b5media.com

Advertise with us

Enjoying this blog? Check out the rest of the Lifestyles Channel Subscribe to this Feed

Tree Hugging Family - Living Green

10 Fun Organic Gardening Projects for Kids

by Jennifer on September 11th, 2007

Cedar’s always been a little fussy about getting his hands dirty and hates bugs. I don’t like spiders so I get the bug deal but the hands dirty part I’ve done (believe me).

Although Cedar loves veggies and has done some gardening he lacks a real interest. Last year we were mid-relocation in the spring. For this upcoming spring I’m signing us on at the community garden which is (lucky for me) located right across the street from our new home. I’m hoping that the community garden; where he’ll have his own little areas will instill a better appreciation of gardening and where our food comes from for Cedar.

little in the garden If you have enough space a garden is a great project for even very small kids. If you have little to no yard space than look into a community garden project in your area.

You can even start a container garden or series of container gardens — course you won’t be growing watermelons in small containers but there are plenty of things you can grown in even one sunny window.

Once you get your hands on a gardening area here are 10 really fun organic plant projects to grow with kids:

  1. A sunflower playhouse.
  2. Edible flowers like pansies, calendula, marigolds, and nasturtiums; good in salads, brown rice dishes, and more.
  3. Hanging strawberries! Keep the slugs out and just plain fun to see.
  4. Pumpkins — do I have to say why? They’re big, they’re orange, they roll. Go pumpkins.
  5. A butterfly garden.
  6. A pizza garden with tomatoes, peppers, onions, basil, oregano, and more — just look out if your little likes pineapple pizza.
  7. Carrots; simple easy and even kids who don’t like veggies are impressed by pulling up carrots.
  8. Add sparkle to the night with a moonlight garden.
  9. Bean teepees and tunnels.
  10. A sensory garden; which all gardens are but sometimes kids like things spelled out.

To add to the fun pick up some pint sized gardening tools if your little is especially small.

tiny garden tools

To learn more about starting an organic garden with your kids visit Organic Gardening.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Share This

Related Stories

POSTED IN: Nature Experiment, Organic Food & Drink, Organic Gardening

11 opinions for 10 Fun Organic Gardening Projects for Kids

  • Kate
    Sep 11, 2007 at 11:50 am

    It’s wonderful that you should post this now. I just harvested some cocktail tomatoes, a few green beans and some celery leaves for our supper salad that the kids and I have been growing on the balcony.

    We’ve had a lot of fun with no money (well, 2.85 EURO on plants and a little on potting soil). I’m even recycling yogurt containers as planters and we use waste water (like from rinsing containers before we recycle them or our bath water) for keeping the things alive.

    The beans, especially, are amazingly resiliant things. If I could only convince B that if our plants don’t grow as tall as Jack’s beanstalk, it’s not his fault at all.

  • marye
    Sep 11, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    That tote is CUTE! Around here we get them little shovels and let them help collect the manure… :)

  • Jennifer
    Sep 11, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    Hey Kate, one of the good things about gardening is it can be cheap if you save seeds, trade plants, and compost, etc. There are ways to cut costs — like your water solution. The beanstalk story is so cute! Cedar asked yesterday if we could grow a banana plant (unlikely).

    Marye — why am I not surprised at this statement?
    I’ll bet your kiddos have some stories to tell.

  • Crabby McSlacker
    Sep 11, 2007 at 5:39 pm

    I wonder if I would like vegetables more as an adult if I’d been involved in growing them as a kid?

    We had a big place with lots of landscaping and were often recruited to pull weeds–it felt like drudgery and was not nearly as satisfying an experience as growing an edible item from a seed! So I love your approach to make it both fun and to help your kids learn and appreciate where their food comes from.

  • Jennifer
    Sep 11, 2007 at 8:25 pm

    I liked pulling weeds (sick childhood) but I get your deal — maybe if you had grown your own food it would help this veggie dislike you have. Maybe not.

    Cedar, not such the garden fan but raised vegetarian and LOVES veggies. Yet I’ve seen kids raised on veggies who still don’t like them. It makes me wonder what makes a veg eater and what doesn’t — but that’s way more a your blog type post than me blog type post. Still, I am curious.

  • Jennifer
    Sep 11, 2007 at 8:26 pm

    Crabby, P.S maybe you should try to grow some now and see what happens?

  • marye
    Sep 12, 2007 at 11:36 pm

    stories to tell?
    HA! They dont call us the gestapo for nothin’

  • A few ideas from Tree Hugging Family | Parenting Blog
    Sep 15, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    […] A b5media blog that I’ve been enjoying recently is Tree Hugging Family written by Jennifer Chait. In her blog, she shares tons of ideas on getting the kids involved in helping take care of, and have an appreciation for, the environment. Here are a few that I liked: Just How Strong Are Plants? Color Your World Green 10 Fun Organic Gardening Projects for Kids […]

  • ali
    Sep 27, 2007 at 8:34 am

    I am on the planning committe for my children’s spring carnival at school and we are trying to come up with ways to make it more eco-friendly…any ideas for games they can play or prizes we can give (instead of the tons of plastic junk we usually do?) Any ideas will be welcomed!!!

  • Jennifer
    Sep 28, 2007 at 10:48 am

    Ali; I’ll do a post about this topic later — it’s a good one. But offhand there are tons of eco items you could give or even reusable (like bubbles — which are in plastic but kids will reuse them).

    Little Cherry: http://www.littlecherry.co.uk/
    Makes eco-party bags and has fun ideas which may give you some ideas. And eco fab has a great post about birthday parties but it relates to what you’re asking…
    http://ecofabulous.blogs.com/ecofabulous/2007/05/party_on.html

    Hope that helps some and thanks for stopping by :) Good luck planning!

  • www.bestlandscapingadvice.info » 10 Fun Organic Gardening Projects for Kids
    Oct 9, 2007 at 2:43 pm

    […] Jennifer wrote a fantastic post today on “10 Fun Organic Gardening Projects for Kids”Here’s ONLY a quick extractTo add to the fun pick up some pint sized gardening tools if your little is especially small. tiny garden tools. To learn more about starting an organic garden with your kids visit Organic Gardening. Share This. […]

Have an opinion? Leave a comment: