A vegetable Garden for Children

How To Make A Children's Vegetable Garden That Works

From my observation, the best vegetable gardens for children provide healthy snacks while they are on the go, as well as opportunities to learn about how food grows. Think of it as a healthy and ever-fresh lunchbox planted within the children's play area.
This vegetable garden becomes all theirs to experiment with and develop gardening skills that will be useful for life. While they care for their plants they learn about the food cycle, the workings of nature and how to care for the Earth. This education is invaluable & you may find as a parent, they have much they can teach us too through this simple exercise! They can watch the tiny seeds germinate before planting into the soil which adds an additional interest & teaches them how careful they need to be in planting  out the young seedlings.

I suggest putting their vegetable garden where they can reach it.

The ideal position for the children's vegetable garden is in their play area. That’s their space, and helps them recognize the veggie patch as theirs. Having their veggie patch in their immediate surrounds also means they can snack on what’s growing, fresh and direct from the garden.
Your children will be able to conveniently work on their garden, make observations about what’s growing well and what needs some help and take care of watering and weeding as an extension of their play activities.
Unless you have to protect their vegetable patch from wildlife or pets, leave it unfenced so they can get to it easily. If you need to use a fence, try to install a gate that they can manage.
When attacking animals & bugs are affecting the vegetables it is a great opportunity to talk to your children about the emotions that are contributing to this attack. I have found this to be most effective when I am able to truly access what emotions are at play, especially those of my own...... always keep in mind that the parents' emotions that are out of harmony with love contribute to what's happening for their child!..it may be something as simple as desiring to take everything from the garden for my own purposes rather than sharing or planting extra for others! We so often have a need to only "take" & not "give back" to Mother Earth accompanied with projections on the veggies of "grow..grow..grow so I can eat you!"

Positioning the children's  vegetable garden so that they can access it from all sides seems like a great idea. Don’t make the garden bed too wide, remember that little arms should be able to reach the centre of the vegetable patch from each of the edges. Of course you can make the bed longer, but try to keep it less than 1.2m-1.5m wide. Otherwise it will be tempting for them to walk into the vegetable patch and compress the soil.

Veggie gardens for little ones can teach responsibility.

Give the children a sense of it being their garden and allow them to take responsibility for it. Let them select which vegetables are grown, you can always encourage  them to select varieties that can be picked continuously and ones they enjoy eating. I have found peas, broad beans, tiny tomatoes, salad greens including lettuce and carrots generally very popular. My grandchildren just love the baby  "tom thumb" tomatoes & I grow some different colored ones too like the pear shaped baby yellow ones for them to enjoy. They just love raiding the bushes whenever they visit & I have them available. A handful becomes a very healthy snack.
Allow the children to pick ripe vegetables freely, as long as they actually eat them and don’t waste them. Ask permission before you consider raiding their vegetable patch for the family dinner – they will probably feel proud to contribute, but checking with them first demonstrates that you respect the efforts they’re making in their veggie patch.
As they’re also responsible for their garden, it is a great idea to teach children to watch for changes in the plants so they can attend to their needs. Even younger children can be encouraged to watch for wilting leaves that show a plant needs water and check for ripe vegetables and fruit that are ready to harvest.
A note about picking for pets – I believe this encourages a sharing, caring attitude and I’m all for it. Children can pick and share lettuce and silverbeet leaves with pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs. The idea of planting a few extra plants for the birds, slugs and bugs is well worth encouraging.