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Kids Eat What They Grow
Want your children to eat more vegetables? Plant a garden with them! Children love to eat what they have grown.

There are many ways to get started gardening, from a pot on the porch to a raised bed, to a plot in your community garden. You can plant seeds or transplants — anything that gets your children excited and their hands in the soil. I like to start plants from seeds, especially when gardening with children. It’s truly magical to see a plant emerge from a tiny seed.

There are different ways to approach what to plant. You might want to plant something that will sprout quickly from seed, such as cucumbers or lettuce. It is also nice to focus on vegetables you can eat raw right off the plant, such as tomatoes, peas and spinach so that you and your child can have a picnic in the garden. Squash are especially fun because they have big seeds that are easy for children to handle, and they emerge with huge leaves. Beans are classic. A 12-year-old boy recently admitted that he never really liked beans, but said that as he picked the strange and beautiful purple dragon’s tongue beans in our school garden, he ate a few and they were great!

Give your children help when they need it, but let them have some freedom to play, too. Maybe they want to paint their raised bed in funky colors or plant something that seems impractical but has a fun name.

The point is that when your children are out in the garden, they are getting fresh air and exercise and discovering the wonders, and science, of growing plants. Many children love vegetables, but if yours have been picky in the past, give them a spade and some soil and they’ll be asking for second helpings.

Susan Holmes, Director, Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School

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