Garden Stand for Kids
Want to make sure your kids stay involved in gardening? Have them set up a garden stand with what they have grown out of a little red wagon that use to hold them as you walked up and down the street!
This year, our home garden became my kids’ garden. Each of my kids gets half of the garden and decided on three to five crops to grow there – whatever they wanted. They tended to choose to grow what they love to eat! My daughter chose all root vegetables – potatoes, carrots and onions. My son – the more adventurous eater – chose more adventurous things like cucumbers, zucchini, radishes, Burpee Boost Cherry Punch tomatoes, Burpee Boost Sweet Heat Peppers, basil and oregano. He already has plans to make his favorite refrigerator pickles and fresh garden salsa.
Being that it is primarily their garden, my kids are also responsible for the care of the plants as well. But that doesn’t mean that as a family we don’t all pitch in! The planting was done with some guidance and the weeding is a family job, after all everything goes better when we work together! This provides the perfect time to make memories together with one common goal, and its a great time to connect with great conversation about the day!
Now not all the produce will go to the neighbors – I will get first chance at it and will pay a fair price and will have them help me figure out a recipe to make with what is harvested. But the concept of selling to the neighbors also allows them to gain a little business spirit while spreading the story of THEIR garden. After all, who can resist a little 8 year old face telling the story about how he planted his radishes on May 3 and weeded them, watered them and now harvested them just a few minutes ago – fresh from the garden! He tried one fresh from the garden, picked 10 more and had his sister wash them all off with the garden hose; he then packaged them in an appealing bunch (it’s all in the presentation!). His persistence paid off, after about 5 houses, he had one buyer. And he was oh so happy! And I was oh so proud.
Here are 5 more ways to keep the family involved in gardening: http://burpeehomegardens.com/Blog/2012/06/06/5-ways-to-keep-the-family-involved.html
How do you get your kids to want to keep coming back to the garden?
