Tips for Gardening with Your Toddler

Your toddler isn't too young to share the joys of gardening with you! I love gardening with my two-year-old daughter. Every day we check on our tomato plants and flowers and water them. Nothing beats watching the amazement in your toddler's eyes the day she sees a plant first pokes up out of the soil, or the day a flower blooms, or the day the first tomato has ripened and is ready for picking and eating. Here are some tips for making gardening a fun activity you can share with your toddler.

Grow kid-friendly plants

Devote at least a small part of your garden to some fruit or vegetable plants that are at a height that your toddler can pick. Good plants that will be at his height are: strawberry plants, tomato plants, carrots, potatoes, and blueberries. There are many more fruits and vegetables to choose from -- pick something that your child likes to eat, or pick something that you want your child to like to eat! There's something special about watching fruits or vegetables grow and then picking them and eating them yourself.

Give your toddler her own patch of soil

Section off a small part of your garden for an older toddler to plant her own plants. If you don't have a garden, let your toddler have a pot or two that are hers to plant in. Let your toddler dig up a small hole in the soil, sprinkle in some seeds, pat down the soil with a little kid-sized trowel, and water her plants each day. You may even choose to let her pick what kind of plant she wants to grow.

Get your toddler a toy gardening set

Now that spring is here, you can find lots of cute and creative kids' gardening sets. They usually include a shovel for digging up holes in the soil, a rake, gardening gloves, and a little watering can. Some even include a gardening bag to carry it all in. He'll love having his own mini gardening set just like yours.

Teach your toddler about plants

Use your time gardening to teach your toddler some basic gardening and plant words and about some easy science facts. As your toddler helps you garden, teach her about seeds and soil, and leaves and stems and flowers. Teach her about a plants needs for sun and water. When we go outside to water our plants, my daughter tells me, "Plants thirsty!" because I explained to her that plants need to "drink" water.

Have fun gardening with your toddler!