Gardening with Tamariki Without the Overwhelm
Many kaiako are passionate about outdoor learning and sustainability. Teaching children to garden is a great way for connecting them with nature. However, if gardening is not something teachers know about, it might be something they choose not to do. They may worry about the plants dying or not knowing what to grow or when. Gardening may feel like they’re adding another thing to an already busy day.
You might want gardening to be part of your curriculum, but feel unsure where to start, how to keep plants alive, or how to make it manageable for your team. However, you don't need to know everything before you begin. Gardening is something kaiako and tamariki can learn together.
Do we need a big garden to garden with children?
Often when we think about growing a garden with children, we envision something large and productive made up of expensive raised beds. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I once worked with a centre that had no garden space. We created a garden by converting old formula tins into pots that could be hung on the fence, and successfully grew lettuce, spinach, herbs and flowers.
Reusing containers is a cheaper option for starting a garden. You may already have some that are suitable, rather than buying new ones. However, make sure they are suitable for growing plants in, and be careful of sharp edges. They will also need drainage holes in the bottom.
Your garden could be any of the following things, or a combination of them.
● containers
● pots
● vertical spaces
● small growing areas
A garden could be created in a small section of the outdoor space that is underutilised, or it might be containers at the edge of the deck. Another centre I worked with made their garden in three half wine barrels that separate the deck from the sandpit.
The value of gardening lies in children’s regular involvement in caring for living things, not in the size of the garden or the amount of produce that is harvested. When creating your garden, start with the space you have, not the garden you wish you could have.
What if I don't know much about gardening?
Having little or no knowledge about gardening can be a barrier for kaiako who are concerned that they don’t know enough to teach children. However, the beauty of gardening is that you don’t need to know all the answers. Gardening provides lots of opportunities to observe, ask questions, investigate and learn alongside tamariki.
Start with a small, manageable growing activity like planting a flower seedling in a pot. Give it water and along with tamariki, observe what happens. Talk with the them about what you’re observing and use your conversation to guide what you will do next. Much of gardening is about observation and learning from how the plants respond to actions you take.
You don't have to be the expert. You can be a fellow learner.
How can we fit gardening into an already busy day?
Turning gardening into an everyday routine will help take away the feeling that it needs to be a block of time in an already crowded day. Yes, it might be a bit busier at certain parts of the year, like in springtime when you’re sowing or planting summer seedlings, but once they’re in the garden many daily gardening tasks can be brief.
Children might check what has changed, notice whether plants need water, or help with a small task. Other activities, such as sowing seeds, planting seedlings or clearing finished plants, will take longer. These larger tasks can be planned and spread across manageable periods.
You don’t have to do everything at once. Spread out the seed sowing and planting over a few days or even weeks into time slots that are manageable. That’s when keeping the garden small is a positive. You may not grow as much as you’d like but it is manageable.
Fitting gardening into the daily routine might feel overwhelming, but if you can make it part of something else, such as when you first go outside in the morning, that will help. Sharing the load with team members will always help.
I once worked with a centre who added checking the garden to their daily outdoor checklist, then used what they noticed to involve the children when they first went outside. They encouraged tamaiki to tell them what they saw and what they thought they needed to do, eg water, then did the watering and the gardening task was done for the day.
A word of warning, when you first introduce gardening to tamariki, you may have a large group who want to be involved. This might happen for a few days. However, as gardening becomes part of the daily rhythm of the centre, it won’t be such a novelty and you will probably find that it is the really keen children who will want to garden, while those less interested choose to engage in other activities. This is where having team involvement will help it feel less overwhelming.
To help make gardening manageable try to change your thinking from “Today we're doing gardening” to “Gardening is what we do every day.”
What can children actually do?
Even though I’ve worked in early childhood for a number of years and understand young children’s learning, when I first started gardening with tamariki I was surprised by how much they could competently do.
For example:
Garden task | What children can do |
Sow seeds | Fill containers with seed raising mix, make small holes in soil to put seeds into, cover seed with soil, and water |
Plant seedlings | Dig the hole where the seedling will go, put seedling in the hole (in most instances you will need to help get seedling out of the pot), put soil around the plant |
Water | Fill watering cans, observe how wet or dry the soil is, water the plants |
Weed | Identify weeds (with help from you) and pull them out to go into the compost or green waste bin |
Harvest | Observe when produce is ready to harvest. Harvest vegetables if appropriate for them to do so (i.e. if it needs a sharp knife or not) |
Compost | Add materials to the compost bin from the garden or kitchen, observe decomposition, help harvest compost and put onto the garden |
Mulch | Put mulch around plants |
Seed saving | Collect, sort and store seeds such as beans, tomatoes, and sunflowers |
Remove finished plants | When plants have finished producing, pull out the plants and help put them in compost/green waste bin |
In most instances each of these tasks can be undertaken by tamariki, with support from adults. However, some tasks may need to be adapted or avoided depending on the age of children gardening.
Check that all tasks are appropriate for the children in your setting. Potting mix, compost, fertiliser, mulch, tools, harvested produce and reused containers need suitable supervision and age-appropriate handling.
What if the children pull everything out?
As teachers, we know that children learn through their senses. That includes touching, exploring, testing and experimenting. The garden is a good place to develop care and responsibility. But it will take time for those skills to develop. Children don’t automatically know which plants can be picked, and which need protecting.
I have learnt over the years that the more opportunities children have to be engaged in the whole process of gardening, the more care they take. When they have sown a seed, watered it, and watched it grow, then transferred it to a larger pot or the garden and continued to water and care for it, they develop a relationship with the plant.
I remember a few years ago a child who knew amongst all the plants in the garden, which silver beet plant he had planted. He checked it every day and cared for it. He was very proud when he could start to harvest it.
But it does take time and consistency for this type of care to develop. He’d been regularly gardening for a few months. I’ve also noticed that those tamariki who really care for the garden will also moderate their peers.
When gardening becomes part of the everyday routine, tamariki have repeated opportunities to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility. Over time, they may begin to recognise particular plants, notice when something needs attention and help others care for the garden.
What if our plants don't grow?
Not every seed will germinate, not every plant will grow, and sometimes a healthy-looking plant might die. Even the most experienced gardeners have failures. I always sow more seeds than I need because it’s not often I have a 100% success rate of germination. A few years ago, I had a cucumber die - why? I’m not really sure. Possibly because it was planted in the wrong place or I didn’t give it enough water.
Failure isn't necessarily failure. It is a learning experience. It provides authentic opportunities for children to notice changes, ask questions, revisit ideas and try again. You can share these learning opportunities with tamariki and model curiosity and problem-solving to try and find the answer with them.
A failed crop can become:
● an investigation
● a science experience
● a problem-solving opportunity
● a conversation about weather
● an opportunity to try again
We can value what children learn when things go wrong while also using our observations to make changes and improve our chances of success next time. You can turn the fear of failure into part of the educational value of gardening.
How can we make gardening a shared part of our centre’s programme?
I’ve been an early childhood teacher, and I know that something like gardening often falls to one enthusiastic teacher to take responsibility for. This can make it seem daunting, and frustrating when you feel that the work you’re doing is not supported, or you can only do it when you’re the ‘outside teacher’. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The most successful early childhood gardens I've seen are the ones where gardening is a shared responsibility.
Many early childhood centres have sustainability as part of their philosophy. When we look at Te Whāriki through a gardening lens, we can see opportunities for learning across all five strands. It provides a useful basis for discussing how gardening supports children's learning, wellbeing, and connection with the natural world.
However, building shared responsibility may take time, especially if colleagues have different levels of confidence or competing priorities. Start by sharing what children are learning and discussing one manageable way the team could become involved. Use language like, “We're not just growing vegetables. We're creating authentic learning experiences,” and outline the wider learning, such as how you can incorporate maths, science, language and literacy into gardening. Highlight the positive benefits of social and emotional learning, and the physical skills required.
Gardening will become easier to sustain when it belongs to the whole team, not just one person.
How do we get started without becoming overwhelmed?
Start small. Choose one achievable starting point rather than trying to establish a whole garden programme at the beginning. For example, you might choose one container, one seasonal growing activity or one regular opportunity for children to care for plants.
Start with this simple three-step pathway:
One space.
One crop.
One regular gardening routine.
And build your gardening programme from there.
You don't have to figure it all out yourself
Gardening with children doesn't need to be complicated, expensive or perfect. You don't need years of gardening experience or a beautifully productive garden to create meaningful learning experiences for children.
What matters is creating opportunities for children to participate in growing and caring for living things, to ask questions, discover how the natural world works and develop a connection with Papatūānuku.
Start small. Build on what you already have. Learn alongside the children. And remember that gardening is not another activity to squeeze into the curriculum — it is a meaningful way to bring learning to life.
If you'd like more support to make gardening a regular, seasonal part of your early childhood programme, my Gardening with Tamariki Online course can help. The course brings together practical gardening guidance, easy-to-follow learning experiences and Te Whāriki links, so teachers don't have to work out every step independently.
You don't have to work it all out on your own.
FAQ’s
Do early childhood teachers need gardening experience to garden with children?
No. Starting with a manageable activity, early childhood teachers can learn to garden alongside the children they teach. They don’t have to do everything at once. Start small and learn from there.
Can we garden with children if we don't have a garden?
Yes. You can garden in pots, containers, and small spaces. It’s not the size of the garden that matters, it is the experience of gardening that is important.
How much time does gardening with preschool children take?
Many gardening experiences can be brief, such as checking plants, observing changes and watering when needed. Other tasks, such as sowing seeds, planting seedlings and removing finished plants, take longer. These can be planned and spread across manageable periods. The key is to establish a regular routine that works for your centre.
What should we do if children damage or pull up plants?
Children learn to care for plants through participation, repeated opportunities and consistent guidance. Involve them in sowing, watering and watching plants grow, while helping them understand which plants can be picked and which need protecting. Developing care and responsibility takes time, and some children will continue to need support and reminders.
What can children learn when a gardening activity doesn't succeed?
That gardening is not always successful, and failures do happen. They learn observation skills, questioning, critical thinking, problem-solving and trying again.
