So this year my husband and I decided to start gardening with the kids. (ages 4 and 2)  We are by no means gardeners, so if you are looking for tips on how to make a spectacular garden, this definitely isn’t the place.:)  We DID decide to experiment, and try and have the kiddos do most of the gardening.  So these posts will be a little diatribe on how things went and what to do and what NOT to do.  It will also help give you an idea of what to expect when giving your toddlers reign over a whole bunch of mud, small seeds and plants that we are attempting to have live through this whole ordeal:)

Starters: We were told by our friend who is quite a gardening expert that several plants need to be started inside and then moved outside.  Plants like tomatoes and herbs apparently don’t do as well if you just put them out in the weather.  So we decided to try some starter plants first to get things going.  We took small, thick paper cups, chopped off the top and filled them with potting soil.  We filled them about halfway full, had the kids put in seeds and then had them put more potting soil on top of that.  Then I had them water the plants each day and put them in the sun for a bit.

Things I learned.

-If you give the kids full access to the potting soil you will get a huge mess, but they had a blast!  Half of the potting soil was on the deck, but they did a really good job following directions.  They loved putting their hands in the dirt and playing with it.

-Only give them one seed at a time.  I made the mistake of putting a whole bunch in my hand and letting them grab the seeds out of my palm. My 2 year old grabbed the whole handful and dumped it into the cup.  I guess we will have one very full tomato plant cup. 🙂  The kids did love learning about what happens to the seeds when we plant them and what they need to survive.  It was a great learning experience.

-Kids love having chores.  Everyday they remind me to water the plant so it doesn’t die and I LOVE that they have full responsibility over something each day.  At first I let them pour water over the plants and it definitely drowned two of the cups.  I ended up getting a water bottle and that works great.  I just tell them to do one big squeeze on the water bottle and they do awesome!

Stay tuned for the rest of our gardening adventures with toddlers!