Summer

Vegetable Garden Ideas for Kids

With sustainable living becoming a focus for many, it’s unsurprising that many families are wanting to learn how to grow vegetables at home. What’s more, creating a vegetable garden at home is a fantastic project for the kids to get involved with! Whether as a half term project or an activity for a sunny weekend, here’s our vegetable garden ideas for creating a delicious mini vegetable garden. 

Now, let’s make sure you have everything you need… 

Materials 

Tools 

Vegetable garden ideas for kids: 

1. Position your raised vegetable garden bed 

The first step to creating your children’s vegetable garden is to find the best place for the raised bed. 

A good sunny spot will make the best home for your raised vegetable garden, meaning that their veg seedlings will have the best chance of sprouting.  

Prepare the surface underneath by clearing away debris and ensuring the ground is level. You can position garden beds on the lawn, soil and even concrete areas. If you’re working on concrete, add some drainage with a layer of gravel before putting your bed into position. 

Top tip: Before filling the raised bed, why not add some character? Painting the wooden structure is a fantastic way for the kids to get creative! Get your little ones to select their favourite colourful shades from our extensive garden paint range. 

2. Fill the bed with peat free compost 

Once you have the raised bed in position, it’s time to fill it with soil. 

This is something the kids can get involved with too, though be prepared for things to get a little messy! With their gardening gloves and set of tools at the ready, help them fill their vegetable garden with peat free compost top soil mix, spreading the soil as evenly as possible. 

Peat free compost is a much more eco-conscious choice, as it helps to protect our country’s peatlands. Our pledge is to remove all peat composts from our shelves by Spring 2024.  

Top tip: Find out more about the best peat-free composts here and other sustainable gardening ideas. 

  

 3. Get planting! 

Now that the raised vegetable garden is complete with soil, it’s time to start planting! Whether the kids want to grow carrots, potatoes, cabbages or tomatoes, we offer a full variety of vegetable seeds to choose from. We also have veg strips – these are veggie seedlings that you can buy to be planted straight away, instead of seeds.  

Since this is a raised bed vegetable garden for beginners, we recommend starting with root vegetables. The elevation from the raised bed discourages pests like carrot flies and the fragment-free compost is perfect for protecting their shape as they grow. 

Once you’ve designated a set area for each type of vegetable, help the kids sow their seeds across their raised bed. Ensure that the seeds are spaced out as evenly as possible to give them the best chance of growing.  

Then, top with a layer of garden fabric to keep the soil moist and encourage seed growth. 

4. Regularly water and feed 

Complete the planting stage by watering the seeds and encourage the children to keep this up on a regular basis with their own watering can. 

To help the veg grow successfully, treat regularly with vegetable plant food. This makes sure that the soil is rich in the best nutrients needed to promote delicious veggies!  

Get the kids involved to teach them the importance of caring for plants and allow them to see the growth progress for themselves.  

More vegetable garden ideas and tips: 

  • Label your vegetables as soon as you plant them, including making a note of the date. Involve the children by asking them to create colourful labels to help them remember what they’ve planted where. 
  • Vegetables and herbs can be grown vertically too. Vertical planters are great for growing on walls and fences, especially if space is limited. They are easy to look after as well.  
  • If you’re growing fruit, choose a location that has some sun during the day and rich, moist soil. 
  • However, if your garden doesn’t get much sunlight, you can grow a lot of vegetable and salad crops in the shade.  
  • Give yourself a helping hand and grow as much as possible near to the house. The more you grow close to your kitchen, the more the children will be able to see their veggies’ progress!  

And those are our vegetable garden ideas! For other children’s garden activities, check out our other guides. 



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Homebase

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