This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Miracle-Gro Gro-ables. All opinions are 100% mine.
I can’t believe it’s already garden season friends! I swear to you it, it feels like Christmas was just last month! As you may know (if you’ve followed me before), we love to garden in our family! We’ve had lots of different types of gardens – one year we did 3 really large raised beds and last year we decided to keep it a little smaller and manageable. The other day my (almost) 6 year old, Jeffrey, came to me and asked if he could have his own garden this year! I initially answered him no, that we all share our garden. But, then after talking to my older son, we decided we were going to work on adding some new beds to another part of our yard. So, I let Jeffrey take control of half of our 4’x8′ raised garden bed. We put it together the other day and today I am going to share with you how we put together this super easy kids garden and also why I think it’s important to get kids involved in gardening!
We had it kind of easy this year, because we already had the raised garden in place! I put it together super easy and affordably last year for just $100 (you can read about that here)! So, all we had to do was clean out the bed, add some new potting mix, azomite minerals and peat moss. If you want to know more about my gardening tips, you can read them here!
Then next it was time for him to choose what he wanted to plant! To keep it easy and being that it’s still a little cool here, we went with Scott’s Miracle Gro – Gro-ables Project! He chose to plant 2 types of tomatoes and yellow squash. I’ll add some more tomatoes and zucchini on the other side. I want to do spinach, herbs and peas in the new beds we are going to build!
The Gro-ables come in fun kits that you can purchase and are guaranteed to grow! And all you have to do is remove the top and then push the seed pod down into the ground until the top of the pod is level with the dirt. Then water it daily and you’re good to go! So easy, right? Kids, adults and even first time gardeners can do this! I promise you’re going to want to check these out!
I have always loved gardening and really hope that my kids form a love for it too! There are lots of reasons I love gardening and I could go on and on about them! But, here are a few that pertain to why I think it’s important for my kids to be involved in our families garden:
1) It get’s them outside and working! I have one child that LOVES to work and one that LOVES to play! haha! My husband and I both recognize that work ethic doesn’t always come natural and it is really important to us that our kids not only know how to work, but work hard! Gardening is a fun way to teach them that work ethic! Plus, they’re rewarded after a season full of hard work with a beautiful and bountiful garden!
2) It teaches them where food comes from and how much work it is to grow food. Almost everything in the world right now is at our fingertips and our kids can get it almost immediately. The term instant gratification is almost assumed now. If they want to watch a TV show, between TiVO, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix we can find it for them almost immediately. Dinner can be made in minutes in a microwave or even easier, you can run through a drive thru! Toys and more can be ordered on the computer and at our doorstep within the hour (Amazon Now).
I love that it not only takes a lot of hard work to plant a garden, but they have to water and nurture the garden for months, BEFORE they get rewarded with the vegetables that grow on it! The joy on my kids faces when they see the first tomato of the season is priceless! And I love that they want to run out to the garden each morning to water is and see if there are any new vegetables!
3) Encourages them to try new foods. I have found in past years that my kids are much more willing to try new vegetables when they’ve been grown in our garden. This doesn’t mean that they love them, but they are willing to try them. And each year they start liking it more and more! If they don’t love it plain, then I try to help them find a recipe that incorporates that vegetable and we’ll make it together.
4) We spend more time together as a family. Everyone is so busy all the time. Between my husband and I working, the kids in school and sports, church activities, etc, sometimes I feel like a day has gone by and we’ve just been running the whole time. When we have a garden, our summer mornings are spent in the backyard watering it and then we will start kicking a soccer ball around or jump on the tramp! It encourages us to spend quality time together. If we wouldn’t have had the garden to get us in the backyard, then sadly I could see the morning playing out with the kid laying around watching TV and me changing the laundry and doing house pickup. Which lets be honest, is just no fun!
5) It’s an opportunity for hands-on learning. I love the little conversations that come out when we are working on the garden. We can talk about each vegetable and why it’s good for us, ways we can eat it, etc. The sensory activities are super fun with little ones! We have even had conversations on composting!
I hope if you were on the fence of letting your kids garden that you’ll take the leap and do it! It really is fun and brings me so much joy! Just let loose and garden friends!
Do you have any kids gardening tips you’d like to share? Feel free to leave a comment or head over to my Instagram and leave a comment there!
The post Easy Kids Garden & 5 Reasons it’s Good to Get Kids in the Garden appeared first on Over The Big Moon.