Gardening with Children: Top 6 Online Resources to Bookmark

1 mom gardening with daughter

Gardening with children can be an extremely fun and rewarding experience. Not only will you teach your children all about plants, taking care of them, harvesting them, and so on, but you’ll also get to engage in all sorts of cool activities with them. For the people who want to start gardening with children, but have no idea what they should do first, there are plenty of online resources dedicated to this activity. Because we want to help you make the most of this experience, we’ve prepared a list of six of the best ones today.

6 Online Resources for Gardening with Children

1. Gardening with Children

When it comes to gardening with children, the website carrying the same name is definitely one of the most extensive online resources you can use. It doesn’t only provide kids with cool gardening games and interesting facts. It also encourages intergenerational activities. This is great news for people who want to get more involved in gardening with their kids.

For instance, they have a Family Zone, where you can find activities to do with your children. Some ideas include growing herbs on a windowsill, starting a nature diary, going rockpooling, building a hotel for bugs, creating a sensory garden, and many others. You get all the instructions for the activities, so all you have to do is follow them.

The great thing about Gardening with Children is that they also have a space designed especially for kids. This one is called Kids Zone. It includes a lot of entertaining games for kids of all ages, all related to gardening. They also feature a category of fascinating facts, where your child can learn more about garden curiosities.

Finally, there’s also a School Zone, which focuses on bringing gardening with children to schools. It provides educators with resources to make gardening interesting and fun for children. Furthermore, it includes ideas of what to teach children over the period of a term. It also informs teachers about the national curriculum.

All in all, this is a really comprehensive resource. Moreover, it’s one that can help you in a lot of different situations. Whether you want your child to discover the wonders of gardening by himself/herself, you want to be more involved yourself, or you want to teach your students more about this practice, you’re going to find something to help you out on Gardening with Children.

2. My First Garden

Another cool online resource for gardening with children, this one comes from the University of Illinois Extension, and it’s called My First Garden. Curious about what they offer? We will tell you all about it. The webpage showcases several categories, such as Teacher’s Guide, Show Me the Basics, Gardening FUNdamentals, and so on.

As you can imagine, in the Teacher’s Guide category, you get to learn the basics of what you should teach children when it comes to gardening. The guide is perfect for teachers of 4th-grade students. It aims to help them teach kids about caring for plants, enjoying gardening in different places, and learning about the wonders of this practice.

Another interesting section is the Show Me the Basics one. Here, kids get an interactive lesson on the basics of gardening, such as choosing the perfect spot for growing plants, making sure the soil is perfect for gardening, watering the plants, and providing them with fertilizer. This section is completed by the Gardening FUNdamentals one. In this one, children can learn about measuring the garden, choosing the best time to plant something, keeping a garden journal, making a garden planning list, using the tools they need in the garden, and so on.

If you want to start planning a garden with your child, My First Garden can help you with that as well. You get some tips and tricks according to the kind of garden you want to plant, be it a vegetable garden, a flower garden, or a container garden. Finally, as inspiration, you can take a look at pictures of gardens that people sent to My First Garden. If you’re brave enough, you can even send your own.

little boy watering plants, gardening with children

3. BBC Gardening Guides: Gardening with Children

In their Gardening Guide category, BBC included a Gardening with Children section that we think you’re going to find useful. Their main goal is to show that the entire family can enjoy gardening, provided they engage in the right activities. With that in mind, they’ve created several sections on their web page, such as Gardening Facts, Projects at Home, and Plants to Try.

As the name suggests, the Gardening Facts section contains fascinating facts for children who are naturally curious to find out more about gardening. It includes information about cacti and succulents, insects, seeds, weeds, flowers, plant scents, worms, and many others.

One of our favorite categories is Projects at Home. Here, you can find a selection of activities to do with your children that will make them fall in love with gardening. For instance, they teach you how to create a garden treasure hunt, how to collect leaves, how to make bird feeders, how to create a scrapbook for your garden, and so on.

The Plants to Try category is perfect for people who don’t know what kind of plants to grow with children. Since children are rather impatient and wouldn’t be interested in high-maintenance plants, BBC’s guide advises parents on what are some easy to grow plants, what sensory plants your children would enjoy, and what to plant in order to attract butterflies.

4. Dr. Panda’s Veggie Garden

We couldn’t talk about online resources for gardening with children without mentioning a fun and educational gardening app. Gardening apps are a great way to get your kids started with gardening without having to grow plants just yet. This is particularly helpful for people who don’t have a garden, or who have to limit their gardening to containers. There are many apps that help children learn about how rewarding gardening can be, but we particularly love Dr. Panda’s Veggie Garden.

This is an app that allows children to go through the process of cultivating and then harvesting vegetables and fruits. The process is extremely detailed, which is what drew us to this app. The kids have to go through no less than 30 steps, such as plowing, digging, seeding, harvesting, watering, and so on. Even so, the process doesn’t seem like hard work, since the app is extremely colorful, entertaining, and engaging.

three girls looking at a smartphone, gardening with children

This app doesn’t only teach children about caring for plants. It goes all the way to how people become customers and consumers. It also integrates farm animals, seed-to-consumer elements, and everything else a virtual garden should possess. If you want to involve yourself more in your child’s experience with it, you can suggest creating a garden together and taking care of it in turns.

5. Plants HD

Another online resource we wanted to recommend today is another app. This time, it’s one that focuses on plants, as the name suggests. Plants HD is not only for children but also for their parents or teachers. It focuses on the plant lifecycle, going into an in-depth analysis of the stages through which the plant goes. Your kids will learn about flowers, seeds, fruits, trees, and how seeds are spread into the environment to create new plants. They’ll also learn about processes such as pollination and germination. The best part is they’ll do it in a fun and engaging way.

Even if the app presents a more scientific side of gardening, it still manages to engage children by using games and quizzes. These resources are also useful in reviewing what your kid has learned from using the app.

We find Plants HD to be both fun and informative. This makes it the perfect online resource for gardening with children. Technically, the app is suitable for children aged 5 to 6. Still, we believe older children can enjoy it as well. Especially if you – as a parent – take the time to accompany them on their journey to finding out more about gardening.

6. Ultimate Beginners Guide to Gardening with Kids

The last online resource that we wanted to mention is this amazing website. If you’ve ever wondered why you should garden with kids or what the benefits are, this is definitely a great resource to take a look at. It provides in-depth details on how you should begin the process of gardening with your children. It also has a few videos for you to watch, which are very informative.

If you’re into DIY projects, this site goes into detail about how you can do them with your kids. It talks about the many different tools you can use, as well as soil recommendations for planting and composting.

This site will provide you with an excellent opportunity to teach your children about the benefits of gardening. If you’re the kind of parent who wants to avoid screens and technology taking over your kids’ lives, then you will love this site. It will get them outdoors. You’ll be able to teach and show your children how fun gardening can be, which is a great way to spend time together as a family. For more information on gardening and yard care, head on over now.

Summing Everything Up

Do you want to get your children interested in gardening? Are you a garden rookie yourself? Don’t worry about it. There are plenty of online resources that you can use as guidelines for gardening with children. The six we mentioned above will definitely help you make this experience both entertaining and educational, which is the whole purpose of teaching children how to grow plants anyway.

As long as you start with the basics and give your kids time to assimilate the information presented online before they actually start a garden of their own, you’ll have no issues turning the gardening experience into a really fun adventure. Remember that the goal is for the kids to learn things while also having fun. This means you should allow mistakes since they’ll teach you what not to do in the garden. The important thing is for you and your children to spend quality time together, tending to the garden you’ve just planted.

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