Plant a "Garden Friends" Themed Garden for Kids

Gardening with children is rewarding for adults and children alike. It can teach important science principles such as life cycles, botany, wildlife habitats, food webs and ecosystems. It is also full of character-building life lessons like a sense of place and responsibility, sustainability and self-sufficiency. 

Planning and growing a themed garden is a great way to get children excited about their plants. In the past we have explored growing a Pizza or Taco garden, growing an Alphabet garden and growing a Rainbow or Pollinator garden. This time around we are going to give you some inspiration for a "Garden Friends" themed garden, otherwise known as companion planting.

This post contains affiliate links meaning I make a small commission from purchases made from these links at no additional cost to you. See disclosures for more information.  

We are also excited to be hosting a Renee's Garden seed giveaway. If you aren’t already familiar with Renee’s Garden seeds, I highly recommend exploring their offerings as you plan your garden. I love all of the unique varieties. With unusual heirlooms and plants that thrive in containers and small spaces they offer many good choices for a small home garden or school garden.

You will find details and the giveaway entry form at the bottom of this post.

Garden Friends: What is Companion Planting?

Companion planting is the concept of growing plants that compliment each other or are helpful to one another together. For example, planting something that grows tall, like peas on a trellis, where they can shade a friend that needs cooler conditions like lettuce from the mid-day sun. 

Plants can be friends because one repels or traps insect pests that are damaging to another. Planting basil around tomato plants can deter tomato pests. Planting flowers like nasturtium act as attractive insect traps. 

Plant friends can be those that do not compete for the same nutrients in the soil. Radishes that grow quickly and grow to shallow depths can be grown with carrots that grow deeper in the soil.  

 

The Three Sisters

An ancient method of companion planting comes from the Native Americans. Originating in North America around 3,000 years ago, corn, beans and squash were some of the first garden friends. Each plant has features that are beneficial to the others. 

Corn provides support as it grows tall and strong like a trellis. Beans add nitrogen to the soil and can climb the corn stalks. Squash is planted at the base to protect the beans and corn. The large squash leaves help provide shade and hold moisture in the ground. The shading of the squash can help prevent weed growth. Prickly squash stems can deter pests.

The Three Sisters garden is magical as it is like its own self-sustaining ecosystem. You can tell the native story of the Three Sisters to your students or children to inspire the planting of these three crops together. Scroll through this post to read the story and learn how to plant your three sisters garden.

 

Learn how you can win a pack of Native American Three Sisters Seeds at the end of this post! This big bonus pack of seeds from Renee's Garden Seeds includes Earth Tones Indian Dent Corn, Rattlesnake Bean and Sugar Pie Pumpkin seeds. 

Kids Gardening has Three Sisters lesson plans available when you sign up for their newsletter (which I highly recommend!) You can find the Three Sisters Lesson plan resource here. 

Pairs of Garden Friends to Plant

Here are some plant pairings that make good garden friends. Some of these are based on science, some based on folklore, but all make beautiful and tasty gardens! 

 

Cucumbers and Nasturtium- Grow cucumbers up a trellis with nasturtium down below to repel and trap pests. Nasturtium flowers are pretty and edible. They taste a bit like a radish.

Potatoes and Garlic- Garlic helps to keep away pests! 

Broccoli and Oregano- the Oregano serves as an insecticide

Carrots and Chives- Chives improve carrot growth and flavor as well as well as deterring pests

Lettuce and Radishes- radishes trap insect pests

Peas and Alyssum- Alyssum helps to bring in beneficial pollinators

Melons or Squash and Dill- Dill flowers attract beneficial insects

Tomatoes and Basil- Basil repels some pests, including helping to prevent tomato hornworm.

 

The list could go on and on! Check out the Farmers Almanac for an extensive list of good garden friends.

 

Garden Planning

Gardening with kids can be such a blast. My friend Christina at Little Sprouts Learning is a master at gardening with children. You can grab her helpful garden planner here as well as some other helpful resources for kids.

 

There is more to gardening than just the plants and seeds! Kids love to decorate garden markers and using them helps them to learn their plants. Kids can design their own with these blank bamboo garden markers. These 3-D printed garden markers are so colorful and these bright vegetable shaped markers would be great for a kid's themed garden. 

You might also want to invest in a sturdy kid-sized set of garden tools like this for digging and exploring throughout the growing season. 

Win a Native American Three Sisters Garden Seed Pack!

 

Enter below to win a Native American Three Sisters Garden Seed Pack from Renee's Garden Seeds. This giveaway starts March 23rd, 2024 and ends at midnight March 29th, 2024. The winner will be announced in our newsletter, listed on this post and notified by e-mail once the giveaway has ended. 

 

Must be a United States resident to enter, for further terms and conditions see Rafflecopter box below.

 

 

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DIY Seed Germination Jar: A Must-Have for Your Plant Unit!

Seed germination is one of nature's little wonders. Giving your kids and students the opportunity to grow a plant of their own can be a magical experience. Unfortunately, we most often stick the seeds in some soil where we cannot see what happens as the seed becomes a tiny sprout. You can easily solve this problem by building a germination jar so that kids can see the entire process in action!

Building the germination jar is easy, and it is the perfect addition to your plant unit at school or in your home-school. This inquiry-based science activity is linked to K-2 Next Generation Science Standards and offers an extension idea to align with Common Core English and Language Arts standards as well. Paired with a wonderful children's book, you'll definitely want to add this to your spring to-do list for school or home!

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I will receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking a product link. Please see disclosures page for more details.
 

Growing "One Bean"

There are so many science lessons and life lessons learned when children grow something themselves. You can make this activity a part of a science unit on life cycles or just an introduction to gardening with children.

First, we read One Bean, a sweet picture book by Anne Rockwell. In this story a boy plants a bean seed and watches it grow. Although told in a narrative style, anyone could follow the process of growing a bean seed themselves along with the story.




The boy puts the bean in a damp paper towel to prepare it for planting. Once it is wrinkled, he plants it in some soil and waits for his seed to sprout. This is where most planting projects become mysterious! The beauty of your germination jar is that you'll be able to watch the process unfold.

Build a Germination Jar 

To build your seed viewer, or germination jar, you'll only need a few supplies:

• clear smooth-sided glass or jar
• seeds (we had great success with fava beans!)
• clear water beads
• water

Water beads are pretty amazing! You only need a few at a time, and you can dry them out and reuse them for other projects.(They would be great to study absorption as well, as they soak up that water and grow to be 100's of times their original size.)

There are many ways to germinate a seed by keeping it moist, including wrapping in a damp paper towel like in the bean story we read. However, I like that by using the water beads, you do not have to cover the top of the jar up with plastic wrap or something else to hold the moisture in. I have used that method many times to teach children about plants. It works, but it can also lead to mold growing because it sometimes stays too wet.

You will have to experiment with how many water beads and how much water to use. The jar we began with ended up being far too large, so eventually we moved our experiment to a smaller glass. Start by using just a few water beads- a tablespoon of them can go a long way. Pour a bit of water on and let them absorb it for a couple of hours before adding anything else.

You want your jar to be moist, but not too wet. You will need enough water beads to hold your seed in place, but not so many that there is no room to grow. This is the experiment within the experiment!

Watch a Seed Germinate

Before you start, soak your bean seed(s) in a glass of water over night. This really helps to get them off to a quick start. We chose fava beans because they are easy for small hands to hold and are large so you can really see what is going on with them.

Once you've soaked your seed and prepared your water beads, place the bean seed so that it is close to the side of the glass and easy to view. Be sure that there are water beads over the top of the seed so that it stays moist.

Then, you wait! Until the seed begins to germinate, you might want to give the jar a little more water each day, carefully pouring it around the outside of the jar where the seeds are. Within a day or so, you should begin to see that first part of the sprout, the radicle, emerging from the seed.

Keep an eye on your jar. If your water beads seem to be shrinking, add just a bit more water. Once you have a green sprout, you can choose whether to leave the seed in the water beads, or plant it in some soil. If you plan on trying to keep your plant growing to maturity, I'd suggest planting it before too long.

If you are lucky enough to have garden space, then that is the obvious place to grow your beans, but for those with space at a premium, particularly schools, I would suggest investigating growing a pocket garden on a wall. Here is one example of a pocket planter.
 

Meet Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards

This seed investigation will work towards meeting these Next Generation Science Standards for K-2.
NGSS K-LS1-1
NGSS K-ESS3-1
NGSS 2-LS4-1

You can also work towards these K-2 Common Core English and Language Arts Standards by creating an observation journal that includes words as well as drawings.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.3
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.3
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.3

More Plant Science Investigations! 

Learning with plants can continue throughout the spring and summer seasons. It is a great way to investigate biology concepts like pollination with elementary students.

One of my favorite experimental plant projects is growing an avocado plant from its pit.

Try growing a themed garden with kids. Some theme ideas are: an alphabet garden, a rainbow garden, a taco garden, or a pizza garden, or a garden friends companion garden. 

Explore math and science with sunflowers, and learn the parts of the flower with students in preschool all the way through High School by doing a flower dissection. 

Storybook Science Series

This activity is part of the Storybook Science series. You can find more great book-linked science activities in this series on the Inspiration Laboratories blog.  

You'll also want to visit my Storybook Science posts from past years:

• The Dandelion Seed: Design a Seed Engineering Challenge 
• "Here Comes the Garbage Barge" Inspired Landfill Model

Harness the Power of Nature this Fall!

What is not to love about fall? Crispy colored leaves on the ground, acorns, caterpillars, apples, pleasant weather...I could go on and on! It's the perfect time to get your children or students learning in nature.

Nature is a powerful teaching tool. It inspires kids to ask new questions, explore things they have not seen before and spending time outside has been shown to benefit kids overall health and learning. I've pulled together a bunch of resources to help you teach your students outside this fall. From pumpkins and apples to leaves and twigs, scavenger hunts to garden harvests, you'll find all the ideas you need to provide a nature-rich learning experience for your classroom or homeschool.

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I make a small commission (at no additional cost to you) from purchases made from these links. Please see disclosures for more information.

Observe Nature on a Scavenger Hunt

Get outside and put those powers of observation to good use. So many changes come with the turn of the season, there is a lot to see out there! Try one of these ideas:

• Search for Lichen- its everywhere once you start to look!
• Go on a Funky Fungus Scavenger Hunt
• Look Up! Find a nest you didn't know was there! 

Create Nature Art

Take advantage of those fall colors and the abundance of leaves that have dropped to the ground to create some great nature art. In choosing natural supplies for art pieces, students really take a closer look at these items than they might otherwise.

A great way to guide these projects is with this nature printables pack. You can see how we've used our copy here. It is awesome not only for creating beautiful art pieces, but also mastering early math skills like symmetry and patterning.

Study Animal Behavior in Fall 

In the fall some animals migrate, some bulk up for the winter. Explore fall animal behavior with these ideas:

• Woolly bear caterpillars have amazing adaptations to winter! Learn about woolly bear caterpillars here. 
• Monarch butterflies are incredible migrators. Here are some Monarch migration lesson ideas for Pre-K through High School.
• Some birds begin their fantastic migratory journey this time of year too. Find out how you can study bird migration here. 
• Learn more about spiders with these spider STEM activities. 

Learn with Fall Leaves

Leaves are in abundance on the ground and changing colors on the trees. Try these activities with fall leaves.

• Why do leaves change color? Try this leaf color science experiment. 
• Do you wish you could save those beautiful fall leaves? Check out how you can by making a leaf journal.

 

Science with Pumpkins and Apples! 

Experiment with some of nature's bounty this fall. Here are three easy inquiry science lessons that use pumpkins and apples!

• Can you prevent an apple from rotting? Try this easy, open-ended apple science experiment.
• Discover a pumpkin in a new way this year! Counting, measuring, life cycles and more in this pumpkin STEM investigation.  
• Don't throw out that jack-o-lantern! Investigate decomposition with Pumpkin Jack!

Using Nature Arts and Crafts to Inspire STEAM Learning

Creating art from natural items is an excellent way for kids to hone their observation skills while developing creativity. I'm excited to be reviewing the Nature Arts and Crafts printable pack from author Penny Whitehouse of the Mother Natured blog. Not only is this a beautiful and clever resource for families, teachers and summer camps, but it also provides opportunities for STEAM learning and building science observation skills.

There are over 30 activities included that only require a printer, a place in nature and an excited kid! I predict it will provide hours of creative hands-on engagement for the kids in your life. Check out what we've done so far with our copy.

This post contains affiliate links, please see disclosures for more information. 

What are Nature Arts and Crafts? 

The Nature Arts and Crafts printable pack is a 60 page digital book including over 30 activities to take out into nature and create art. The activities are open-ended, inspiring creativity in nature loving kids. Not only do they get to explore art while out in nature, but also hone some important science and math skills in the process.

There are printables for all skill levels included in the pack, from learning patterns and developing fine motor skills for young children, to creating intricate nature mosaics and nature journals for older kids.

STEAM Learning Opportunities

Not only will kids get to be artistic and explore nature with these activities, but they also learn a lot in the process. Elements of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) are inherent throughout. Concepts like symmetry, and patterning develop math skills. Activities like basket weaving inspire nature engineering projects.

As kids choose the natural items they will use to make art, they make careful observations, looking for specific shapes and colors in nature. This can even lead to better plant identification skills. Using the printables during different seasons of the year can help children understand the changes that nature goes through.

Fun with Nature Arts and Crafts

So far we've enjoyed a few of the activities and are excited to try them all. The best part is that you can do them over and over again and each time they come out differently! It only reminded me that I need to get a little laminator like this for home so that I can make sturdy copies of each that we can take with us whenever we go on an outdoor adventure.

Our cherry tree was just losing its blossoms when we were collecting materials, so we had plenty of pink petals to craft with! Here are some of our other "supplies".

Pattern practice, first an AB pattern, then ABC!

We also had fun with dress-ups!

I love that there are so many different ways you can use the same printable to create something new! Here is another example:

Where Can You Get Nature Arts and Crafts?

Ready to try these yourself? You can follow this link to learn more and to purchase the printable pack. This digital download is well worth the money, as you can print them over and over once you own it.

In the meantime, you can enjoy this free excerpt.

Want to know more? Check out this video to see Nature Arts and Crafts in action!


Looking for more nature art? Check out these Nature Sculpture Engineering Challenges or this Beautiful Bird Nest craft. You might also enjoy this post on hosting a family STEAM night!

Disclaimer: I received a digital download of this printable pack in exchange for an honest review.

Exploring Flowers! Activities From Preschool to High School

I am thrilled to be a guest blogger this week on Only Passionate Curiosity. Check out my post, "Exploring Flowers: Activities From Preschool to High School"!

Get the supplies you need for those flower investigations! 

Plant Identification Apps: Yard Mapping for Kids

A fun outdoor STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) activity for kids is yard mapping. Identifying plants and drawing a map of your yard, the park or a nature trail can be a great way to stimulate that growing brain this summer.

This post contains affiliate links, see disclosures for more information. 

When kids need a reference guide, I'm generally the "let's look it up in a book" old-fashioned type of person. But, technology is at our fingertips and can be super useful if used properly. One area where using an actual field guide can be particularly difficult for kids is plant identification.

Although using a dichotomous key is an excellent science skill to learn, there are tons of botany terms that are not kid-friendly to wade through in many field guides. If a task is so frustrating that they lose interest in even trying, then you've lost the curiosity that stemmed the activity!

Using an app for plant identification can be faster and more fun. I'd even argue that in some cases, it can help with accuracy. Here are some free plant i.d. apps that can help kids identify plants and create their own yard map.

Identify Your Plants!

I've used these free apps on the iPad, but please note some of them are also available for iPhone and android.

GardenAnswers 

This app was by far the most useful one I found. It worked well with all plants I tried, from houseplants, landscaped plants and native plants. Sometimes trees and shrubs from a nursery can be difficult to identify with a field guide, so this one is particularly good for that. Snap a picture, then  scroll through the archived images until you find a match, usually it will be the first or second choice. It's designed to work best with flowers, but I found it to be fairly accurate with leaf pictures as well. For an extra, nominal, charge you can ask an expert if you really get stumped.

IdentifyTreeLite

This app is set up in a very user friendly way. You pick the attributes of your tree: leaf shape and orientation, flower color, shape, etc. Then you can choose from different options to narrow down your tree. The drawback of the free version is that it only features a few trees. Currently, you can upgrade to a wider variety of trees for .99 cents.

TreeBook

This is the closest to a field guide that you will get in terms of vocabulary. There are some scientific terms kids might not know, but there are also images to help them move through the key. The free version features the 100 most common trees in North America.

Leafsnap

I've had mixed results with Leafsnap. You take a picture of a leaf on a white background and then navigate through some results to find a match. The design of this app is really nice, however, having to snap your picture on a white background either means you need to pick a leaf and lay it down somewhere flat, or play a balancing act while you snap the picture. Not the best for small hands!

You might also want to try these apps available for android phones.

Pl@ntNet

This is another one where you snap a picture and scroll through some suggestions. It is designed to recognize plants in Europe, however, if you are living somewhere else you might still find your plant, or match it to the correct plant family. Then it's just a matter of pulling out the trusty field guide and checking out a family group rather than trying to identify from scratch.

Google Goggles

Although this app isn't meant specifically for identifying plants, it works well if you can't find your plant elsewhere. Snap a picture and then Google searches for similar images. When you find a similar one, you will most likely also find the plant's name. You'll definitely want to follow up to be sure that the name you find on Google is accurate with a field guide or by visiting a reputable plant website.

There are so many different plants, that it is a must to use multiple sources. You'll also want to double-check with a field guide, or online to be sure you've nailed your identification. 

Time to Make Your Map!

Once the tech is loaded up, you can fill up a backpack with the supplies you need to map the yard and get to work! Here are some things you might want to take with you:

• Device to run the plant identification apps
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Notebook (If your kiddo gets really serious about keeping a nature notebook, you might want to invest in one from Rite in the Rain- they are sturdy and have waterproof paper!)
• Scotch tape
• Clipboard
• Colored pencils
• Kid-friendly field guide, such as Fandex Field Guide: Trees, Fandex Field Guide: Wildflowers, Peterson First Guide to Trees, Peterson First Guide to Wildflowers

You can extend this identification and mapping activity by:

• Adding scale to the map
• Adding color to the map
• Observing, identifying and recording what insects, birds and other animals visit specific plants
• Participate in Cornell's citizen science project YardMap and create a digital yard map online

If you are looking for some other great outdoor STEM and STEAM activities, check out the rest of the posts in this series, 31 Days of Outdoor STEM, hosted by Little Bins for Little Hands. 

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Grow a Taco or Pizza Garden with Kids

Growing plants with children has so many benefits- learning plant life cycles, learning where food comes from, and of course learning some responsibility along the way! Growing a kid's theme garden can really connect children with their garden patch. 

Last year, we explored growing Rainbow and Pollinator gardens. This year we will investigate themed vegetable gardens: a Taco garden and a Pizza garden!

 

This post contains affiliate links meaning I receive a small commission from purchases made from these links at no additional cost to you. Please see disclosures for more information.

Growing a Taco Garden

You can get started growing a taco garden in pots, a small garden bed or in a portion of a larger garden. 

 

Garden Peppers! ©SBF 2015

 

What can you grow in a taco garden? There are a wide variety of tomatoes and peppers to start. 

 

You might also want to try herbs like cilantro, or grow some scallions or onions. 

 

Lettuce is easy to direct sow into the garden and it isn't too difficult to keep your crop growing throughout the summer. 

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Cilantro
• Scallions
• Onions
• Lettuce

What other vegetables can you put on a taco? Get creative!

 

You can make some salsa right out of your garden with this kid's salsa recipe from Weelicious. 

 

Although growing corn and grinding it for your own tortillas might seem a little ambitious, this can definitely lead to an interesting discussion about where the other ingredients for a taco come from! 

 

You might also want to check out the picture book, So You Want to Grow a Taco? by Bridget Heos to explore the idea further.

If you are interested in growing your taco garden in pots, you might try some of the container tomatoe varieties from Renee's Garden such as: Heirloom Stupice or Super Bush.

 
Herbs are easy to grow on a patio or even indoors. For a taco garden you might try some cilantro, like this heirloom variety.
 

There are also many nice varieties of lettuce that can be grown directly in the garden, or in a container. I really like Sweetie Baby Romaine and Renee's Baby Leaf Blend.

 

Container lettuce. SBF 2015

Growing a Pizza Garden

Dutch oven pizza! SBF 2015

 

What is a pizza made of? What can you grow in your pizza garden? Tomatoes and oregano for sauce, basil, peppers and onions for toppings. If you have a large garden you probably have other items that would taste yummy on there, like eggplant, or even some fried zucchini! 

 

• Roma tomatoes (great for sauce!)
• Oregano
• Basil
• Peppers
• Onions
• Eggplant (this is my favorite container variety!)
• Zucchini

Basil SBF 2015

 

Just as you can grow many of your "taco plants" in the garden, or in pots, the same goes for your pizza toppings. Basil and oregano grow wonderfully in pots or out under and among the tomatoes in the garden. These herbs have the added benefit of keeping some tomato pests away!

You might try Italian Genovese or Large Leaf Cameo basil.

Tomatoes SBF 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roma tomatoes are great for making tomato sauce. Try this pizza sauce recipe with the kids.

 

For further learning and discussion about growing pizza ingredients, investigate So You Want to Grow a Pizza? by Bridget Heos.

To get you started with your taco or pizza garden, we're giving away 4 sets of 4 packages of Renee's Garden Seeds. Using the Rafflecopter box below you can enter to win some tomato, pepper and herb seeds for your garden. Later this summer, the winners will be asked to share how their gardens fared this year! The giveaway runs from April 5th, 2016- April 11th, 2016. Winners will be notified via e-mail and announced on the blog. Good luck and have fun gardening!

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