Creating a Vegetable Garden with Kids

Ever thought about creating a vegetable garden in your backyard? Kiwi kids love nothing more than eating their vegetables. Not! But creating a vegetable garden with kids really is a fantastic way to encourage them to eat their greens. By taking ownership of their food, before you realise it, they’ll be munching on their carrots all the time!

First thing to understand is that plants grow in dirt and dirt gets messy. Even if the dirt is not water sodden, kids being kids will find a way to get dirty! So as a parent, that’s the first thing to stop worrying about because chances are it’s going to happen. Second thing is to have some fun! Gardening is great fun and one of the activities that children of all ages can do. So let’s get gardening everyone.

Muddy Fun Creating a Vegetable Garden

As self-proclaimed mud experts, we’ve put together an easy 5 step guide to creating a vegetable garden at your place.

1. Pop on your Mud Mates. Things may get messy in the dirt, but when wearing Mud Mates’ Coveralls or Overpants, your child’s clothes just stay dry and clean.
2. Find the perfect spot. If you have an existing garden or kids digging hole you can convert, great! If not, somewhere sunny and sheltered will be fine.
3. Mark out the vegetable garden. An area measuring 50cm by 50cm or half a metre across works well. It’s big enough to let your children grow a range of produce, but small enough so it doesn’t become too big a job.
4. Dig over the garden or patch of ground. Aim to have all the big lumps of soil smoothed out and the surface reasonably smooth.
5. Choose between seeds or seedlings and pop them into your garden. Give them a water every day and check on their growth. Keeping a photo diary helps children to see the progress made each day.

Great Vegetables for Kids Gardens

Children, like us, love instant results. However, vegetables are not that great at growing huge overnight. Seedlings are going to mature faster than veges grown from seeds and will also give an ‘instant’ result.  Here are some plants which are reasonably fast growing and suitable for a child’s vegetable garden.

• Radishes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Potatoes
• Peas

After all the effort put into growing their own vegetables, I’d be mighty surprised if they don’t get eaten when they’re ready. If your children are anything like mine, their veges won’t even make it out of the garden before they are munched upon! Are there any veges your children or you love eating? Let me know in the comment box below and I’ll see if I can find some useful tips to help you grow them in your garden.

NOTES:
– When finished gardening, ensure everyone washes their hands thoroughly.
– We recommend not using compost when gardening with kids as it can be dangerous to their health.

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