Spring has sprung and it is a great time to be thinking about your garden. Whether you like to plant vegetables or blooming flowers, involving your children in the garden is a wonderful way to spend time together and accomplish something everyone can be proud of. Below are five of my favorite gardening ideas for kids so grab your gardening tools and head outside for some quality time with your kids this spring.
1. Sunflower playhouse – This is a great idea for kids and is perfect for getting them to play outside. Using Mammoth sunflower seeds to give height and Dwarf sunflower seeds to fill in the “walls,” choose a sunny spot where the soil drains well. Arrange the seeds in a horseshoe pattern leaving the front open for the “door.” After the sunflowers grow, put a small table and chairs in the center or a nice blanket for tea parties and afternoons filled with imagination.
2. Garden stones – Kids love to paint so harness this creativity to make beautiful garden stones to decorate your garden. Find smooth river rocks or buy them at the garden center, wash and dry the rocks and paint with a base coat (acrylic paint works well). Then let your kid’s imagination run wild – – create stones with cute sayings, stones to mark plants (i.e. painting stones the same color as the vegetable and writing its name on the stone) or stones that guide visitors through the garden. Using stencils is also fun to paint the rocks.
3. Garden boots – Create cute planters for the front door out of a pair of old boots. Work boots are ideal for this activity but any old pair of old boots will do (the larger the size the better – we found ours at Goodwill). Remove the shoelaces, pull the tongue forward and make the opening as large as possible. Put pebbles in the bottom for drainage, add potting soil and your favorite annual flowers. Set beside the front door to welcome visitors.
4. Grow a word – This is especially fun for a vegetable garden. At the entrance to your vegetable garden frame out an area about two-feet by two-feet (it can be larger or smaller depending on the size of your garden.) Using a small stick, scratch the word “vegetable” into the soil. Place the seeds evenly into the letters and cover gently with soil. Water and watch the seeds grow into a wonderfully organic sign for your garden.
5. Grow a butterfly garden – One of the things I miss most is butterflies. There never seems to be as many each summer as when I was a child. Therefore, I love creating a butterfly garden with my daughter to help attract and keep more butterflies in our yard for her to enjoy as I did when I was her age. KidsGardening has a wonderful butterfly garden plan that shows exactly what types of plants to use and where to plant each one.
No matter what you chose to do this year with your children in the garden, the most important thing is that you do something with them. Getting your children outside and involved in gardening is teaching them many skills they can use for a lifetime.
Sources:
Disney’s FamilyFun.com
KidsGardening.org
