If you enjoy playing in a sandbox or making mud pies, you just might like planting and taking care of a garden with your family. When you grow flowers and vegetables together, you can learn about what plants need to grow and how to take care of them. If your parents want to give your garden a head start, they can start the garden first and then let you help them take care of it. They might also want to call an expert to examine the soil first, just to make sure that it has what your plants will need to grow healthy and strong.
Gardening Essentials and Safety
To start a garden, you need a planting area, some seeds or plants, and a few tools, like a shovel, a trowel, a rake, gardening gloves, and a hose. You might also want to get or make some kneeling pads, which will make it more comfortable to be down on the ground for a long time while you're planting or tending your garden.
- Gardening With Children: When kids help plant a garden, it can be the start of a lifelong interest in gardening.
- Garden Safety for Kids: Learn to use gardening tools properly to prevent accidents.
- Gardening for Kids With Special Needs: Kids of all abilities can benefit from starting a garden of their own.
- Designing a Sensory Garden: Gardens can stimulate your senses with different smells and textures.
- Garden Safety for Kids: Follow some key safety tips while gardening, especially when using tools.
- Beginner Gardener Safety Practices: Understand common-sense safety measures to make sure that nobody gets hurt while gardening.
- Eight Gardening Safety Tips for All Ages: Everyone in the family should know how to handle tools and plants safely.
- Don't Let a Lack of Room Discourage You From Gardening: You don't need a big space for growing.
- Themed Gardens to Spark Kids' Interest: Having a theme for your garden can make growing plants more fun. Try growing a pizza garden to make your own pizza with fresh ingredients!
- Nine Creative Spring Gardening Projects for Kids: Start a spring garden project together with your family.
- How to Choose Plants Kids Will Love: Gardening is more exciting when you grow plants that you like.
- How to Start a Garden: Ten Easy Steps for Beginners: Start with a small flower garden to get some practice before trying to plant a huge area at once.
- Can Gardening Count as Exercise? Tending to a vegetable garden can be a great form of exercise.
Flower Gardening
Flowers can be annuals, blooming for just one season, or perennials, which bloom year after year. Pick flowers to grow in your garden based on your favorite colors and whether they grow better in sunlight or shade.
- Where to Start if You're New to Flower Gardening: Growing flowers can be fun, and you can learn a lot about plants, too.
- Beginner Botany for Flower-Lovers: Knowing more about how plants grow can help you to get better at gardening.
- How to Make a Butterfly Garden: Butterflies love pretty flowers! Design a butterfly garden filled with colorful blooms to attract these beautiful insects.
- 22 Unique Flowers to Grow in Your Garden: Some flowers are much more rarely found in people's gardens, so growing these can really make your garden stand out.
- Understanding Plant Growth and Development: Learn about the life cycle of plants while you work on your garden.
- How to Grow Sunflowers: Sunflowers grow super-tall, and when they're all grown, you can eat the seeds!
- Container Gardening: If you don't have a lot of space, you can grow flowers in containers.
Vegetable Gardening
When you grow vegetables, make sure to pick ones that you enjoy eating and ones that you have room to grow. Some vegetables are easy to grow in containers, while others need a lot of space to grow.
- What Are the Benefits of Growing a Vegetable Garden? Gardening can help you to be healthier if you grow vegetables to eat.
- Gardening With Kids Promotes Healthy Eating: Starting a small vegetable garden is a great way to push yourself to eat more veggies!
- Ten Fast-Growing Vegetables for Impatient Little Gardeners: Plant quick-growing varieties and you won't have to wait too long before harvest time.
- Nutrition and Gardening: Vegetable gardening is a great opportunity to improve your diet.
- Gardening: A Fun Hobby That's Good for Your Health: Your family just might find some new favorite foods when you grow a variety of vegetables in your garden.
- Organic Gardening for Beginners: Growing an organic vegetable garden can help you take care of your health and the health of our planet.
- How to Plan, Grow, and Enjoy a Garden With Kids: Before the seeds go in the ground, kids can help to plan out their garden, from choosing what to grow and buying seeds to laying out the border of your growing area.
- How to Plant a Vegetable Garden: Read this guide to learn more about how to get started with your garden.
Easy Gardening Projects
You can try all sorts of interesting gardening projects, from growing herbs to building raised flower beds or vertical planters. You can even learn how to turn your kitchen scraps into food for your garden!
- How to Start an Herb Garden: Growing herbs like basil, parsley, and cilantro can help you make your recipes tastier.
- Raised Bed Gardening: Build raised beds to improve the soil quality and drainage while growing vegetables and flowers.
- 17 Winter Garden Activities to Keep You Busy Until Spring: Starting a windowsill garden is one way to keep gardening through the winter months.
- Build a Butterfly Garden: Design a garden that attracts butterflies with nectar-rich flowers and host plants for caterpillars.
- How to Start Composting With Children: Set up a compost bin to recycle kitchen scraps and yard waste into nutrient-rich soil for your garden.
- Vertical Gardening With Kids: Use vertical space by creating a wall garden or using trellises to grow climbing plants like beans.
- Planting a Pollinator Garden: Plant a variety of flowers that provide food for bees, hummingbirds, and other pollinators.
- Winter Sowing: An Easy Way to Start Seeds: Start seeds in containers outdoors during the winter and they'll germinate naturally when it gets warmer.
- Teaching Your Kids to Garden With Garbage: Learn how to turn garbage into compost for your plants.