12 Easy and Fun Tips For Gardening With Kids

AFF | Kids. Mud. Fun. It’s natural combination and a winning one too, with good reason. Getting children outside and encouraging them to spend time in Nature is brilliant for their early development. And gardening with kids is one of the easiest ways to boost physical activity, feed their imagination, hone their fine motor skills, and encourage their creativity. Plus, they’ll learn a whole raft of skills that will be invaluable in later life. And you don’t need a large garden either, an allotment, or even a window box is perfect to start with.

Benefits of Gardening With Kids – How Does Gardening Impact Children?

So why should you introduce children to the joys of gardening? And yes, I am biased, and proud of it, but here are some reasons to give it a go:

• It teaches them responsibility because they have to take care of plants throughout their growth cycle until flowering or fruiting time
• It teaches them patience because they have to wait for flowers, fruits, and vegetables to grow
• It teaches them that things don’t always work – so they learn from the failures and develop resilience
• They learn more about their environment, Nature, and horticulture by asking questions and watching what you do in your garden
• They learn about where their food comes from and stop taking everything for granted.

What Age Can Children Start Gardening?

Age is no barrier. Most nurseries and kindergartens these days have mud kitchens and some even have Forest Schools, where the kids are actively encouraged to get outside in the garden. We started Flora off before she could walk – keeping a close eye on what she put in her mouth, of course.

How Can I Make My Garden Fun for Kids?

It’s a lot easier than you might think – here are 12 easy and fun tips for gardening with kids, most of which are easy to implement, even if you don’t have much outside space.

Start Small

Start small with your beginner gardener and give them their own space to be responsible for and decorate as they wish. Let them choose what they want to grow – poppies* and giant sunflowers* are always popular. Easy fruit and vegetables to grow include strawberries or pumpkins* (which you can carve at Hallowe’en too). Show them how to plant, water, and germinate those seeds. And then teach them how to pot on their seedlings and eventually transplant them to the garden once they’re big enough.

Alternatively, while their seeds are germinating, why not take your child to your local garden centre and let them choose some garden-ready seedlings that will be ready sooner to harvest? Make a day of it, teach them how to pick the healthiest seedlings, and you can stock up on anything you might want too. 😊

Choose Fast-Growing Plants

Kids are always keen to see progress so choosing quick-growing plants will keep them enthused and motivated. Brightly coloured Swiss chard, lettuce, and radishes are good vegetables to try, and throwing a handful of wildflower seeds* into some raked soil is fabulous way to enjoy lots of quick and easy colour.

Ask them what they’d like to grow, and will enjoy picking and eating, rather than what you like. Or you could opt for a Grow Your Own Salad and Vegetables Starter Kit* as an easy option too.

Choose Scented and Tactile Plants

Herbs are among the easiest scented plants to grow, there are lots of Herb Growing Kits* available and they’re perfect kitchen window ledge plants. Lavender, lemon balm, and rosemary release their fragrance when touched. And the furry leaves of the sage plant feel wonderfully soft to little fingers. Other popular perfumed plants to try are roses, honeysuckle, and jasmine. As a child I always loved to “pop” the buds on snapdragons and fuchsias, and the crinkly leaves of kale have a unique texture all their own.

Don’t forget about edible flowers – think marigolds, borage, calendula, pelargoniums, violas, nasturtiums, cornflowers, and even dandelion. Just make sure you supervise young kids: impress on them not every flower is edible, and that they should always check with you first.

Give Them The Right Tools

Much as kids love getting muddy, they need to be comfortable and safe. So get them gloves, welly boots, and waterproof gear – because gardening with kids should not be a fair weather activity. Garden centres and online stores are full of gardening kits for kids* with mini forks, shovels, rakes, watering cans, and buckets, so there’s no excuse!

Play Scavenger Hunt

Ask your children to collect different bits and bobs from your garden, allotment, local park, or woods (check if you need permission first). For instance, they could collect different flowers, leaves, sticks, stones, feathers, shells, and all kinds of stuff that will get them exploring their surroundings.

Create a Plant Journal

Encourage kids to document every step of the gardening process. They can draw or take pictures, write notes, paste in empty seed packets, press dried flowers, and more to record every stage of development in their little garden.

Especially which plants grow well together and which don’t – it’s never to early to learn about companion planting. And this is a great technique that goes beyond gardening as they establish some stellar record-keeping skills.

Collect Seeds

Saving seeds once their flowers, fruit, and vegetables have finished blooming isn’t only a fun thing to do, it saves money and teaches them that not everything has to be bought. Collect seeds from flower heads when they’ve gone dry and brown.

Pick them on a dry day, keep them in paper envelopes, label them, and store them ready to sow again in future. You can also save tomato, cucumber, bean and pumpkin seeds in the same way – wash them to remove any fleshy covering, lay them out to dry on kitchen roll, and then store in labelled envelopes.

Decorate Plant Pots and Jars

Gardening isn’t all about planting. How they choose to decorate and display their space will hone their design skills. Whether they recycle some of their scavenger hunt finds or simply go for paint to decorate their pots and pebbles, it’s a chance for them to use their creativity and imagination.

Create a Wildlife Habitat

This is so easy to do and so good for kids and wildlife. You could install a bird feeder*, a bird nesting box*, bee house or bug hotel*, a bat box*, a hedgehog house*, or just stack twigs, logs, and other timber material in a shaded part of the garden to create the perfect ecosystem for insects, frogs, and other small mammals.

If you have space, you could even build a small pond which will become a magnet for wildlife – frogs, newts, dragonflies, and more – and perfect for pond dipping. Here are some more ideas for making your garden more wildlife friendly.

Build a Treehouse or Den or Teepee

Sadly, we don’t have a large enough tree in our garden for a proper treehouse, but Flora’s had her share of dens and teepees over the years. And teepees made from large branches are commonplace in all the woods near our village too, so it’s not something you need your own garden for either. 🙂

Take Trips to Explore Other Gardens

Exposing your children to other wonderful gardens, wildlife havens, and natural areas is the best way to keep their curiosity piqued about their own garden space and taking care of the environment. Trips to theme park gardens, garden centres, arboretums, and private gardens are all great places to start.

Buy a Subscription Box – Mud & Bloom

When Flora was younger, we adored our amazing award-winning gardening and nature craft subscription boxes from Mud and Bloom. Every month a box filled with seasonal flower and vegetable seeds to sow, seasonal nature spotting sheets, nature-based craft activities, and full instructions came through our letterbox, addressed to Flora.

All the contents are designed to follow the EYFS, KS1 and KS2 national curriculum (ages 3 – 8) as well, so you know it’s good stuff. Even if you  have your own garden, I’d still hand on heart recommend subscribing to Mud and Bloom, I learned just as much as Flora, and it was heaps of fun!

Why Is Gardening Good For Children’s Development?

Gardening with kids focuses on five things: arousing curiosity, creating fun, providing learning platform, teaching patience, and building resilience. It’s one of the best healthy outdoor activities for children and adults alike, as well as offering unique opportunities to strengthen those family bonds. And it stimulates all five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. What other reasons do you need to get outside and have some gardening fun together? Just be prepared to answer a million and one questions – such as why earthworms don’t have legs – at the same time!

Which gardening activity would you like to do with children? Are there any other tips you have for gardening with kids that should be on this list too? 🙂

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