Dirt attracts most children from the toddler years on. A vegetable garden gives your child a productive use for those dirt-digging skills. The age of your child influences the level of involvement in the gardening process. Toddlers might help with watering under your supervision, while a 10-year-old child can take the lead from planning to planting.
Get Creative
A vegetable garden takes planning before you break ground so take advantage of your child’s imagination. Give her a sheet of paper and let her sketch out her garden plans. She might come up with some creative vegetable garden ideas you can incorporate into the final design plans. Work together to come up with the final garden plans. A child’s hiding spot, such as a bean-covered wood teepee shape or a sunflower house, adds a special touch to the design.
Pizza Garden
A themed vegetable garden adds an interesting aspect to the gardening project. Pizza gardens are child-friendly and allow an easy connection between the garden and the kitchen. The garden design includes all the vegetables necessary to make your pizza, including the sauce. Tomatoes are a primary component of the pizza garden. Spices, such as basil and oregano, add flavor to the sauce. Your family’s favorite vegetable toppings on pizzas round out the garden. Options that grow well in most gardens include onions, green peppers, hot peppers and garlic. When you harvest the vegetables, you can use them on your homemade pizzas.
Container Garden
A container garden gives your child a manageable vegetable garden area and works well if you have limited outdoor space. A container garden even works on a patio or balcony if you don’t have your own land. Most vegetables work in pots, with tomatoes and peppers being particularly well-suited for this type of gardening. Herbs also flourish in pots. Give your child a certain number of pots that are his responsibility.
Personalized Details
The actual vegetables are only one aspect of the gardening entertainment for kids. Personalized touches in the garden make it feel more special to your child. A wooden welcome sign painted by your child is a creative project that your child can display proudly.
Salt dough or clay provides your child with a medium for creating her own garden markers. Allow her to shape the clay and press a craft stick into the clay before it hardens. You might need to add some glue to hold the stick in place, once the clay hardens.
A homemade scarecrow is another project for personalizing the vegetable garden. Gather old clothes to use as the base for the scarecrow. Place him in a prominent location in the garden for your kids to enjoy.
