Tips for gardening with kids
Getting kids involved in gardening has so many benefits - giving them responsibility, creativity and the chance to see things grow right in front of their eyes! Here are a few simple tips and ideas to get kids started with planting.
What to grow
Planting things that delight the senses are a great choice when planting with children. Fragrant herbs are fantastic as when you trim back the plant you can bundle up the herbs using twine as posies for gifts or for adding to cooking. My girls love pruning the rosemary as they like to pretend they’re giving it a haircut!
Growing cress in egg shells
Growing cress seeds in egg shells is the perfect way to get kids excited about growing things. Simply clean out your egg shells, place in some damp cotton wool and sprinkle on the seeds. Keep the cotton wool damp and very quickly your seeds will grow into cress long enough to snip for delicious egg and cress sandwiches! Keep your shell upright and protected in an egg cup. We used this sweet Miko the Panda egg cup, and gave him a cress hairdo!
Planning
Getting your child in on the planning of planting will give them ownership over the results. This gardening seed set is a great activity to do together to design and create a wonderful bed of flowers.
No pots? No problem!
Using old tins for plant arrangements is a really fun way to make little plant displays really interesting - make sure you place stones in the base to allow for drainage (or you could drill holes in the bottom of the tin). You could also use old china bowls or platters. The tin shown here is the Garden Birds cake tin!
Maintenance
Even jobs which might be seen as boring in the garden can be really fun for kids. Topping up soil in pots, tying things back (this gardeners twine is great for that) and dead heading flowers are all great for fine motor skills, understanding the changing of the plant's life cycle and general plant maintenance.
Guest blog by Georgia Coote
Looking for more garden inspiration? Take a look at our Garden Gifts collection for more ideas, including a bug hotel and a quirky caravan birdhouse.
