Planning your pandemic garden? 5 tips for gardening with kids

Since March, we've faced long days at home and dwindling supplies at the grocery store. And, thanks in large part to both all that time on our hands and worries about our food supply, it's boom times for home gardens right now.

Families, of course, are among these eager gardeners — ready to provide some sort of educational activity at home and cut down on their trips to the grocery store. Many of these "pandemic gardeners" are new to it all — or at least new to gardening with kids. But if you want kids to actually be occupied with the garden out back, having them involved takes some patience and flexibility.

Take it from me: I hate to garden and would have never done it on my own, thanks to memories of summer days throughout my childhood when I had to go out and weed the garden.

But my kids love it — thanks to the incredible patience of my husband, who has given them plenty of say in what we grow and has gotten them involved in fun ways. (And, yep, they also know how to weed too.)

While my family's quarter-acre will be teaming with fresh vegetables and herbs in the next month or two, I'm far from an expert. For tips on gardening for the first time with kids, I checked in with Liz Driscoll, who works for NC State Extension's 4-H program and is a specialist in the university's horticultural science, crop and soil sciences and entomology and plant pathology departments. She's also an expert on gardening with kids and happens to be a mom of two herself.

The goal when gardening with kids, she says, is to nurture an excitement of discovery, curiosity and wonder as you stick seeds and plants in the ground and watch them grow.

"Always frame it around that idea of having fun together," Driscoll tells me. "Make it a place of family enjoyment with the idea that research tells us that if kids have a positive experience, they are definitely more likely to come back.

I know it's pretty frightening to see those empty shelves at the grocery store, but, for first-time gardeners with kids, this shouldn't be about growing enough food to supply your family with all of the vegetables and herbs they'll need for the summer. It should be about fun and experience.

"When I'm thinking about gardening with kids, I'm thinking start small for success," she said.

For some families, that might mean a few containers on the back patio where you don't have to drag a hose 100 feet to water. For others, that might mean a small in-ground garden.

Growing up, I didn't have much ownership in the garden. I didn't help decide what we grew or take part in any of the planning. I just weeded. Don't do that.

"The more ownership you give over to the kids, they'll have greater engagement with it," Driscoll said.

Let them help decide what you'll grow. And pick something new or interesting. If they love beans, try a new kind of variety — like a noodle bean or a yard-long bean. Look for cultivars or varieties that are great for snacking. My kids have grown up picking sweet cherry tomatoes in our backyard and eating them right there.

"If the kids grow it themselves, they are more likely to try it and taste it," Driscoll said.

"Tap your kids' interest," she said. "If you have a kid who is a builder, can they build a wall around it? Or a woven willow fence or something like that? There are so many garden art opportunities that are a lot of fun."

"Lettuces are great. As soon as they leaf out, you can start nibbling on them," she said. "Lettuce, chard, spinach, beet greens, turnip greens. Anything where you eat the vegetation is such a good idea."

Weeding is part of gardening (though mulch helps to keep those weeds down), but so are other gardening chores that kids can help with. Kids of all ages, especially, can get into watering. For little kids, Driscoll recommends setting up a big bucket of water next to the garden with a small watering can. Let them dip the can into the bucket and water the garden on their own, she said. Will they get wet and messy? Yep. And that's part of the fun for them.

Set yourself up for some success, Driscoll recommends. If you're planting in a container, it's a good idea to get a soil or potting mix. For in-ground gardens, you'll have the most success with a 50/50 topsoil and compost blend. These are all items you can find through local gardening stores, which are open.