmas stockings. I have extras I will be pleased to send you. You can also grow varieties that sound kid friendly. Jelly Bean tomato, Hansel and Gretel eggplant, North Pole lettuce, etc.

The kids make the seed mats for carrots, radishes, turnips, etc. Water soluble glue is a great mid-winter distraction.

I have the kids paint the ends of popsicle sticks in appropriate colors. When it's time to put the tomatoes in the ground, the red popsicle sticks are already in place. This speeds things up for me, and the kids stay more engaged in planting the tomatoes when they don't have to wait on Mom to determine placement. In the past I have used them for everything, including beans. This year, however, I built your Spacemasters and will show them how to count empty spaces between squares. We planted onions with the Spacemaster and the kids loved it. By the way, I built two, one with 4" squares and one with 3" squares. This will accomodate all kinds of spacing.

I have found my favorite kid gardening tools and gloves over the years at Tuesday Morning.

When I got out my seeds to count and take inventory, my youngest followed suit to count his Disney beans. They have been counted every day since New Year's and he can't wait to put them in the ground. Likewise, he draws on graph paper when I'm at work on mine.

My library has a wonderful collection of kid themed gardening books. We read them to talk about the life cycle of beans and pumpkins and sunflowers.

I tried one year to make the classic sunflower house from sunflowers and morning glories. The deer ate the sunflowers just as they started to bloom and I now have a morning glory weed problem. Your mileage in city will likely vary.

I have also grown green beans on a teepee with an open side. One kid loves it, the other bemoans ticks, spiders and snakes.

Give the kids a small fluffy paint brush to tickle the cucumber and squash blossoms in morning (aiding pollination). I paint the ends of each brush in an appropriate color (orange for pumpkin, green for cucumber,etc.) and let them have at it.

For the life of me I don't know why the youngest loves "picking weeds" but he does, and he also loves getting to carry the bucket by himself to the compost pile.

My mother always let my kids plant zinnias. THey are so quick to come up and always such happy flowers. My daughters favorite garden flower is the snapdragon, She loved to operate the "jaws" Hollyhock flowers made the perfect ballerina dress. My grand daughter loves looking for the caterpillars on dill and parsley. She has to count them every day. They are moving a bit closer to me and I can't wait to get them here and let them "help" in the garden
mo

Chandra,

There are so many ways you can make gardening fun for kids and Seedmama listed several of my favorites. When Chris was little, my sister's son and daughter lived very close to us and they all spent lots of time together in our backyard, so I always tried to have interesting plants for them to enjoy.

We used to make supersized bean teepees using 10' long poles, leaving a wide opening on one side to serve as a door. In addition to planting purple pole beans on it (just because kids love veggies that are different colors from the usual ones), we planted small gourds and mini-pumpkins like Jack-B-Little. One year, instead of planting a vining type of plant around the bean teepee, we planted tall indeterminate cherry tomato varieties like Sweet Million and tied the tomato plants to the teepee poles as they grew.

Pumpkins are great for kids as are winter squash. If you scratch their names into the pumpkin skin while it is still somewhat small, the name grows as the pumpkin grows.

We also planted the sunflower house, but with a fence around it to keep the deer away. I just rototilled up an area away from the main garden (to keep the morning glories from taking over too much) and when each sunflower was about two feet tall, we hammered a 6' tall stake into the ground beside it so we could stake the sunflowers as they grew. We planted the morning glory seed at the same time. I've also done it with Black-eyed Susan Vine with flowers that matched the color of the sunflowers, and with purple hyacinth bean vines. One year we did it with red, white and blue morning glories and another year we did it with cypress vine and cardinal climber vines. You also could use edible pole beans instead of morning glories.

One year I used flat concrete stepping stones in the kid section of the garden and painted them with concrete paint from the craft store, numbering them to be used for hopscotch.

Kids have always loved sunflowers and I always put some really tall sunflowers in an area away from the garden. If you sow the seed 2'-3' feet apart and use some of the taller types (I have used Kong and SunForest in recent years), the sunflowers create a forest for the children to play in. I also plant a border of the 2-3' tall sunflowers because kids get a big kick out of being taller than a sunflower.

For many years after we moved here, Tim's best friend would bring his grandson over to visit the garden, and the young boy especially loved the lily pond with its water lilies, frogs, tadpoles and dragonflies, and he loved, loved, loved to search the watermelon bed for watermelons. I always planted small melons like Blacktail Mountain, Yellow Doll and Sugar Baby because they mature quickly compared to larger watermelons and because they were small enough that after we harvested one, he could carry it to the pickup truck himself. Another watermelon variety kids find fascinating is Moon and Stars.

Kids have been fascinated with purple kohlrabi and white kohlrabi when I grew it. I think mainly because the kohlrabi plants just look so odd.

Hollyhocks are fun to grow and you can make hollyhock dolls from the flowers. I liked single flowers instead of doubles for the dolls.

There's a couple of great books by Sharon Lovejoy that include all sorts of gardening projects you can do with kids. One of them that I read long ago was called "Sunflower Houses" and another one was called "Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots". Now that she is a grandmother, she has some newer books with more kid projects in them.

One year we planted a rainbow bed with flowers and veggies arranged in single-colored rows in the same order the colors are found in the rainbow. Finding green flowers was a challenge but there are a few, including Green Wizard Rudbeckia, Bells of Ireland and zinnia. I enjoyed that so much that after we moved here, for several years I had a similar rainbow pattern in my veggie garden with separate beds for each color of the rainbow. I've also done the same thing with flower plantings outside the fenced garden.

We always planted dill, fennel and parsley for the swallowtails so the kids could watch the caterpillars eat and grow.

Kids love oddball flowers that are different from what you see "everywhere", so we planted lots of amaranths and celosias, both the plumed types and the crested types. Two varieties that were especially popular with the kids were Elephant Head Amaranth and Love-Lies-Bleeding Amaranth, which comes in both a green and a red-flowered variety. They also loved the old-fashioned Amish Cockscombs that often had flower heads that were roughly 12" long and maybe 4 to 6" wide. My mom even grew that one for us when we were children.

Don't forget night-blooming flowers. If you plant 4 o'clocks, the kids will be fascinated with how the blooms open at about the same time every day. We planted (and still do plant) moonflower vine (Ipomoea alba) for the evening blooms, and tall flowering nicotianas like N. sylvestris to attract hummingbird moths in the evenings. Kids of all ages from 9 months to 99 years love watching the hummingbird moths.

We always planted flowers together in one area near the hummingbird feeder to attract the hummingbirds, including coral honeysuckle, cardinal climber, cypress vine, Scarlet O'Hara morning glories and red-flowered salvias and nasturtiums.

With very small children who may accidentally destroy your regular garden, a very small garden of their own often keeps them busy and happy and gives them a place to dig and make a mess without tearing up your garden beds. For young children, a couple of window boxes placed on the ground give them lots of dirt to plant in, and you can put small carrots, radishes and small-flowered zinnias like Thumbalina in the window boxes.

Some kids are fascinated by herbs and enjoy all the different scents of the various plants. If you plant a few mint plants of different kinds, you can teach the kids to collect mint leaves, bring them inside and wash them before making mint tea or just adding a few mint leaves to a glass of tea.

Kids who visited my garden always seemed fascinated by blue flowers and I think that is because blue flowers are more rarely seen. For blue flowers, we always planted Heavenly Blue morning glories, several blue forms of salvia, bachelor buttons, scabiosa and borage.

Chocolate-scented flowers like chocolate daisy and chocolate cosmos are fun for kids, and there are a lot more flowers with chocolate in their names nowadays, though often it is referring to dark-colored flowers and not necessarily to the scent of the flowers.

Several years ago son married a young woman who had a very young daughter. Sadly, the marriage didn't last, but we still have the Peter Rabbit Garden that our then-stepdaughter Maddie, Tim and I planted together when she was two or three years old. It has a picket fence and raised beds, and many garden accents including a concrete rabbit statue and a birdbath with a rabbit as part of its base. We read a young child's version of the tale of Peter Rabbit getting into Farmer McGregor's garden, and then planted our little Peter Rabbit garden with plants described in the book, including peas and strawberries. Maddie loved "her" garden, but she wanted to do things a little differently. She wanted to leave the garden gate open at night so the rabbits could come inside her garden and eat. We compromised by closing the gate, but by putting out little piles of hen scratch and rabbit food for the wild rabbits on the outside of the garden fence. She took her job of feeding the rabbits seriously and went outside every evening when she was here so she could feed the rabbits. I had to promise her I would feed the rabbits every night when she wasn't at our house, and she always asked me "have you been feeding my rabbits?" as if they were her own pets and not the wild cottontails. Indeed, the cottontails wore out little rabbit paths coming from the pastures to eat at their little piles of feed for several years, and I still feed the rabbits in the winter and during drought, but I feed them far away from the house and garden.

There are so very many ways that kids can enjoy gardening with you. As they get older, often their focus will change and will move away somewhat from the garden itself. Still, even when that happens, you can keep them involved in some form of gardening. For instance, many science fair projects can be done with plants.

Our son was very interested in gardening until he was old enough to get his driver's license! After that, he generally just waved at me as he drove past the garden on his way someplace more exciting. lol When he was in high school, our garden became incredibly popular at one point with his friends because they had to make an insect collection. Because we were organic gardeners who had not tried to exterminate every bug in sight, it was easy to find enough insects to do the bug collection in one or two trips to the garden and many kids over the years, including Tim's co-workers' kids from the Dallas area, put together great insect collections from our garden and yard. As Chris got older, when friends of his who were girls came over to the house, they always oohed and aahed over the flowers, especially the sunflowers, and I think he got a kick out of that.

Remember too that kids love all the little lizards, toads, frogs, etc. that are attracted to the garden to eat the bugs. We have a resident turtle that lives in the potato bed every year and eats potato bugs. Kids who visit the garden love to watch that turtle. I don't know if it is the same turtle, or a different turtle every year, but there's always a turtle on patrol for potato bugs.

Really, I have found kids love everything about gardening because it is a way to get them outside playing and having adventures. We always had child-sized gardening tools, gloves and hats. We still have the little metal wheelbarrow I ordered for Chris from Johnny's Select Seeds (you couldn't find much gardening stuff like that for kids in the 1980s in local stores), and it must be about 20-25 years old now. I see similar wheelbarrow at feed stores now, but wonder if they'll last as long as his has. It never rusted out too much and still has its original tire and paint job. This year I am going to plant some sort of flower in that little wheelbarrow.

Dawn

Good for you & your daughter! Gardening with kids is one of the best things in life.

This year, my kids are each getting their own raised beds, 4' x 40'. Six of those suckers, one for each kid, spread across the front yard. They enjoy having their own seed stashes but, of course, still go shopping at Mom's Seed Store anytime they feel the need. And going to stores? They sneak more seed packets in the cart than I do!

They're fully involved in the family garden and always have been, from planning & seed ordering to harvest & seed saving. And, of course, all of the stuff in between like weeding and bug picking. This year's addition of their very own beds just makes it all the cooler for them. They're in such a frenzy over it!

Three of them have chosen gardening for one of their 4-H projects, along with entrepreneurship. They are determined to raise huge amounts of veggies and sell them, making a fortune in the process. I've tried to downsize those "fortune" goals a wee bit so they're not disappointed but they're still as worked up as can be. LOL

I hope you'll post pics of the rainbow garden as it grows!

Diane

Seedmama,Mo and Dawn,

Thanks for all those tips and ideas. Those are very nice suggestions, those are very excited things to for my daughter as well as for me and dw. I love ideas about the sunflower house, name of on the pumpkin, hollyhock dolls, paint brush tickle pollinator, night-blooming flowers, colorful vegetables and flowers...

Caterpillars and butterflies are Tanu's favorite pets. Last weekend she was searching for the caterpillar in the garden, she didn't find any, then she adopted few grubs as her pets. She placed grubs in pot and placed few leaves on them. I told her little bit about grub life's cycle and habitat, then she put soil and compost in the box.

I wish to cultivate our kids to learn about healthy food production and joy of nature. Most of the modern generation parents push their kids to white collar jobs, how I ended up into engineering but I was more interested in plant breeding and sustainable earth sciences. We have more engineers and doctors than gardeners. But why can't we teach our kids about the importance of the "green world"?

I am working on the earth observation for the global food security. Food scenario for future generation is not looking good especially in developing countries. Ever increasing food consumption, we have been creating wider gap in supply and demand. One scenario says, generation of the next decade will spend more than 1/3 of our total income on food only and another 1/3 for health services which in turn about 1/5 of the health issues are linked to food we consume. We will be going to work hard and hard, day and night to earn enough to buy daily groceries and pay medical insurance and left out $$ for rest of the all needs. Isn't necessary to show the path (push) for next generation about the green peace?

Regards -Chandra

Diane,

that's is cool, kids can buy toys form their own earning! They can sell fresh veggies in the neighborhood instead of the standard lemonade. Your kids involvement in 4-H projects sounds great. I don't know much about it, but I heard about it a year ago during one of the USDA conference. I need to Google it for more info.

-Chandra

Chandra,

I would give them their own plot with several beds. One for berries, one for flowers, etc.

Add a small kid sized wooden bench like this one (I bought the same one for $39 somewhere last year). http://www.walmart.com/ip/Band-Kiddy-Bench/9107804

Add some twinkling solar lights and a kiddie garden sculpture....

If you want to make it truly magic, make them their own kid sized garden fence and arbor/entrance.

PS I have been LUSTING after these hopscoth stones/pavers FOREVER.

{{gwi:1082177}}

Jo

fairy houses and toad houses :)

Jo,

Kid sized garden fence and arbor/entrance could be a nice addition. That hopscoth pavers are awesome,any idea where I can buy them? She already have many twinkling solar lights.

regards -Chandra

Chandra, some sculptor in Oregon makes them, and if I recall correctly they cost over a thousand bucks, then you'd have to pay to get them shipped. So they are pretty outrageous. I keep hoping I will see something similar and much cheaper locally, but nothing so far.

Jo