Homeschool Gardening Resources for Every Age to Get Started Gardening in Your Homeschool

Gardening as part of a homeschool education offers numerous benefits for children of all ages. It teaches important life skills and develops a love of nature and the environment. Beyond this, gardening can be a fun new hobby that strengthens family bonds and creates lasting memories.

Incorporating gardening into your homeschooling routine provides practical experiences that bring science lessons to life. From understanding PH levels to observing photosynthesis, your child can gain hands-on knowledge through various garden activities. This approach makes education more engaging and enjoyable. Plus, children can help with meal planning using their harvest of veggies or fruits!

Starting a homeschool garden doesn’t have to be complicated. You can use simple gardening ideas to create a unit study and get your child excited about growing their own food or flowers. By choosing the right curriculum, unit studies, activities, or projects, you can get your kids interested in gardening and all of the learning opportunities it holds.

In this article, I list various gardening resources such as curriculum, unit studies, websites, books, YouTube Channels, apps, field trip ideas, and more! These resources cater to a variety of homeschooling styles. My hope is to get you started on your homeschool gardening journey and help you and your family build beautiful memories along the way.

Benefits of Starting a Homeschool Garden

A homeschool garden doesn’t have to be complicated. Keep it simple and start with one or two projects. Homeschool gardening offers numerous benefits, enhancing your child’s education, emotional and physical health, and family relationships. It provides hands-on learning experiences, promotes well-being, and teaches valuable life skills.

Kids will learn through hands-on experience. Homeschool gardening allows children to learn organically through hands-on activities and real life experiences. They gain knowledge about plant biology, ecosystems, and the environment. You can teach subjects like science by observing plant life cycles, and math by measuring plant growth and planning garden layouts.

Gardening encourages curiosity and inquiry-based learning. Kids ask questions and seek answers through direct observation. As their garden flourishes, they see the results of their efforts, reinforcing concepts learned in books. Practical skills like planning, organizing, and problem-solving are also developed through gardening activities.

Gardening has positive impacts on both emotional and physical health. Spending time outdoors and working with plants can reduce stress and improve mood. The activity itself promotes mindfulness and a sense of achievement as plants grow and thrive.

Gardening gets kids outside and moving. Gardening involves various physical movements, such as digging, planting, and weeding, which can improve coordination, strength, and overall fitness. Exposure to fresh air and sunlight boosts vitamin D to healthy levels. Regular gardening activities also help establish healthy habits and encourage a more active lifestyle.

Gardening provides opportunities for family bonding. Gardening together as a family is a fantastic way to strengthen bonds and create lasting memories. It provides opportunities for teamwork and cooperation, as each family member contributes to the garden’s success. Through shared responsibilities, children learn about commitment, patience, and perseverance.

Gardening teaches valuable life skills. In addition to family bonding, gardening teaches essential life skills. Children learn about responsibility by caring for plants and understanding the importance of nurturing and maintaining their gardens. They also grasp the concept of delayed gratification, seeing how hard work and patience yield positive results.

Now let’s get started talking about the best homeschool gardening resources.

Homeschool Gardening Curriculum Recommendations

A Garden of My Own Curriculum. Blossom and Root is one of my favorite homeschooling resources. All of their homeschool curriculum is nature-based, but there is one product in particular that covers gardening. The curriculum is called a Garden of My Own and covers a new concept each week. There are hands-on activities and additional resource recommendations. We used a Garden of My Own in our homeschool, and we really enjoyed it. You can see a free sample here.

Kids Gardening website. I also mention the Kids Gardening website later in this article under the Gardening Websites section because it is such a great site with FREE lesson plans and fun activities for children in the garden. 

Back to the Roots. On their website, Back to the Roots has FREE lesson plans and activities for kids on topic such as water gardening, microgreens, terrariums, and a seed’s journey. 

Saving Dollars and Cents. The Saving Dollars and Cents website offers a FREE gardening curriculum. There are engaging activities and great book recommendations. 

The School Garden Curriculum. The School Garden curriculum is for K-8 students and is a guide for discovering science, ecology, and whole-systems thinking. You can purchase the book in two ways, either directly from New Society Publishers, or you can buy it on Amazon. 

Homeschool Gardening Unit Study Recommendations

Try a Gardening Unit Study. There are countless gardening unit studies out there for homeschoolers. This Mega Garden Unit Study from Emand Lou Designs on Etsy looks great and has some creative ideas, like planting a soup garden!

Chickie and Roo. Chickie and Roo has lots of wonderful nature-based unit studies. Their Garden Unit Prep Pack is another great option, and all of their products are aesthetically pleasing and keeps kids interested in the material.

Harbor and Sprout. Harbor and Sprout has beautiful unit studies for ALL AGES. Their Early Learning series caters to students from the ages of 2-5. The Primary Series is for children ages 6-12, and the Secondary Series is for ages 12-18+. We purchased the Primary Botany Unit and accompanying Botany Workbook to use in our homeschool this year. I will update you later on how we liked it!

Homestead Garden Unit Study. This Homestead Garden unit study from Books and Willows looks like a great option for families of mixed-aged students. It can cater to younger and older students alike. The illustrations are beautiful and are sure to pique children’s interest in gardening concepts.

Earthly Wellness. This Spring Garden unit study from Earthly Wellness looks like an excellent option for beginner gardeners to learn the basics. The reviews are positive, and the unit covers everything you’ll need to know to get started with your own garden, including vegetable growing guides. 

UnitStudy.com: This website has numerous unit studies. One unit study is specifically for gardening. It is 128 pages long, takes four weeks to complete, and caters to ages K-12. The gardening unit study would pair nicely with the Incredible Insects unit study. This resource is Christian, but from my research, it looks easy enough to skip over any parts that do not apply to you or change the wording as you read aloud if you are a secular homeschooling family like us.

Gardening Project and Activity Ideas

A Hive Home: Check out this article by A Hive Home and get some ideas for gardening projects for EVERY AGE! I got some great ideas from the list for our summer homeschooling plan.

Make wish flags/bunting. This creative idea from Artful Parent will make your garden a beautiful, personalized space. You can easily use scrap fabric to have children draw what they wish to see in their garden this year. Instead of drawing, you could have kids make a flower-pounding bunting for an ingenious twist on this activity.

Make a Bean Trellis Tent. Pole beans are one of my favorite things to grow in the garden because they grow so fast and produce A LOT of beans! Build a trellis for your beans and make it fun by making it so kids can go inside of it. You can get ideas and instruction from this tutorial from the Kids Activities website.

Make a Sun Catcher. There are so many great ideas for making sun catchers for your garden! This idea from Craftsy by Amanda is a great way to use recycled materials to add color and beauty to your garden. 

Plant a Sunflower. This year we planted sunflower seeds at a homeschool park meetup, and it has been so much fun to watch the seed turn into a beautiful flower. This Book Seed from Blossom and Root called The Three Sunflowers would be a fun way to add learning to the experience. 

Gardening Books

Elementary Reading List Suggestions. This is a very nice elementary gardening book list from Artful Parent. There are so many beautiful living books about gardening and nature. PBS also has great gardening book recommendations for kids on its website.

A Fiction Book Option: The Secret Garden. This book would be a great way to incorporate language arts into your garden learning. You can also watch the movie version and have your children compare and contrast the differences between the two.

Square Foot Gardening for Kids. Square Foot Gardening with Kids is a great book that integrates plenty of math learning in the garden. This book would be a great addition to your homeschooling book collection. Square foot gardening has been our homeschool project for the summer. Here is how it works: Children each get a 3 x 3 garden box. The box is divided up into 9 squares. In each square you can plant different things. Some plants can only have one per square, but others can have up to 16! It may sound overwhelming, but the book makes it simple to understand how to get started. There are math exercise and other educational suggestions throughout the book. You can get a free printable from Sunny Day Family to help children plan the squares in their square foot garden.

The First Time Gardener. Jessica Sowards put together a wonderful book called The First Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables. This was the first gardening book I ever read, and she educated me enough to get started with my first successful garden that very same year! She also has a YouTube channel that follows her family’s farm called Roots and Refuge Farm, which has lots of helpful videos. 

The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The Old Farmer’s Almanac’s Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook is an excellent resource for new and seasoned gardeners. I read this book cover to cover when I first started gardening, and it was a lifesaver. It has growing guides and covers all the other basics of gardening in an easy-to-digest way.

Back to Basics. A book called Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills covers every topic imaginable related to self-reliance. Topics include gardening, growing guides, working the land, raising livestock, soap making, canning, irrigation systems, etc. It covers A LOT. We have used this book for projects in our homeschool. This is a great resource for learning some valuable life skills that you can go back to over and over again.

Gardening Websites and Apps

Kids Gardening. The Kids Gardening website is a treasure trove of gardening information. An entire section is dedicated to gardening-related activities, and they also have lesson plans and unit studies about gardening topics. I have bookmarked this website to my favorites!

Kids Do Gardening. The Kids Do Gardening website has sections dedicated to growing vegetables, gardening tips, and gardening activities with kids. The activity section of the website lists fun and educational gardening activities for children. This website is an invaluable resource for any homeschool looking to add gardening to their days. 

From Seed To Spoon. The creators of From Seed to Spoon, Dale and Carrie Spoonemore, completely transformed their yard from a blank slate to a garden oasis in just a few years, and they now share their knowledge with others online. The BEST part is the From Seed to Spoon mobile app. I have been using the FREE version for a few years now. It is so convenient to be able to quickly look up planting guides and harvesting guidelines. You can also get help with pests or other issues. The app helps me plan my garden and track when it is time to harvest. I highly recommend downloading the app and giving it a try!

Gardening YouTube Channels and Playlists

The Lawrence Garden Farm’s Playlist. They have put together a fun playlist of videos about gardening for kids. 

Epic Gardening. I watch this channel ALL the time! Epic gardening has so many helpful videos and I have learned so much from this channel. Their mission? To teach the world to grow! Epic Gardening is also on most other social platforms as well.

Grow It Build It. Grow It Build It has a TON of gardening videos you can browse and choose from. They talk about how to grow certain plants, techniques they have used that have worked, and other interesting gardening tidbits. 

Gardening Field Trip Ideas

Visit Your Local Farmer’s Market. Take the whole family to the local farmer’s market. A farmer’s market is a great place for a scavenger hunt! By visiting the farmer’s market, you will also be supporting small and local businesses, which is a plus.

Visit a Botanical Garden. It would be a fun idea to do a scavenger hunt at the botanical garden, too. Get your kids outside and search for different plant types, colors, sizes, insects, etc. 

Visit a Local Plant Nursery. Again, this would be a great place for a scavenger hunt to keep kids interested and engaged. Kids can pick out their “baby plants” for their garden here too.

Visit a Local Farm. A visit to a small farm is a great way to show kids where their food comes from and how much work it is for our farmers to produce the food we eat. Ask the farm if they do tours. 

Gardening Kits for Children

Gardening Tool Kit: Get this gardening tool set to ensure kids are ready to go in the garden. Plus, children will get more excited when they have their own tool kit.

Herb Garden: Try out this boxed herb garden from National Geographic. This would be a great option during the colder months. 

Root Viewer Kit: This root viewing kit is really cool! Children can watch through the transparent sides of the kit and see how roots grow. This would be especially fun to grow root vegetables like carrots in. 

Butterfly Kit: We used this butterfly kit as a gift for my daughter’s birthday. It was so awesome watching the caterpillars turn into butterflies close up. Don’t worry; you release them afterward!

Tips and Tricks to Get Started

Start Simple

Learn the basics. Don’t overcomplicate it! If you are completely new to gardening, pick a simple project to start with. Decide what type of garden you want to grow. If you want to grow veggies, don’t try to grow them ALL your first year. Pick a few plants that are easy to work with, like tomatoes or pole beans, and stick with that.

Plan Your Garden Layout

Go in with a plan. You can get a free garden planner from Freedom Homeschooling. As mentioned earlier, you can also use the FREE Seed to Spoon app (I highly recommend it). When all else fails, a simple spiral notebook can be your garden planner to keep it simple.

Maintain Your Garden and Keep Records

Track your garden. Keep a garden journal or use the Seed to Spoon app to track your planting dates, days to harvest, and any obstacles you encountered during growing, such as pests. Make it a habit to check on your garden every day. Tracking what we do in the garden helps us improve year by year.

Final Thoughts on Homeschool Gardening

Gardening is a wonderful way to bond with your children while they learn important science concepts and life skills. At the same time, your child will be reaping the many benefits of gardening. When kids can have hands-on experience with concepts, the learning goes much deeper. You can make gardening a fun and educational experience for your children and your whole family. 

And don’t forget, if you don’t have much outdoor space, you can still explore gardening indoors with container gardens or a windowsill herb garden. If you have never gardened before, you might enjoy it and find out it is your new favorite hobby! 

I hope you found my recommendations helpful!

So go ahead and start planting, get your hands dirty, and watch your children’s love for gardening grow!

Frequently Asked Questions

What resources are available for homeschool gardening lesson plans and unit studies?

Many gardening resources are available online, such as curriculum, unit studies, websites, YouTube channels, books, apps, projects, and activities. You can even explore the option to earn credit through a homeschool gardening elective, with details on required hours of instruction.

How can I incorporate gardening into our homeschooling effectively?

Incorporate gardening by integrating practical activities, such as teaching kids about plant care and botany. Let kids plan their own garden, and they will be more invested in the outcome. Come up with simple and fun tasks for children to do in the garden, like watering plants, pulling weeds, planting seeds, and harvesting.

What are the best gardening books for homeschooling?

Some gardening book recommendations include Square Foot Gardening with Kids, The Farmer’s Almanac: The Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, The First Time Gardener, and Back to Basics. The Secret Garden would be a great fictional book to read together. Look for books that offer step-by-step guides and cover the basics of plant care, seasonal planting, and garden upkeep. These can provide valuable knowledge and hands-on activities.

How can beginners get started with gardening in their homeschool?

Beginners can start by involving children in simple gardening tasks and teaching them the fundamentals. Planting seeds, watering, and learning about different types of plants can make the process engaging and educational. Remember to keep it simple, have a plan, keep records, and have fun!