5 Best Garden Crops To Grow With Kids

Children love to garden! Truly, I have never met a child who did not think it was exciting to plant a seed or discover something yummy to eat in their own backyard. Even if you have never thought of yourself as someone who has a green thumb, these five foods will prove easy and rewarding to grow. The delight it brings to your little ones face may make you want to learn about and grow even more things, that is what started me down the homesteading journey! It is important when trying to grow anything that you make sure your dirt is nice and healthy. If you are not sure how to do this a quick Google search can get you on the right track We use no till methods. We have had wonderful results using the back to eden method.

Peas

These large round seeds are perfect for tiny helping hands who still need to get the hang of this whole planting thing. Some seeds are so small they can easily frustrate younger children, but even toddlers have the dexterity to grasp a pea seed and make the right size hole. If they get dropped, and when planting seeds with littles the seeds will get dropped, they are easy to spot and recover. Peas are a crop that gets planted in early Spring when it is still too cold for most other things to go in the ground. Use a garden tool to dig a double row about an inch deep. The rows should have a few inches between them. In between the double rows you will need to add a trellis for the peas to climb. An inexpensive trellis can be made out of bamboo and jute. I always put the trellis in first and dig my rows alongside it so that my rows come out straight. (This is my favorite garden tool, I use it for everything from digging rows to weeding)The seeds can be planted about two inches apart, one row on each side of the trellis.  If you want more than 1 double row place them at least 18 inches apart (more is ok too) so that the rows can be easily weeded and harvested. Water them in well and have your little garden helper check every day for little sprouts after about a week. The time the seeds take to germinate and how quickly the plants grow can vary depending on temperature. Once the plants are flowering you are only two or three weeks away from sweet homegrown peas. Plant some every couple weeks until mid to late spring for a longer harvest. These are some of my favorite snap pea and snow pea varieties:

Magnolia Tendril Blossom, Lincoln Garden, Sugar Snap, Carouby De Maussane,  and Golden Sweet.

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Strawberries

Who doesn’t love strawberries? Unless of course you have an allergy, in which case, I am sorry. Skip on down the list. But wait, don’t skip just yet, because I at one point thought one of my children had a strawberry allergy as well. She would get a rash around her mouth whenever she ate them and even broke out in hives once. So we avoided them. Until we were at a friends house and my daughter ate them without me being aware of it and…nothing happened. I asked to see the package the strawberries came in and lo and behold, they were organic. I never bought the organic ones because I thought the price difference was a little outrageous and I thought washing them well would be good enough. After that we only bought organic and we began growing our own. She has still gotten a rash on the couple of occasions when she has inadvertently eaten non-organic strawberries. So, in our case, it was a pesticide allergy and not a food allergy. Your situation may be entirely different in which case please ignore the above, I just wanted to share my experience because it took me several years to make that discovery.

Anyway, back to growing strawberries. I would advise buying the strawberry plants from a local nursery and planting them very early in spring. Planting strawberry seed will not yield fruit the first year and a year can seem like a lifetime to a young gardener. Let your helper dig holes with a small pointed shovel. Ease the plants out of their temporary homes and plant them as deeply in the ground as they were in the container. Water them in well and continue to make sure they do not dry out as they are getting established. I like to plant some lettuces mixed in between the strawberries, by the time they are getting bigger and sending out runners, the lettuce is ready to eat and can come out of the ground to make room for the spreading strawberry plants. You should have berries before Summer, and some types will bear two crops a year, one in spring and one in fall. If you have a lot of birds in your area, you may want to consider netting the berries before the fruit turns red or they may all disappear or have tiny beak holes. Unless you are growing A LOT of strawberries do not anticipate making a pie or a short cake, your little apprentice will probably make sure there are very few left in the garden to bring inside. Hopefully they will agree to share some with you.

Radishes

I know what you are thinking.

Radishes? Obviously this woman has no idea what she is talking about. Imposter. She probably doesn’t even have children.

I know when people are listing their favorite veggies radishes usually do not make the cut. However, radishes are one of the easiest things to grow. And they can go from being a seed to being ready to harvest in less than a month. They also go in the ground very early in Spring, so growing a little plot of radishes can be a fun way to keep kiddos entertained while you are doing the ground clearing, mulch moving, seed starting work of early Spring. Tie a string to two sticks and place the sticks into the ground to create a straight row. Dig a shallow trench, (I use the shadow cast by string) sprinkle seeds, (radish seeds are tiny so toddlers may struggle with planting them but a child of five or so should be able to do this easily) and then pull dirt back over to cover. Water them in well. They should sprout in just a few days! They may require thinning if they were not planted couple of inches apart. Gently thin them down to two or three inches apart by carefully pinching tops off at ground level. If you try to pull out the whole plant this is likely to disturb its neighbor. We like to dice them up and use them similar to how diced onions would be used. Also, have you ever tried pickled radishes? They are sweet and delicious, and yes, most children even like them! Here is my favorite recipe. Radishes are less spicy when grown in cooler weather, so try to plant them early. Also, make sure they get plenty of water.

Beans

There are two types of beans: pole and bush. Bush beans do not require trellising and pole beans need something to climb. So first decide what type you would like to grow and then choose varieties. Most green beans are your standard bush type. When growing pole beans my favorites are purple podded, red noodle and scarlet runner. Beans are fun for children to grow because they grow so FAST. Practically overnight they will begin to see the sprouts. A memorable way to grow beans with children is create a teepee out of bamboo and grow pole types around it. Teepees can be as large or small as you like, there are various lengths of bamboo available at stores like LOWES in the garden department. (Or here are some on Amazon here) I would get the bamboo that is only about1/2 inch in diameter or it can be very difficult to tie the tops together. For a large teepee big enough for your child and a friend use the six foot bamboo. Or, maybe you would like several smaller teepees just large enough for a one child hideaway. It’s up to you, and your helper of course. Including them in decisions like this makes them take more ownership of the garden. It makes them feel good to be consulted. First put a bamboo pole in the center of where you would like the teepee to be. Then tie a string to it, stretch the string to the length necessary to make the size circle you want for the bottom of your teepee. Then place your bamboo about three or four inches deep into the circle you made every five or six inches and plant one bean seed on either side of each bamboo. Secure the top of your teepee with a strong garden string like jute. Make sure to do this before you plant your bean seeds so they do not get disturbed. I also like to add a low maintenance flower, like a zinnia, around the outer edge of the circle. Make sure not to plant your seeds until the ground warms up enough or the seeds will not germinate and they will rot in the ground. Water them in and before long your beans will be climbing that bamboo!

 

Sunflowers

These large showy flowers are another quick growing plant. These also like heat but it doesn’t have to be as warm as it does for beans. I usually plant my sunflowers right around Mothers Day and I check to make sure there is no sign of frost for the next couple of weeks. My favorite way to grow sunflowers is in a ring in the center of my garden. I like to do this because by the time they are tall, in mid-Summer, it creates a welcoming retreat from the heat for my children and myself. I usually pick three different varieties ranging in color and height (but I like them all to be about eight to ten feet tall) and I like to have at least one variety that will grow big fat seeds. My family loves to eat them and so do our goats. This year I grew Titans, Mammoths, and Autumn Splendors. I am happy with how they are coming along. I use the same method for creating a circle as a I did above with the bean teepees. I will then plant a sunflower seed every 6 inches or so alternating the larger and smaller varieties. I water them in and then check back a week or so later, once they have sprouted, and check for any gaps. Sometimes a bird of the air, or one of our own chickens, will snack on or move a sunflower seed with their scratching.  I will then fill in any large gaps with another seed, make sure to leave a good space for a door! About 30-36 inches. I also add zinnias on the outer edge. I have also had success growing pole beans and cucumber with my sunflowers, although you will have to make sure they get more water if you add those. Otherwise, sunflowers are incredibly low maintenance and you should not have to water much unless you live in an area that has long droughts in the Summer. Morning glories can also be beautiful when trained on these huge flowers, but they can also be invasive so proceed with caution. When your large seed producing sunflowers are almost ready for harvest the petals will begin to wilt. Tie a paper bag over the head for a few days. This will prevent critters getting to them before you do. Then cut the flower to include about 20 inches of the stem and hang upside down in a well ventilated environment for a few days longer.  Check them by shaking them around in the bag or putting your hand inside and running it over the seeds, are they coming out easily? They will when they are ready. You can eat them at this point or easily roast them. We brine them for about an hour (although I have forgotten them for as long as 6 hours and they have been fine) in a solution of one tablespoon of salt to one cup water and using enough water to cover all the seeds. Roast them at 200 degrees for an hour or two, check them every thiry minutes or so. The roasted seeds will keep for a long time. Try mixing it up with a favorite seasoning, my husband likes a spicy cajun seasoning and they are also good with garlic and onion powder. My children love harvesting the seeds and eating them, and I bet yours will too!

 

Children will love to grow almost anything.

Watching seeds sprout fills them with wonder and pride and the bonus is they get to hang with one of their favorite people (you!) and share something that makes them feel like a contributor to the household. You are teaching them skills they will keep with them forever, something that results in a product that is real and tangible.

I would love to hear from you about what your children’s favorite things to grow are, or what your favorite thing about gardening with little ones is! Below are some items you may find useful when gardening with your littles. These are all affiliate links.