Gardening tips for kids
Are you a kid that likes to garden, or are you a parent that wants to teach your kids how to garden? Gardening is a great activity for kids to do! For example, gardening helps kids get exercise and spent time in the sun! In addition, gardening can help to teach children responsibility, particularly if they are in charge of planting and taking care of their own garden or plants! Here are a couple of gardening tips for kids:
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- Read the planting instructions: Before you do any kinds of planting, you will want to make sure that you read the planting instructions! The planting instructions will be found on the back of the seed packet. Or, if you are planting a little plant from a pot, the planting instructions will probably be found on a little tab that is stuck in the soil. Make sure that you know how deep you are supposed to put your plant or seed in the soil. Plus, you should also make sure that your plant is going to grow well in your type of garden. This information is also on your planting instructions. For example, is your garden space in a lot of shade? Then you will want to plant something that does well in "shady" or "partly shady" areas. If your garden area is sunny most of the time, then you will want to plant something that does well in "full sun."
- Follow the watering instructions: Some plants need to have water every day and other plants do not need water every day. Your planting instructions should also include some information about how much water your plant needs. For example, if your plant needs to be placed in "moist soil," then you might need to water your plant every day. Before watering, you should gently place your fingers on the dirt by the plant to see if it is wet. If it is dry, then it is time to water your plan.
- Use Popsicle sticks for plant markers: One fun gardening tip for kids is using Popsicle sticks to mark where your plants are! This is especially helpful if you have planted seeds, because you want to remember where your seeds are placed in the ground! After covering up your seed, you should stick a Popsicle stick or a regular stick in the ground to mark your place. If you like, you can get an adult to help you write the name of the plant on the Popsicle stick with a marker. Then, you will know exactly where your plant needs to be watered until it begins to pop out of the ground!
- Find a picture of your plant leaves: When taking care of your garden, you probably will need to pull up leaves every once in a while. Before you begin weeding, you should find a picture of the leaves of your garden plant. Some seed packets have a picture of what your plant leaves or "seedlings" look like as they are coming out of the ground, and you should take this with you to the garden when you weed. Use your picture of your plant to compare to the weeds. This will help you to make sure that you only pull up weeds in your garden, so that you won't pull your garden plant out of the ground on mistake!
- Be patient: Gardening is a lot of fun for kids, but sometimes it can take a while for plants to grow. Just be patient and let your plants take their time! After a while, you will be able to enjoy the plants that you grew all by yourself!
