Growing potatoes with Kids: a Backyard Gardening Activity

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 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.

 

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

Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres

And we will wait.

And wait.

And wait.

80 days seems sooooo long!

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 years treasure hunt for potatoes as if it were yesterday; the kids cheers 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 count down 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.