Growing potatoes with Kids: a Backyard Gardening Activity

Growing potatoes with kids is a very fun and rewarding activity for children to help with. They can be grown in-ground or in-containers, making it a versatile crop. For a large yield, you would of course need more space, but for a backyard gardening activity, growing potatoes is one of our favorites!

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Growing Potatoes with Kids

As parents, we are trying to raise well rounded kids that are knowledgeable about the world around them, thoughtful and considerate of others, healthy, and happy children. We are trying to celebrate each and every day with our children because they are true gifts.

We are trying to parent with purpose.

As we approach a holiday to celebrate our loved ones, I can’t help but think of how much of a connection there is between material goods and sweets to demonstrate how much we love our kids, spouses, friends, and family.  We have decided to fight against these societal trends and create our own healthy family traditions and this one starts with a potato.

A potato?

Yes, a potato. A seed potato in fact. Every Valentine’s Day, we plant potatoes in our garden. They are not the most prolific crop for the space they take up, but oh so much fun for the kids to plant and harvest. They are also relatively easy to grow, making this a good pick for gardening with kids. Last week we stopped at our local Feed and Seed store to pick up our seed potatoes. I strongly recommend purchasing seed potatoes because they have not been treated with a growth retardant and are disease-free.

This weekend, we will quarter the large potatoes, making sure there is 1-2 eyes on each piece. Then, we will let them sit in a paper bag for a couple of days so that their cuts heal over (We didn’t do this last year, but I read that it reduces the chance of the potatoes rotting in the ground)

Then, on Valentine’s Day, we will plant them, cut side down, about a foot apart and 6 inches deep in our old blue play bin with a cracked bottom.

Every week we will water them and mound the soil around the stems as they grow.

And we will wait.

And wait.

And wait.

80 days seem sooooo long!

Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres

The Complete Book of Potatoes: What Every Grower and Gardener Needs to Know

But the wait is worth it! On harvest day we feel like treasure hunters mining for gold, only we are just a family out in the backyard digging for potatoes!!!

I can remember our last year’s treasure hunt for potatoes as if it were yesterday; the kids cheer when they found one, Papa’s exclamations that they actually grew, my toddler, digging in the dirt in his jammies. Oh, the fun.

And I am not the only one who remembers the excitement. My 5 year old has a countdown to potato planting day. I think that she may be even more excited than I am and it just warms my heart. There is no talk of chocolate.

No purchasing of cheesy stuffed teddy bears, just a bag of seed potatoes and a ton of memories waiting to be made.

We also hopped into the kitchen together and had a lot of fun making this Old Fashioned Ham and Cabbage Soup with Potatoes with our potato harvest!

This IS exciting stuff (yeah, gardening floats our boats over here!) And really, this excitement can and should be capitalized upon. This is REAL life. This is REAL learning. So what is a mom and an educator to do? There really isn’t a lot of curriculum for young children out there on growing potatoes.

I have gathered a collection of videos, articles, and online games for kids to play at the bottom of this post, but I wanted to really connect reading and math to our gardening.

As a result of this need, the potato packet has arrived! Made by yours truly for my kids =) It has a mini-book, math observation sheet, a graph, gardening bracelets and more!

Grab your copy of my gardening journal here and start writing!

This is what authentic learning is all about.

Related Articles about Growing Potatoes

A well rounded article about different varieties, growing, harvesting, fertilizing, and possible pests.
Another Teacher Blogger’s post about growing potatoes with her students.
Another well rounded article about growing potatoes.
How to build and grow with a potato box
A general post about gardening with kids – potatoes made their top 10 list!

Videos about Growing Potatoes

This is the best “how to” video I have found.  I recommend starting here!
Growing potatoes in a grow bag.

And a way to incorporate a little crafting… you can’t forget potato stamping!!!

Potato Information For the Kids

Growing Potatoes with Kids Resources on Amazon:

10 Gallon Potato Grow Bags 6-Pack

Potato Grow Bags Made of Double Layered Felt Like Fabric.

Simply Seed™ – Russet Burbanks – Naturally Grown Seed Potatoes – 5 LBS

If you liked this article about Growing Potatoes with Kids you might also enjoy this Gardening with Kids Ideas…

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