There is nothing better than a good gardening book for children. Children are often used to the magic of books from their endless story times with parents at bed time. Certainly we are great believers in a classic story at bed time – still like reading the Beatrix Potter books – they are just timeless.
The same goes with gardening books. They are there to inspire interest in gardening and also for parents to talk through the gardening techniques with their children. There is just so much to gardening on top of growing plants. There is the nature, the wildlife, the weather and of course in a vegetable garden, food.
What’s also great about children’s gardening books is that you can read them out of season and build up the excitement in readiness for the growing seasons ahead. Some also have a lot of craft that you can do throughout the autumn and winter months. Whilst there are loads of books out there, here are our favourites right now.
RHS Let’s Get Gardening
Suitable for ages 5 – 9
This book is one of the newest children’s gardening books released onto the market and is from the RHS itself. The book goes through a number of different gardening techniques for children including how to grow vegetables, herbs, attract wildlife into the garden and of course how to be a green gardener and recycle around the garden. It’s laid out extremely well and goes through the activities and how to guides in a simple step by step manner. This is both great for children and also parents who are gardening for the first time.
There are also a number of activities that children can do around the garden such as plant into wellies, build small nature reserves and of course how to grow a garden that you can harvest and eat. This really is a wonderful gardening book for children and it has a place in every family’s home that is considering or already has introduced their children to gardening.
National Trust: Sunflower Shoots and Muddy Boots
Suitable for: 4 Years and up
This book is one of the smaller ones that are out there at only 35 pages. However, if you are looking for something for younger gardeners, you won’t need to look much further. The book is wonderfully illustrated with pictures that will enthuse a younger audience. It is packed full of activities and ideas to help them get started. It also covers off some top tips around the garden as well as facts about plants and growing. A great book to introduce children into gardening.
The Kew Gardens Children’s Cookbook
Suitable for: 6 to 8 Years
Coming from the Kew Gardens, this children’s gardening book is not going to fall short of your expectations. It is designed purely around children growing to eat. The book is 112 pages long and is packed full of information on how to grow common vegetable such as, potatoes, peas, beans carrots and much more. More so, it also caters for many garden types such as container planting, home gardening and also down at the allotment. There are also many other gardening disciplines covered off such as how plants grow, seeds to seedlings, watering, weeding and harvesting to composting.
Once all of the vegetables have been grown, there are some great tips on how they can be cooked. A great way to show how a small seed can eventually become the food that you eat on the table. Perfect for encouraging great healthy eating habits.
My First Book About How Things Grow
Suitable for: 3 Years and up
This book is on the smaller side with only 28 pages. It is a paperback book that is designed to get younger children inspired by gardening. You will find the content similar to other usbourne books. The book itself also come with 120 stickers that children can use to interact with the book. It will give them examples of different trees and plants around the garden as well the lifecycle of the plant and how they grow back year after year. In our opinion this book is designed for a child that either has not started gardening yet or one that has shown an interest and you want to give them a little more information to spur their curiosity.
My First Gardening Book
Suitable for: 7 and up
If your child is a gardener that is trying to get started in the great outdoors, this book is certainly for them. The book itself is split into chapters to help them along their way to do some great gardening. The first chapter, in this children’s gardening book, is all about getting started. It includes how to prepare soil, sowing their seeds and how to choose plants and maintain the garden that they have created. The second chapter is all about growing their own food and plants, including some wonderful projects that they can get started with. The third chapter is designed to give children some ideas about how they can decorate their garden. And lastly the fourth is all about craft – all of the fun things that they can do in and around the garden and in some cases using the produce that they have grown. The whole book is written in a lovely child friendly language so that that stay engaged and get the best out of the experience.
Eddie’s Garden: And How To Make Things Grow
Suitable for: 4 – 7 Years
This book is a wonderful hybrid between a ‘how to’ book for children and a story about the garden growing. The book is only 40 pages long but has been illustrated in such a way that younger children will easily understand. With this book, children can expect to see everything that Eddie is growing. It takes you through a story of planting the seeds, right the way through to the harvest with many gardening activities on the way. If you are growing a garden for the fist time with your children, this would be a great book to read them before the spring time.
Kids First Gardening
Suitable for: 7 and up (or parents teaching younger children)
This book has to be one of my favourite books. It is packed full of ideas over a whopping 256 pages. It covers off most aspects of gardening and breaks it down into really simple manageable steps. Each activity in the book is wonderfully designed and shows you all of the equipment that you need along with the step by step process for parents and children to follow. It has a vast range of activities contained within. If you are looking to just buy one book for your gardening adventures, this would certainly be a reccomendation.
If you like any other gardening books, we would love to hear from you.
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