Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children

Pizza Patches & Bean Kids’ Garden Projects to Cultivate Wonder

Here are 12 spirited, easy-to-implement ideas for theme gardens that parents and kids can grow together, connecting children to nature through gardening. Each project includes a plan and the planting recipe–as well as a “Discovery Walk,” activities and crafts to make with what you grow. And each is illustrated with author Sharon Lovejoy’s lyrical watercolors.

There’s the Pizza Patch, a giant-size wheel garden planted in “slices” of tomatoes, zucchini, oregano, and basil. A Flowery Maze to get lost in. A Moon Garden of night-blooming flowers, including a moonflower tent. And Mother Nature’s Medicine Chest.

Discovery Walks teach kids how the gardens work, and a chapter on gardening basics includes a child-friendly 10-Minute Plan for planting and maintenance, plus a list of the top 20 plants guaranteed to make gardeners out of kids.