Gardening is a favorite pastime of millions of Americans, and it's a very rewarding experience when it comes time to pick the vegetables. However, this is one activity that you can easily include the entire family in, and you can begin to indoctrinate your children into the methods of gardening right away. Kids are naturally inquisitive, and they will have a blast messing around in the soil and feeling the pride of a blooming garden. Vegetable gardening for kids generally takes place on a smaller scale, making it more manageable for kids, but you can help them acquire the tools and knowledge necessary to undertake this timeless hobby by themselves.

Starting Out Small

When you plan on vegetable gardening for kids, plan on doing everything smaller than you do yourself. Allow them to pick out what plants they would like to grow, and suggest cultivating a combination of both vegetables and flowers – vegetables for food, and flowers for making the garden absolutely beautiful. Try to keep the variety more limited than you might have yourself, because kids naturally don't have the same level of patience that adults do. As such, consider vegetable garden designs that include some of the more popular vegetation, like sunflowers for their awe-inspiring height and tomatoes for their juicy deliciousness.

In vegetable gardening for kids, try to limit the amount of work you do yourself. Taking command of a project in which “they” are supposed to be doing the majority of the work can hinder their experience and demote them to being a mere observer. Show them how to do it, but then let them do the work themselves. You'll not only have fun together, but you'll also teach them patience, dedication, and the results of hard work. That way, vegetable gardening for kids is a perfect family activity that can occupy many, many hours split up over months.

Fortunately, vegetable gardening for kids is also a very cheap hobby. Seeds cost almost nothing, and you can buy enough seeds for an entire garden at twenty dollars or less. Instead of buying soil food products, teach your kids how to maintain a compost pile. They might even become excited at the prospect of raking up grass clippings and leaves for their garden. Reminding them to water their garden several times a week can also teach them about dedication and keeping at a job, and after all of their hard work, they can take pride in their garden when it is fully grown.