My kids love to help me harvest all the fruits and vegetables we plant in our gardens and orchard.  While picking, it is hard to fill a basket.  It is so tempting for them to pop a juicy, delicious raspberry, blackberry, or strawberry into their mouths.  Believe it or not, it’s even hard to keep the green beans and peas from being eaten fresh out of the vegetable garden, but we get what we can.

Each year I get my kids more and more involved in helping with the harvest.  They don’t just help with picking fruits and vegetables, but also with canning, freezing, and drying.  We even make crafts with some of our harvests.

My kids reap the rewards of cooking with the many foods we harvest from our homestead, by learning how to season dishes with fresh herbs from the herb garden and helping me come up with new homemade dishes, straight from our homestead.  They appreciate how much better food tastes when you grow it your self or buy from a local farmer/farmers market.

We dry herbs together and bottle or freeze them for winter cooking.  We make herbal mixes, infused oils, and herbal teas.  Some of our herbs are used in crafts to give away as gifts throughout the year.

My kids have learned how to save seeds for planting in the garden next year.  My younger kids like to compare the sizes, shapes, and colors of the seeds.  We try to figure out how much of each kind of seed we will need for the following year and what new foods we might want to plant.  Harvesting with kids can be so much fun.

Tip: If you have the room, plant extra fruits and vegetables for the kids to harvest and sell.  This will teach them a little about money and business.

Theme Gardens for Kids.

This is a fun activity for kids and a great way to make homesteading even more fun.  There are so many options, too many to list here, but I am going to give you some kid’s theme garden ideas that I have seen and/or used.

Use color: rainbows to monochromatic, the possibilities are endless.

Tell a story: Fairy Garden, Fairy Tale/ Storybook Garden, Secret Garden, Thoughtful Spot, Victory Garden, Wedding Garden

Attract wildlife: Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden, Birdwatchers Garden, Pond Garden, Bee Garden, Wild Flower Garden, Prairie Garden, Rain Garden

Make it edible: Pizza Garden, Salsa Garden, Mexican Garden, Italian Garden, Soup and Stew Garden, Bread Garden, Snacker’s Garden, Kitchen Garden, Herbal Tea Garden

Other: Native Plants, Japanese Garden, Arts and Crafts Garden, Perfume Garden, Bouquet Garden, Medicinal/ Wellness Garden, Mosaic Garden, Painter’s Garden, Heirloom Garden, Money-Making Garden, Rain/Water Garden, Giant Garden, Victory Garden, and more.

Okay, I could go on and on, this is so fun!

14.  Make Gardening a Tradition

Container Gardening with Kids.

You can add containers to your outdoor gardens, use them on a patio or deck, or indoors.

Containers are a wonderful way to grow a variety of plants.

Grow vegetables on the smallest patio or porch, window sill, balcony, or doorstep. Create a tiny flower garden in a container, grow dwarf trees that bear fruit on your patio, enjoy a window sill herb garden in the kitchen, or harvest vegetables from a barrel on your deck. The possibilities are endless!

More containers that can be used: hanging baskets, large flowerpots, planter boxes, wooden barrels, clay pots, window boxes, boots, shoes, and more.

My younger kids like to paint Terra Cotta pots with Patio Paint.  They use brushes, paint markers, and sponges to paint flowers, and other designs on the pots.  They love to plant flowers in their specially painted pots for their grandmas for Spring Holidays and Mother’s Day.

13. Give Your Garden a Fun Theme

Snap Dragons

Plant some plants in your gardens that are different and unique.

These plants have some unique features kids will like; Snap Dragons, Obedient Plant, Balloon Flower, Four- O’clocks, Trumpet Vines, Jack in the Pulpit, and the towering Sunflower.

These Plants have cool textures; Lambs Ear, Thistles, Milk Weed, Yucca, Sedum, and Elephant Ear, Hens and Chicks, and Coreopsis.

Put some of these and other interesting plants in your garden and learn about the fun ways they are different!

Please be aware that some plants are poisonous and take caution.

Ways to learn about gardening:

Observe the plants and what they do.  Check on them different times of the day.

Keep a gardening journal.

Take pictures and make a scrapbook of your findings.

Do fun crafts using items from the garden.

Buy and use field guides and gardening books.

Study plants and their behaviors.

Ask questions…Why do plants bend toward the light?  How do vines know how to climb?  Why do leaves change color in the Fall? What gives flowers their color!

As a homeschooling family, we do unit studies.  We will take one plant and learn as many things as we can about it, in as many ways as we can.

10. Grow Things You Can Eat

When you are gardening with kids, crooked rows are fine!

The rows don’t need to be straight, their hoeing form doesn’t need to be perfect, and yes, the plants will grow, even if they are too close together.

Just having my kids garden with me is a treat.  I like when they take interest in things that are good!

Teach them that it is NOT okay to step on the plants, pull their leaves off, or pick things too soon.  Be patient, teach them to be gentle when caring for plants.

Let them know there are rules in the garden, but don’t run them off.

Be thankful, they chose to be in the garden with you!

9. Plant Interesting Plants…and Study Them Together

Grow Gardens all Around!

When I was a kid, I could tell my parents loved gardening.  They had gardens everywhere on their property.  They had a huge vegetable garden, berry patches, fruit trees, a small herb garden and lots of flower beds.

My grandparents were the same way.  They had gardens everywhere.  Nearly anywhere you looked on their property, there was something to eat. Grandma even had strawberries in her flower bed.

You can grow a garden just about anywhere, sunny spots, shady spots, on a patio or deck, even in the house.  Put a small garden beside your kids’ swing set or sandbox.  Let them keep a miniature container garden in their room.  Gardens make any space more beautiful.

Have your kids help take care of them. Teach them that plants are living things that need their help to grow.

8. Don’t be too Picky

Gardening Tools for Kids When gardening with kids, give them their own tools to use.  Small hands need small tools. Kids love to have their own tools to use in the garden. So at about age 8 to 10 (depending on your child’s maturity), we buy our kids their own gardening tools. There are so many kids gardening tools out there to pick from, it may be hard to make a choice. We try to buy tools for the garden that are basically miniatures of the adult version, not plastic play toys.  They are easy for kids to use and take care of. Gardening tools for kids might include: a gardening tote, a watering can, a small garden rake, a small yard rake, a small hoe, a small shovel, and hand tools (trowel, hoe, rake).  You may also want to buy a small wheelbarrow or a kneeling pad. Garden clothes such as; apron, gloves, boots, and hats may also be fun. Teach your kids how to properly use and care for their tools. 7. Grow Gardens All Around