10 Reasons to Start a Garden with Your Kids
In 2020, I started a small vegetable garden with my kids, they were still young 3 and 1 years old so when I say “with” take that with a grain of salt. But, what started as a way to try and grow our own produce in a time when there were tons of shortages and I have an autoimmune disease so I didn’t go anywhere unless I had to, so starting a garden was more out of necessity than anything else. I never expected all the benefits that would come from starting a garden with my kids and giving them space to create their own food.
- No more power struggle. My kids are very interested in eating, or at the very least trying, the food that they have grown so the power struggle of getting them to try food is gone. Pulling carrots and eating them is one of the highlights of their day now (they are 5 and 3 now).
- Saves a lot money. Given the rising cost of food and wide-spread shortages, prices are nuts. Growing your own is a great way to save a lot of money.
- Gives my kids a place to explore and play without worrying about the mess. It is a built-in screen-free activity that you don’t have to prepare in advance (once it is all planted of course).
- It gets us outside a lot more often than we used to. I am absolutely not an outside person but since starting a garden I find that I am excited to get the kids outside to work with their hands with the dirt and water.
- Teaches the value of hard work and respect. Growing your own food shows your children the process from start to finish and how much work, time and energy goes into growing the food. I have noticed this change much more with my 5 year old, he doesn’t throw away an apple after he took a bite (sorry guys but toddlers are probably not going to get that memo yet). He knows the weeks it took waiting for the food to grow and the amount of energy he put into it and he is excited to enjoy it and if he can’t finish it he saves it for later.
- Patience. Gardening takes an insane amount of patience to do successfully. You have to wait until after frost, it takes a long time to grow a plant from a seed or seedling to a fully producing plant. So patience is one of my favorite and most unexpected lessons from starting a garden with kids.
- Bonding. Something about growing a garden as a family has brought a higher sense of unity. We feel an accomplishment for something we worked on together.
- Going green. Researching and learning about gardening has taught me so much about making greener choices. Like, for example, during my research someone suggested you use the water from cooking pasta to water your garden instead of wasting it by dumping it down the drain. It saves money and the planet! Check out my post about with more easy ways to go green.
- Commitment. Gardening isn’t easy. If you stick with it, it will teach your kids the importance of commitment. In 2020, all my son wanted to grow was pumpkins. Literally, he couldn’t care less about anything else as long as we also planted pumpkins. Well, we planted them late so we watched the plant grow and grow and never produce anything! So disappointing. But, that’s okay! It was a great lesson to teach my kids about the importance of not giving up and to try again. In 2021, we grew two pumpkins!
- Delayed gratification. In the modern world instant gratification is the norm. We want our food now. We want our Netflix to load now and never buffer. We have become a society that can’t handle when we need to wait for something. I am very guilty of this! But, gardening will teach you how gratifying it is to wait for something. You work all summer to get a harvest and it is amazing.
We live in a suburban area so we have enough space for a small raised bed but nothing too big. But, there are awesome ideas from anyone in any area to grow a vegetable garden. From vertical gardening to fire escape gardening to full blown high yield half an acre gardens! I encourage you to try it this year. If you are nervous or don’t have a lot of space try starting a herb garden in a window or fire escape! Or, if you are more ambitious and want to try your hand at more vegetables I find cucumbers are a great plant with high yields but they are vines to they need a trellis or fence to climb. No matter what you do I hope you will join me and plant something this year!
