Meet these Awesome Kids Who Grow Food!

There are so many kids growing amazing gardens and we want to celebrate them. Here are this month’s rockstars of the gardens! Want to stay in touch and get involved? Here is where you can find us on socials.

Here is where you can send in your Kids who grow food story!

Now for the stories!

How amazing is this garden by the Town and Country Children's Centre children at Geelong, Victoria? The children here are all 6months to 6 years old and the garden class here is self-taught through the love of gardens, sustainability and organic, homegrown produce. They have grown garlic from propagating through unused bulbs, propagated pumpkin, celery, leek, strawberries, avocado etc. Grown from seeds and from seedling, both donated and purchased. Grown carrots radish tomato capsicum broccoli herbs peas silverbeet spinach and fruit trees and more.

We asked them what is the most exciting thing about growing food? "Watching something transform before your eyes. Helping the curious children make sense of the change and excite them on such a rewarding and healthy hobby to undertake and forward this onto their home lives" is what they told us.

Their favourite tip for growing all this amazing food is to use worm castings and worm tea. They have a compost bin and a worm farm and use these very often for their produce. In their own words, they say " Teaching the future generations to love the enrichment and take a step in securing the future of organic produce and sustainability".

In these photos, you can see the bread they have made together using the herbs they grew in the garden, their worm casting sorting/ worm collecting. Also, you can see their milking cow experience, planting a donated olive tree from a local nursery for National tree day and planting for bees. How amazing is their harvest for families to take home? They also have made, nature play dough with herbs and natural items.

What an awesome group of green thumbs? What do you love about this project they are creating?

Hey Garden Friends, meet Thomas who is a super cool green thumb at 7 years old! Thomas says that his mum and dad taught him how to grow vegetables and he loves growing watermelons, sunflowers, peas, spinach, rocket and oranges.
Thomas thinks the most exciting thing about growing food is "Getting to eat it! I also like planting the seeds that I grow". How cool is that? In fact, seeds are a big part of Thomas's gardening inspiration to share with everyone, he says to "Get seeds from your friends and family and then plant them and water them and grow them. It's lots of fun".
It looks like lots of fun and it also looks like he gets some amazing vegetables growing - check out these pics of his watermelons and garden! What do you think everyone? Is this the best watermelon green thumb you have seen?

Meet Rachel who is 10 and who is rocking the garden! Rachel says "I've always grown food with my mum, I'm her garden buddy. My teacher at school last year taught us about farming too. We grew carrots, wheat and cabbage at school last year. I REALLY like carrots". She also loves growing snow peas and tomatoes and says the most exciting thing about growing food is "EATING IT! My favourite thing is eating fresh snow peas straight off the plant. My next favourite thing is watching them grow".

Rachels tip for growing food is adding lots of compost to the soil and watering it well. Check out these photos of Rachel's garden and chickens, caring for bees with her sister Rebecca as well as this beautiful nature crown she made. Her snow pea and broad bean harvest is awesome! Don't you think Rachel is an inspiring young green thumb? Let's give her some greenthumb love in the comments!

photo 5 - i like finding food in the garden, here's some brocoli .jpg

photo 9 - I live with my mum, dad and two big sisters and we love eating the food we grow.jpg

photo 4 - i like playing in the garden, this is a crown I made.jpg

photo 6 - i like picking and growing tomatoes but dont like eating them.jpg

photo 7 - I like spending time in our food garden its relaxing.jpg

photo 8 - most of all I like picking snowpeas and eating them.jpg

Check out the amazing work of this very special garden fairy who is 4 years old! She says:

“I like planting tomatoes and eating them and I like telling jokes and planting seedlings and seeds, and I like fairies. I like eating grapes. In my garden I plant bean seeds and they grown into big bean stalks with lots of beans on them. My favourite are Broadbeans, I eat them straight after picking them while I am standing next to my garden. I plant flowers and I like flowers and I smell them. I like growing hot chillies and parsley for my mum. We planted potatoes and they grew lots of baby potatoes and we dug them up and kept finding more and more potatoes. Fruit trees are the best because you can grow apples and mandarins and locusts. When you grow your own foods they taste even better than the ones you buy at the shop. I love watering my garden, that is one of my favourite things to do."

This garden fairy has some special advice on growing food: "Look at what you have in the kitchen to use to grow in your garden! You can grow garlic from garlic, potatoes from potatoes, spring onions from onions. And you need to water the garden every day when it is not raining".

How inspiring is this story and the photos this garden fairy has shared with us? Kids who grow food rock!