As the weather starts to warm up, spring is a wonderful time to get to work on building a vegetable garden with your children. Your children will love eating food they have helped to grow themselves.
Benefits of Family Gardening
Creating and tending to a garden is a fantastic way for children to learn more about nature. They also can have lots of fun, learn new things and build their confidence.
Most children enjoy being outside and getting their hands dirty digging.
As a family, it’s a great way to spend time together, while getting fresh air and exercise.
And hopefully you’ll get to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Even if your crop doesn’t bear much in the way of food, you can all have fun and learn something new together.
Choosing your Garden Type
The type of garden you decide to create will largely be driven by the space you have available and the time you and your family have to tend to the garden.
If you live in an apartment, you can build a great veggie garden in pots. If you have a garden, you could build a new raised bed or find space in an existing garden bed.
Keep it Simple
If you’re new to gardening, keep things simple by choosing a handful of things that grow quickly and can be harvested easily. Some good options to try are radishes, tomatoes, peas, strawberries, lettuce, green beans and carrots.
Staying Safe
Keep sharp tools and chemicals out of reach of children. Secure all fences and gates and be sure to use protective gear.
Learning Resources
If you’re new to gardening, a visit to your local library, or some time researching on the internet will give you plenty of information on getting started
Gardening on a Budget
If you’re keeping an eye on spending there are lots of ways you can get started with a vegetable garden while minimising costs:
- Plant seeds, rather than seedlings / established plants as these are much cheaper
- Recycle and re-purpose empty containers from around the house as planter boxes instead of buying pots
- If you have the space, make your own compost from food scraps to save on fertiliser costs
- Check out your local online buy / swap pages for free or cheap gardening tools
- Collect rainwater in buckets / containers for plant watering
We hope this article provides some helpful information on how to go about building a vegetable garden with your children!