Gardening with children

Monek Marie

I am a firm believer in getting children top garden and adding it to school, towns, or any community areas.

One thing I do to encourage children to garden is to grow unusual veggies, flowers or plants to get them to ask questions or want to grow their own little garden area

Do you grow unusual plants that may encourage a child to want to grow?

Angel

My kids have been intrigued by veggies that aren't the standard color. We've grown white cucumbers and purple carrots, for example. Also, the name of the variety can be appealing, like Dragon Egg cucumber, Cinderella pumpkins, or Easter Basket radish mix. I let the kids pick out a variety or two to try, and they can be in charge of those plants if they want. We have discovered some real favorites this way. For an unusual flower that is fun and easy to grow, we grow cockscomb.

Monek Marie

@Angel There's a yellow cucumber that is crispy like an apple that is fun. I also have a variegated corn stalk corn.

Gourds are always fun and later I have had children dry them and paint them for Christmas Ornaments. Popcorn and ornamental corn is a surprise waiting for the colors

Cockscomb is a fun flower, so is amaranth. And edible flower make a salad exciting.

We grew scarlet runner beans this year for a fun flower colored bean.

Cornelius

I grow giant red Japanese mustard (the leaves look purple) and black popcorn (there are other colors out there like blue). I think anything purple is going to be a hit with kids.

Monek Marie

@Cornelius Kids just love color in veggies and gardening. I have a multi- colored leaf on one of my corn varieties and as many different colored lettuces as possible to encourage kids to eat salads. I grow as many small tomatoes in different colors as I can and this year I grew a red string bean to go with the green,, yellow and purple bean varieties

How large do ther leaves get on the red japanese Mustard?

Torey

This site has a ton of resources for kids gardening projects, including resources for educators. You can sign up for newsletters.

https://kidsgardening.org/

Monek Marie

@torey Thanks, I signed up and the info is great!

LaurieLovesLearning

I wanted to grow cardoon (I think that is known as elephant ear?), but haven't yet. We do grow strange colored types (all the colors of carrots, purple and pink potatoes, and lumina pumpkins, for example) and things with odd names sometimes. Mouse melon looked and sounded intriguing too, so we planted that in the past. Edible flowers certainly have the kids' interest.

We would like to try white, and purple asparagus and the white strawberries in the future.

We like to try something new to us or an absolute favorite veggie.

Cherry tomatoes and Sicilian are a good contact for size difference, and the cherry tomatoes provide a snack in the garden. You can always use snacks!

Yukon gold potatoes can be planted so that you can dig for (gold) treasure in fall.

Pole beans on a teepee of sticks & tunnels with plants are great ideas.

I also have my tropical plants indoors, those things that would never survive here...and that can be fascinating and a good learning experience, especially if one day we might get something to taste.

Sometimes it is also a matter of experimenting from "garbage seed" and see what grows. Even using whole seed household spices. Experiments encourage curiosity and are a lot of fun.

Tave

I tried to grow cardoon once. The squirrels decided to dig up the dirt and hide their acorns in that pot, and it died. Oh well.

Monek Marie

Frog houses add fun to a garden and the kids enjoy watching them. They can also learn from them about animals animlals ansd insects that help control insects in a garden area.

If you looking for fun a fairy house can add that. And you can plant small veggies around ther hosue that can be harvested and change to look of the house and yard all the time

LaurieLovesLearning

Well, our garden became construction zone yesterday. The kids figured out that they could dig dirt with their Tonka loaders, & load up their dump trucks to hill potatoes.

They had lots of fun, but we told them that there is a faster (not better of course, lol, they were creative) way & showed them how to hill those potatoes. We got a lot done & I got a prize...a nice bright sunburn, the first for me this year.