Spring marks the beginning of longer daylight hours, warmer temperatures and, of course, planting season! Many Wisconsinites enjoy planting a seasonal garden of fruits and vegetables. With ever-expanding options for container gardening, it doesn’t even require much space. Even better than enjoying fresh, homegrown food is that engaging your kids in garden planning, planting, maintenance and harvesting opens up a whole new world for them. Gardening gets your kids outside into the fresh air and sunshine, exposes them to a variety of foods and promotes their natural curiosity about food and how food systems work.
As a pediatric clinical dietitian, I've witnessed firsthand how engaging children in gardening can transform their relationship with food and nourishment. For the last three years, I’ve volunteered for the garden program at a local women’s shelter. Every year, I underestimate the kids’ excitement when it comes to gardening. It is a completely novel concept to them, and they bombard me with questions and offers of help. As they watch the plants grow, they immediately want to eat them — even selective eaters are more likely to try a bite of a new food if they have a hand in growing it and if their peers model eating it.
Involve Your Child in Planning
- Include your kids in every single step of the planning process. They will find fun in even the most mundane tasks.
- Talk with your kids about the amount of space you have and if you want to use flat beds, raised beds or container gardens.
- Decide what you’ll grow. You may want to start with sweeter varieties of vegetable — those that have “sugar” or “honey” in the name.
- Choose things that are low maintenance, such as lettuce, green beans, spinach and zucchini. Many local farmer’s markets offer plant seedlings for sale, so you don’t have to start seeds indoors. Local growers at the farmer’s market also are a great resource for care tips and recommendations for plant varieties that work best in your soil and climate.
- Once you know what you want to grow, ask your kids to help you diagram your garden using crayons and markers.
- After purchasing all your seeds and plants, it’s time to actually create your garden. Set aside a day to do this together.
- After planting, talk with your kids about how long it takes for things to grow and how often they’ll need to water and maintain their garden. Gardening also offers children valuable life lessons in patience.
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Make it Fun (and Not a Chore)
- Set aside a time each day to visit your garden with your child. Ask them what looks different.
- Outfit your child with some colorful gardening gloves and tools that are just their size. This also helps them learn to be accountable for their things.
- Create themes in your garden — for example, plant herbs for a “pizza” garden, or plant vegetables in order of the colors of the rainbow.
- Let your kids add fun touches to the garden, such as painted rocks or handmade plant identification stakes.
- Read stories about plants and gardening.
Harvest Your Fruits and Veggies
- When the time is right, eat your fruits and veggies right from the garden. It’s unlikely a child will try a new food and say they liked it, so avoid asking that question. Instead, stoke their curiosity and use descriptive language. Ask “Do you think it’s crunchy,” or “Do you think the peas are sweet?”
- Talk about the seasonality of food and changes they might notice in the flavor of June strawberries from the garden versus January strawberries from the supermarket.
- Plan your meals and snacks around your harvest. Use tomatoes and peppers for salsa and zucchini for “noodles.”
- Share your extra fruits and vegetables with friends, neighbors or the local food pantry. Your kids will feel an immense sense of pride for their contribution.
Gardening with kids isn't just about growing plants. It’s about helping kids develop a genuine curiosity about what fills their plate and fostering a connection to nature.
