Gardening

Discover how to make gardening with kids easy, affordable, and successful!

Kids are naturally drawn to plants and animals. School garden programs have increased in recent years. School gardens can include edible plants, native plants, pollinators, or a combination of all three! They're being used at all levels of education from preschools through higher level education.

Gardening and working with plants bring a variety of benefits for children, including:

• Brings an understanding of where food comes from
• Provides outside time
• Encourages fine and gross motor development
• Teaches responsibility, patience, and awareness
• Provides hands-on experience with classroom lessons on biology, ecology, and environment

Sometimes parents and educators are under the impression that gardening has to be hard and expensive. I'm here to tell you this simply isn't true. Gardening does take attention, patience, and care, but those are free. The physical materials don't need to be expensive, either. Repurposed containers, like large yogurt containers or cut off milk jugs, can made great classroom planters.

Even the simple act of sprouting seeds in a damp paper towel can bring joy and wonder to an early education classroom!

Planning and record keeping are key to a successful garden. Make sure to start your gardening journey by visiting this post to download your free printable garden planner.

Once you have an idea of what you want to plant, make sure to reference my ever-expanding growing guide resources. These growing and harvesting guides will help you have happy, healthy plants and a positive growing experience.