Having the right tools for any job makes a task easier, safer, and more enjoyable, especially for budding young gardeners.

Instructions

• Step 1: Purchase gardening gloves in kid-friendly patterns to protect tender hands from scratches.
• Step 2: Provide young gardeners with a wheelbarrow or cart small enough for them to maneuver around the yard, but large enough to hold supplies and plants.
• Step 3: Add sun protection to a child's garden toolbox in the form of sunscreen and a wide-brimmed hat to help the young sprout establish good lifelong personal habits for working outdoors.
• FACT: In 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama harvested vegetables from the White House garden with the help of children from a local elementary school.
• Step 4: Buy kid-sized watering cans, purchasing a pint-sized can for toddlers and a quart-sized can for preschoolers. This will ensure that the can isn't too heavy for them to help out.
• TIP: Replace handles on adult tools with short wooden dowels for children.
• TIP: Buy children's garden tools in bright and happy colors to inspire involvement.
• Step 5: Look to buy small, lightweight adult shovels, cultivators and trowels if downsized children's versions are unavailable.
• TIP: Give a younger child a kitchen spoon for digging if a child-sized hand shovel is unavailable.
• Step 6: Buy short-handled adult rakes and hoes for older children.
• Step 7: Size all garden tools you buy to the young gardener to ensure easy handling in little hands and to promote good results.