As winter begins to wind down, planning a vegetable garden and envisioning warmer days can sometimes be a great way to pass the time. As you flip through seed catalogs and plan future meals using delicious food from your garden, don’t forget to include your children in the wonderful hobby of gardening.
Involving kids in the planning and preparation of the vegetable garden will help them to feel a sense of ownership, and give them a sense of accomplishment when they are able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, literally.
Gardening teaches kids how to be patient in this “instant gratification” world we live in. Kids can learn how bees, butterflies and other pollinators help the garden to grow, and that with out them the garden would never produce fruits or vegetables. Kids will also learn about plant stages and start to ask questions and think in a scientific way.
Gardening can be a very creative process and kids will certainly love to be a part of it. Here are three great garden projects that will get kids excited about planting and working in their garden.
Bean Teepee
If you love green beans, a bean teepee is a fun and practical way to grow your beans and will create a fun hide-out for the kids. Once the weather is warm enough and the danger of frost has passed, take 8-10, 12 foot bamboo poles and arrange them in your garden in a 6 foot circle. Be sure to leave an opening for the doorway.
Poke the bamboo poles about 3 inches into the ground and tie all the poles together at the top with some garden twine. Using a “pole” variety of green beans, plant seeds all around the outside of the circle and keep well watered, following directions on the seed packet, until plants begin to sprout.
Within about 6 weeks, your teepee will be covered with vines and leaves and even better, green beans. Kids can keep cool in the shade of their teepee, create a “bean kids” club with other kids in the neighborhood, or hang out while you pull weeds. As an added bonus, beans and other plants that are grown vertically are less prone to disease and fungus because they don’t touch the ground.
Sunflower House
Similar to the bean teepee, a sunflower house creates another live plant fort for kids to enjoy through out the summer. Choose a large area in your yard or garden for your sunflower house. An 8×8 foot section or larger should suffice. Use a giant variety of sunflower and plant seedlings or seeds around the perimeter. Make sure you leave space for an opening. Also, sunflowers will require watering, especially as they are getting started, so make sure to hoe a trough around the perimeter so young plants can be kept well watered.
For a nice “floor” covering, plant a clover or other low growing ground cover that can survive being stepped and sat on.
One great gardening tip is to plant some corn in between the sunflowers. When grown as companion plants, the corn drives Carpophilus beetles from the sunflowers, and the sunflowers protect the corn from fall armyworms.
Pizza Garden
Most kids can’t resist pizza and growing a pizza garden will show them how many ingredients come together to make a pizza. They will also be able to enjoy one of the best tasting and freshest pizzas when all the veggies are ready to harvest.
Start your pizza garden by marking out a circle, 8 feet in diameter. Divide your circle into 6 sections or “slices.” Plant beautiful red and gold marigolds, either from seed or small plant, along the edges of the circle and the borders of the slices. This will not only make your pizza garden visually appealing, but will also make it look like the tomato sauce and cheese on your pizza.
In the northernmost slice of pizza, plant a Roma tomato plant. Then, in each of the other sections plant onion starts, three green or red bell pepper plants, three sweet basil plants, one thyme, one oregano and two parsley plants. Combine some of the herbs into one slice to make room.
Keep the pizza garden watered well and in 2 months, kids can enjoy helping to harvest and make a pizza from their very own garden.
