Gardening With Toddlers: Peat Pellets, Play Houses, and Imperfectionism

We have enjoyed having a large home garden since moving to the sticks six years ago. But we have found it to be a real challenge managing a garden with a baby.

One of our solutions was to get our hands on a cheap outdoor playhouse. We got one of the plastic ones they keep chained up outside big stores and have it out by the garden along with a little garden space we set up for Z to play in. (You can read about it here.) The play area has plants she can step on without destroying them, as well as a path of rocks for her to tear apart and play with. Between that and the little house, she will often entertain herself for a bit while we pick fruit or pull weeds. And we just got a beat-up plastic play kitchen through our local Freecycle list, and will put it out there too. But she is also more likely to be interested in helping us garden, too, at least for a few minutes at a time, and that's great too.

The last couple of years we've gardened, we bought most of our plants as seedlings to cut out that step and make things a bit simpler. When you want a hundred or so plants, though, that gets expensive! So this year we decided Z was old enough to really get something out of planting our own seeds.

The biggest thing that made this a fun and easy project for us to do together was using peat pellets, and we highly recommend them as a shortcut for families who want to start seeds with young children. Using them meant no soil mixing or filling peat pots or seed-starting cells; we just added water to the pellets, let them soak it up, and planted. Peat pellets have compressed peat in them that is held in a little bit of netting, so when you add water the peat stretches out the netting and makes the little pot shape you see in the picture above.

If you don't already have a seed tray, you can get a nice little kit with a seed tray and cover and 25 pellets for $10. You can buy pellets without trays in a variety of quantities, but if you are ordering fewer than about 200, it's cheaper to order the exact number you want for 15 cents apiece.

Ah, so that's what counting is for

Sowing seeds

We planted cucumbers, bush squash, snap peas, cherry tomatoes and lettuce, and placed them in a window with indirect sunlight that is also filtered by plants above and around it to help moderate the temperature. It's been about a week, and just about everything has sprouted. As soon as we get a chance we'll clear one of our four 4x10' raised beds and plant our potatoes. In a couple of months our young plants will be ready to go outside, and we'll direct seed carrots, gourds, watermelon, okra, daisies, sunflowers, pumpkins, and a few other things, and buy some started pepper plants (we like a variety of hot ones, so will find a few people to go in on some six packs with us and split them up).

Z has been fascinated by the process; intrigued at first, when all we had were seeds, and now that everything is coming up she keeps talking about how we "made" them and how she will get to "eat them." I can't wait to go through this whole season of gardening so she can really see the fruits of our labors. What a wonderful thing it is to teach a child about life!

A few tips for gardening with young children:

• Things don't have to look perfect. If you're close, nature will work them out.
• Find short tasks kids can help with that don't put the plants at risk of getting destroyed, and encourage them to work on their skills.
• Raised beds are a great way to help kids learn where they should and shouldn't walk in the garden. If you do use raised beds, ideally they should be low enough that children can still see in and help you. If you don't use them, make sure that paths are wide and clearly marked in a way your child will understand.
• Work in short bursts.
• Leave a bit of ground in the "real" garden area unplanted for children to mimic your actions in. They can plant, dig up, destroy, water, and so on without you needing to worry about your plants surviving the ordeal.
• Plant some flowers that grow easily in your area.
• Plant something that grows very quickly.
• Plant something that smells nice.
• Plant something that is prolific in your area.
• Use sunscreen for both you and your child.
• Don't overextend yourself. A little can go a long way, and too much can be way too much.

If you are in need of planting information for your area, check out a garden planner I developed a couple of years ago. It uses climate data to produce a schedule for you based on the crops you want to grow and your location.

Have you managed to keep a garden while you had young children? Do you have any tips to share?