Things You'll Need:
- Patch of dirt
- Seeds
- Garden tools
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Step 1
Define the scope of the project. Maybe this is a garden to introduce little ones to gardening, or to help older children learn cause and effect. Perhaps your goal is to explore different soil components and their effect on plant growth, or to simply observe the changes that happen when a seed sprouts. The answer to these questions will define the scope of your learning garden.
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Step 2
Find a place to grow the learning garden, and think outside your backyard. Ask your church or local community center if there's a sunny piece of ground where you could start a learning garden. Just be sure it's close enough that you can visit it every few days to keep plants watered and beds weeded.
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Step 3
Dig up some dirt. Tilling up the soil and adding compost and other nutrients is a big job. You might want to enlist some help from your church or community center's youth group for this task. Once your learning garden is started, though, it should be easier to tend. If allowed, you might put in a raised garden bed, which makes this step much easier.
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Step 4
Plant a variety of seeds. It's amazing to see which seeds produce different kind of plants. For smaller children, bigger seeds are easier to start with. Try sunflower, bird house gourd, watermelon and pumpkin seeds, which their tiny fingers can hold easily. For a horticultural planting challenge, try tiny carrot and lettuce seeds; just make sure you keep them well watered.
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Step 5
Watch your garden and your children grow. It's amazing the things you can learn from a garden, especially how creation springs to life with just a little water and a lot of love.
