Gardening with kids can be overwhelming; as a parent with small children, it often feels like you’ll never get to the end of it. The little helpers want to get their hands into everything, which can sometimes turn into a huge mess.

Getting the kids involved in gardening shores in an organized way will help parents to stress less and allow kids to have fun while they help out around the garden.

Read on for some helpful tips on gardening with children.

Give Your Child A Specific Garden Task

Small children really enjoy helping their parents. Instead of just letting them run around with a shovel, give them a specific task that they can accomplish during gardening time.

The task should be engaging, and not take too long to complete. Remember, kids have short attention spans. So if you don’t want them to give up and run to something else the task should be short enough that they can complete it.

Watering plants, digging holes, and fetching (child-proof) supplies are perfect for the little helpers to start with.

Make Gardening with Kids Fun: do a Scavenger Hunt!

Now that we’ve figured out what task the kids will do, it’s time to make it fun!

Let them go on a supply scavenger hunt in the yard. Hide their supplies around the yard and let them find each one. This will allow you to gather your supplies and do any tasks that are better suited for the grown-ups.

Once they’ve found all of their supplies, it’s time to show them their helping task.

Make Gardening Educational for Your Children

Gardening is an outstanding educational activity for children; gardening helps children learn responsibility.

Teaching the kids while you are gardening is also a great way to keep them engaged.

• Ask them questions and find out if they have any questions to foster a conversation about the garden.
• Talk about the plants that you are growing. Tell them what they are used for or if they are edible.
• Kids love to eat so letting them know what is safe or not safe to eat is a great way to teach safety in the garden.
• Help your children understand how things grow. Talking about the amount of sun and water a plant needs is a great science lesson. Helping them understand how plants grow can be very interesting to little ones.

A good example of this is growing potatoes from the “eyes” of another potato.

Check out this article for teaching your kids to have a green thumb!

Quick Growing Plants

Another way to keep kids engaged and interested in gardening is to plant some quick-growing plants. Kids love to see what their tasks will lead to. So plants that grow quickly will help them stay interested.

Here are some plants that grow rather quickly and are a great addition to any garden. The fact that your children will love to see them grow is just an added bonus!

• Radishes: 10 months
• Snap Peas: 1 Month
• Green beans: Fast growing, high yield and easy to pick.
• Lettuce: Quick growing and getting the kids to eat salad

You can find more quick-growing plants in this article!

How are you Including Kids in Gardening?

Gardening with kids can be a fun and educational experience for kids and grown-ups alike. With a little bit of planning, things can run much more smoothly.

Getting the kids involved can definitely keep the chaos at a minimum during your gardening time. Let us know in the comments what your favorite activities to do with your little ones in the garden are!