Gardening with kids is a great way to encourage healthy eating, get kids connected with nature, and involve them in problem solving. Try these tips to make the most of your garden experience!

1. Grow things you can eat raw! Encourage kids to eat things right out of the garden. Peas, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, lunchbox peppers, and green beans are all delicious choices.

2. Grow surprise vegetables! The magical moment when you suddenly dig root veggies, like carrots, radishes, or potatoes out of the ground is a great way to get kids excited. Try growing potatoes in a trash can - digging them up is a potato treasure hunt!

3. Use all your senses! Encourage kids to touch and smell plants and choose a variety of colors. Grow an array of herbs of different smells and suggest feeling tomatoes each day to test when they're soft and ready to eat. Grow something surprising, like nasturtiums - edible flowers!

4. Encourage garden detectives! When a plant has been nibbled, is wilted, or something else is wrong, encourage kids to solve the mystery. Is the soil wet? Is there a bug in the soil, eating the plants?

5. Involve kids from start to finish! Let kids experience the entire life of the plant. Involve them in planning what plants you'll grow, planting seeds, watching them sprout, and harvesting. Try keeping a garden log together to note the changes you see every week.

About Raddish— 
Raddish is a monthly cooking club for kids! Created with a mission of bringing families together in the kitchen and at the table, each monthly thematic cooking kit takes the guesswork out of cooking with kids while creating delicious kitchen memories along the way. Raddish is designed by a team of educators and chefs who believe the kitchen classroom is the tastiest place to learn. Join today!