Children's Gardening Resources - The Young Gardener's first garden

Children enjoy being in the garden and gardening gives children a wonderful opportunity to gain a sense of responsibility and achievement. Children’s interest in the outdoors and their natural curiosity can be encouraged by asking for their help with the gardening or even better by allowing children to have a patch all of their own.
This page offers some helpful tips and advice for creating a child’s first garden.

Safety in the Garden Young Gardener's 1st Garden Children's Gardening Calendar Gardening & the National Curriculum

Choosing a suitable spot

An area approx 1m x 1m is perfect for a child’s first garden.
Most plants like lots of sunshine to grow so choose a sunny spot. Making a sun chart is an ideal way of seeing which areas of your garden are sunny. Get the child to draw three maps of your garden. They should then colour in the sunny patches in the garden at 9am, 12noon and 3pm on different maps - one for each time. Compare the three maps and the areas which have the most colours are the sunniest spots for the child’s first garden.
Make sure that the patch has good drainage. Explain that whilst plants need water too much water can make the plant’s roots soggy and they can rot. Ask the child to pour some water on the ground with a watering can and to see how quickly it drains. If the water lies on top of the soil in puddles the patch is probably more suited to making mud pies than gardening.
Ensure that the child’s garden is close to a tap to make essential care tasks easier – children may become disinterested if tasks are to time consuming or hard.

Preparing the ground

With gardening tools specially designed for children kids are able to undertake the majority of tasks needed to prepare their first garden ready for planting.

Before allowing children to start preparing their new patch give them a helping hand by removing any brambles or tough weeds, animal mess or broken glass etc.
Get the child to remove any weeds or small stones either by a gloved hand or with a hoe. Explain to children that the whole plant, including the root, needs to be pulled up otherwise the weed with grow again.
Once all the weeds have been removed the soil needs to be turned with a fork to help aerate the soil and break down clumps.
Add some organic compost to the soil. Compost adds nutrients to the soil which helps strong, healthy plants to grow. Ask the child to spread approx 5cm of compost over their little garden with a spade and then to mix it in with a fork.
Finally the child’s garden needs to be made level, children can do this by pulling a rake slowly over the surface of the plot. The garden is now ready for sowing seeds or transferring seedlings.

Choosing suitable plants

Children will lose interest in gardening if they get disappointing results. Choose plants that are colourful, hardy and germinate quickly to help maintain children’s interests. Growing plants from seeds is very exciting for children, especially when little shoots emerge from the soil. The following seeds are excellent choices for the Young Gardener’s first garden.

Sunflower, marigold, cornflower, cosmos, nasturtium, pansy and sweet pea are great first flowers for children’s gardens.
Tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, radishes, carrots, peas, lettuce and rocket are good choices for a child’s first vegetable patch. Perfect for encouraging children to eat their vegetables!
Herb gardens offer a wonderful sensory experience for children and are great for use in the kitchen, the following herbs are suitable for children to grow from seed; sweet basil, chives, coriander and parsley.

Help children decide what type of garden they would like to grow – flower, vegetable, herb or a mixture. A good mix of plants helps to support a more natural environment for wildlife. Show children pictures of the plants and ask them to choose their favourites and then to sketch out a planting map.
If children are growing a multi-purpose garden then the different elements e.g. flowers and vegetables should be separate. Children may wish to sow plants according to colour sections and should take notice of flower heights e.g. placing the tallest flowers centrally in patches that are open on all side or at the back of patch if it is open on three sides.
So, now the children’s gardening patch is prepared and the plants chosen it is time to start sowing those seeds.

Planting Seeds

Separate the patch out according to the children’s garden plan. Make small paths if necessary from wood chips or lines of stones, so that children can easily reach all areas of their garden without trampling on seeds.
Most seeds should be sown in Spring time – follow the instructions on the back of the seed packet to find out when and how far apart seeds should be planted. Seeds are best planted in rows as this helps children to determine seedlings from weeds. Get children to place little seed tag markers by their seeds to help them remember where they have planted seeds and what the plants are.
Most seeds can be started off indoors first if the weather is bad and then transplanted into the garden after all risk of frost has passed. Brightly coloured plastic pots and saucers or window boxes are great for starting off plants.

Garden Maintainence

For a child’s garden to produce the best results they will need to undertake small tasks throughout the growing season to care for their plants:

Sometimes lots of the child’s seeds will grow and small plants will need to be thinned out to give them chance to grow into big healthy plants. Get the child to carefully remove the small plant including the roots with a trowel – they can replant the plant into pots, another area of the garden, give them away to friends or add them to the compost heap.
Plants will need plenty of water to survive but emphasise to children not to drown the plants. Watering cans with a rose head help children to distribute water evenly and more slowly. The best time for children to water their plants is in the evening.
If plants like growing in the child’s garden the likelihood is that weeds will too. Children will find it easier to tackle weeds if they do so regularly before the weeds have chance to grow big and strong. Take some time to show children the difference in leaf shapes and colours between theri seedlings and weeds. A hand fork is great for removing weeds and their roots.
Unfortunately pests such as slugs, snails and caterpillars will also like the child’s garden – they are especially active in Spring. Broken egg shells, grit and ash spread around seedlings can help to deter slugs.
Dead flowers should be deheaded. Deheading flowers not only makes the children’s garden look more attractive but it also promotes new growth. Encourage children to collect the seeds contained in the dead flower head and to place them in envelopes. Store them somewhere cool and dry and children will have ‘free’ seeds to plant the following spring.

Remember to take interest in the child's garden - children will be very excited by their achievements and will seek your acknowledgement and praise. Talk to them about which flowers, colours, smells and vegetables are their favourites, get them to take note of the insects that like their garden too, have them draw their garden at different stages of development and help them preserve early gardening memories by pressing flowers.

Maintain the child’s new-found interest in gardening throughout the autumn and winter by looking for extended season or indoor growing kits or through garden related craft activities.