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Digging dirt, planting seeds, picking fruit – gardening with kids is a rewarding experience that teaches them life long skills.
FACT: Kids that grow their own food are more likely to eat fruits and veggies!
Benefits of gardening with kids
The list of benefits for gardening is endless but here are the top 20 reasons why you should get out into the garden with the kids!
1. Sparks curiosity
The idea that an entire plant or tree can be grown from such a tiny seed is an amazing concept to a child. Their imagination can go wild when thinking about the possibilities of this little seed. Their curiosity will keep them checking on the progress of their plant and watching how is changes and grows.
2. Encourages nutrition and healthy eating
When kids grow their own food, they often want to try and taste what they’ve worked so hard for. At the dinner table, they might turn their nose up at anything green on their plate, but in the garden it’s a fun and interesting experience to try different foods. Suddenly they are picking fresh snow peas and eating crunchy carrots on their own free will!
Where to buy vegetable and flower seeds?
Biome Eco Stores have a huge range of gorgeous heirloom seeds to grow your own fruit, veggies, herbs and flowers at home. They also have windowsill kits and grow kits for smaller projects or for beginner gardeners. Their store has strict standards on ethical packaging including when the item is delivered. Biome will ship your parcel without plastic and using re-used materials. Their mission is to preserve a safe, healthy environment on this wonderous planet for now, and for those who come after us.
3. Teaches patience
Growing food doesn’t happen overnight so kids will need to learn the art of patience. This can be difficult at first, but as the plant begins to grow and change it will spark their interest. Also when it does come time to picking and eating, they will finally experience the gratification off all that hard work!
4. Improves Focus
No screens, no distractions, just nature! Having a hands on activity like gardening is something really satisfying for children. Kids often love helping and having a job to do, so something like planting seeds or digging dirt can allow them to get extremely absorbed into the job at hand. The simple act of working in the garden can act as a much needed mental break from our over stimulating world.
Try using Grow Kits for smaller garden projects. Kids will love to watch them grow right in front of their eyes! Some of the kits you could try are the Groovy Greens Kit, Kitchen Herbs Kit or the Grow Your Own Tea Kit
5. Learn about responsibility
Growing plants is not a ‘set and forget’ exercise, it takes care and patience. If a child has lovingly planted something, it is up to them to look after it by watering, protecting and nurturing it. When they do successfully grow their first plant, they will gain the understanding that their care and attention helped make that happen
6. Builds Teamwork Skills
Having a shared project like a veggie patch or a mini herb garden will give children a taste of working together to create something. This encourages sharing, communication, listening skills, cooperation, problem solving and leadership skills.
7. Bonding Experience
Working in the garden with your child is a lovely way to bond. You create together, you work hard, you communicate and listen to each other and you both learn skills along the way.
8. Self Confidence
When kids can work or a project in the garden and then watch it grow, it proves to them that they are capable. The hard work and commitment they have put into their plants will begin to pay off, building confidence in their own skills. This will also help them to be more interdependent. For more info on how to teach kids to play on there own, check out my post all about it here!
9. Creativity
The garden is great place for creativity to thrive. Whether it’s designing a veggie patch, creating a herb garden or even something as special as making a fairy garden in a pot plant, the options for creativity are endless!
Try some of these easy to grow flowers to brighten up your garden:
10. Engages senses
Gardening is a very sensory experience
- See- beautiful colours
- Smell- the scent of flowers
- Hear- the sounds of buzzing bees
- Taste- fresh produce you have grown
- Touch- different textures of the leaves
The garden is a great place to be mindful and get completely immersed into your surroundings.
11. Fine Motor Skills Development
Planting tiny seeds, digging holes, platting down dirt, these are all great examples of the fine motor skills involved in gardening. For young children especially, learning these skills are essential and will help in their hand-eye coordination as they get older.
EverEarth Garden Bag with Tools
Children can experience the wonder and discovery of gardening with this fun garden bag and matching garden tool set. This set will help the develop their awareness and skills through play based learning, as well as help develop their awareness of the environment. The set contains a hand rake, a hand scoop, a hand trowel, a small watering can, and a practical garden bag.
12. Reduces Stress
Life can be stressful at any age, but there is actually evidence to show that gardening can reduce your stress levels. Being outside, breathing in fresh air, and exercising are all proven methods for boosting your mood. Also the sense of achievement you feel after a successful day in the garden is extremely uplifting!
13. Experience nature
Have you ever heard of the term, ‘nature therapy’? Being outside in nature has been shown to decrease levels of stress and anxiety. It can also help to reduce blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension, as well as boost our mood, creativity and focus.
14. Grows imagination
There is so much to do in the garden that will help to broaden young minds. Planning where seeds should be sown, finding hiding spots among the plants, creating a fairy garden. All these tasks need lots of creativity and imagination.
15. Learn foundations of ingredients and cooking
Children will start to be introduced to different flavors and textures in the garden. They will also get to participate in how to turn this produce into a meal. Get the kids to pick some herbs for dinner or to collect tomatoes and lettuce for the salad. This is where they can learn what flavors work well together and how a meal is created.
A Fun activity to try is pickling!
Use up any excess produce from the garden like, cucumbers, carrots, radishes or beetroots and have a pickling party!
Fermenting food is great for gut health and makes the food even more nutritious. Biome Eco Stores now stock fermentation crocks as well as a huge range of preserve jars for making your own nutritious and delicious fermented foods
16. Enhances Memory
Memories are closely linked to our emotions and senses. Being in nature is an extremely sensory experience and has been shown to have a calming effect on our mind, which then helps to increase focus. When all of our senses are engaged (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) our memories become much more ingrained.
17. Experience tasting home grown produce
Nothing tastes better than fruit or vegetables picked straight from your own garden! When kids see a carrot on their plate at dinnertime, they have no real understanding of where it came from. Learning skills like ‘how to grow your own food’ will help them to appreciate how the fruit and veggies made it to their plate.
18. Great exercise
Most gardening includes ‘incidental exercise’- meaning lots of small amounts of physical activity accumulating throughout the day. But then there’s things like digging, spreading mulch and lifting heavy bags of potting mix which is extremely hard work! Who needs a gym when you can spend the day in the garden!
19. Gain an Appreciation for where food comes from
Kids will begin to understand the amount of time and effort it takes to grow your own food once they have done it themselves. They tend to respect their food more which then leads to less food wastage.
20. Learn to Care for the Environment
Caring for plants is a great starting point to learn to respect our environment. Nature is such an important part to our mental and physical well-being and we need to help children to understand that. Teaching children that they can make a difference to our world by planting plants and growing their own food, will help to raise a generation of adults who more environmentally conscious and more willing to protect our world.