Kid-Friendly Edible Gardening Projects - Visit the plant experts at Platt Hill Nursery

Kids are naturally curious—information technology's part of what makes being a parent so astonishing. All the same, for so many kids, that marvel seems to disappear equally before long as a plate of vegetables appears. Why is it that, suddenly, the healthiest foods are also some of the scariest? Fortunately, we tin fight fear with fun!

When kids feel edible gardening for themselves, they learn the story behind their fruits and veggies. Forming that connection with food earlier information technology lands on their plate helps to supervene upon fright with familiarity. Non to mention, it's tons of fun to play in the clay!

These four kid-friendly edible gardening projects make fantastic outdoor activities with life-long benefits for their minds and bodies.

Egg Carton Seed Starters

Great for: Ages three+

You'll Need:

• Cardboard egg cartons (at least one)
• Seed starter soil mix
• A variety of easy-to-grow vegetable seeds (Effort radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and dissimilar colors of carrots!)
• Plastic wrap
• A sunny windowsill
• Grow light (Optional merely recommended)
• Labels (optional but recommended)

Concord onto your paper-thin egg cartons for this easy and interactive activity! Even pocket-sized kids with developing motor skills can employ a clean plastic shovel to scoop starter mix into the egg cups. Help them out past tapping the backlog back into the bag, and you lot're already halfway there!

Adjacent, piece of work together to sprinkle seeds into the cartons. Before yous plant, let your young gardener see the pictures on the seed packets and accept some time to talk about what they are, and how you'll be working together to assist them grow.

Permit your fiddling one sprinkle seeds into the egg cells, and help them out by adding labels to keep track of what'south planted and where. Depending on the age of your kid, you may or may not demand to assist them by gently adding water to the carton. Identify a sheet of plastic wrap over the acme of the carton and exit information technology on the windowsill.

Every solar day, cheque on the carton together to see if the seeds have grown. Every bit soon every bit you notice little green shoots, your budding gardener will probable be very excited! At this point, y'all tin can remove the plastic and plow on the abound light, if you're using one. Keep the light on over the carton for 12-fourteen hours per day—you may desire to use a timer.

Cheque on the carton together every day, keeping the soil evenly moist with a pocket-sized watering can or spray bottle. Once the seedlings have grown their second ready of true leaves, you can start moving the carton outside to harden them off earlier transplanting in the garden. Read our seed starting guide to learn more about hardening off seedlings.

Once the seedlings are planted in the garden, your kid will love visiting them in the garden and watching them grow. They'll exist proud of taking care of the veggies they grew "all by themselves" and happy to eat them too!

Potatoes in a Sack

Great for: Ages 5+

You'll Need:

• Empty egg carton
• Seed potatoes
• Big burlap bags (approximately 3 feet in length)
• Two large numberless of compost
• Tarp

If at that place's one vegetable even picky eaters get excited most, it's the apprehensive potato! Even a sworn veggie-hater volition honey this easy, portable edible garden for kids.

If your seed potatoes haven't chitted (sprouted shoots), get-go there. Place the seed potatoes in the egg carton and let them sit inside somewhere absurd where there'due south still plenty of natural lite. One time the potatoes have got at least an inch of shoot on them, you can get outside and start planting!

To first, roll down the edges of the burlap bag until it's just over a foot deep. Add well-nigh a foot of compost start, and then employ your hands to create small holes most v inches deep. And so, accept your kids stick the potatoes into the holes with the shoot side facing up. Go them to cover the holes with compost and add together water.

Check on the "irish potato sack" daily equally the establish begins to grow, watering whenever the compost looks a piffling dry. As the establish starts to leaf out and get taller, have kids add more compost and unroll the bag slightly.

Continue to exercise this together until the handbag is fully unrolled and filled with compost, and the establish peeks out of the elevation. The potatoes are almost ready to harvest when the plant leaves brainstorm to die back. Let the constitute die off completely and cut it dorsum to the soil line. Requite the soil a little actress fourth dimension to let the potatoes set their skins, upwards to a few weeks. You can dunk a manus into the compost and check on the potatoes yourself to see if they're ready!

When y'all're ready to harvest, dump the bag out onto a tarp set it downward well-nigh the garden. Your kids will be amazed when tons of potatoes tumble out of the sack! Bring them inside in batches to wash in the sink, and repurpose the compost however yous similar.

Container Vegetable Gardening

Great for: Ages 8+

You'll Need:

• A medium-to-large outdoor container OR a raised garden bed
• Compost
• Fresh garden soil
• Organic fertilizers (according to plant needs)
• Seeds, or edible starter plants from Platt Colina Nursery

Older, more than independent kids may be ready to take care of their very own container garden! This project is all well-nigh discovery and learning what works and what doesn't.

Start with a visit to the garden center and let kids pick out their own favorite berries and veggies. Ruby-red tomatoes, strawberries, and blueberries are popular starter plants for kids, while kids who prefer to plant from seed will love fast-growing radishes and salad greens.

When yous arrive home with your plants and supplies, be articulate that this container or raised bed is theirs to care for, non yours! Help your kid forth as needed by encouraging them to read the care instructions on the found labels or seed packets, and demonstrating what steps to take just when necessary. Let your child experiment and make mistakes—this is the perfect fourth dimension to exercise it!

Offer guidance if you feel it's appropriate; some kids might appreciate a reminder when information technology'due south time to water, and others may accept questions about what exactly a "fertilizer" is. This is a smashing projection for cocky-guided learning, with low stakes and an awesome reward at the end!

Windowsill Herb Garden

Cracking for: Ages 10+

You'll Need:

• Terracotta pots or a long terra cotta planter
• A sunny windowsill
• Herb seeds, similar cilantro, chives, dill, parsley, basil, thyme, and oregano
• Fresh potting soil
• Grow light with timer (if growing indoors)

This project is very piece of cake, but might be a ameliorate fit for older kids who are starting to gain an appreciation for cooking. Effort encouraging an interest in herb gardening by talking to your kids about the herbs you lot like to cook with, and how they change the flavors in your recipes. Signal out how the oregano or basil in your pasta or pizza sauces make it taste different than plainly old ketchup. Or, how the chives in your mashed potatoes make them extra yummy!

Make up one's mind with your kid gardener which herbs they'd similar to abound. Accept them go outside to make full the pots or planters with soil, plant their seeds, and add h2o. They can choose to abound the plants outside, if the weather condition permits, or indoors if it's a piddling chilly. If growing indoors, help your child set up a grow low-cal on a timer for 12-fourteen hours during the twenty-four hour period.

Encourage your child to water their herbs regularly to keep the soil evenly moist, only non sopping moisture. Inside a few months, most of the herbs will be leafy enough to outset adding to different dishes!

A lot of the fun of this project happens after the herbs are fix to use. Encourage your young herb gardener to experiment with different flavors, like calculation some ripped basil leaves to a bowl of strawberries or watermelon.

Like the vegetables themselves, a gustation for veggies and edible gardening needs to exist cultivated. Get your kids involved early with a trip to i of our garden centers in Bloomingdale or Carpentersville. You might be surprised past how quickly your kids tin larn virtually nutrient, plants, and the environs—they just need someone to plant the seeds!

Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago's premier garden center and nursery.

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Source: https://platthillnursery.com/kid-friendly-edible-gardening-projects/

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