Starting gardening with children can seem daunting but it’s one of my favourite outdoor activities for children. There are so many options for things to grow, fruit, vegetables, flowers and shrubs. Perhaps you are keen to start gardening with your children but have never done much gardening yourself. Knowing when to start growing, what and how can seem a little overwhelming. I’m keen to teach my children about growing fruit and vegetables, I’d also love to grow lots of flowers and encourage wildlife into our garden but with a young family, part-time job and this blog, I’m building up slowly.
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Last week I took my eldest who is almost 5 to the garden centre to choose some seeds to grow together. We chose some simple to grow vegetables, sunflowers and some herbs. Once home she helped me to plant up a container with the herbs (we chose rosemary, thyme and oregano as these are ones I use most in my cooking). We also planted some seeds in a propagator which is sat on our kitchen windowsill. We picked up some potatoes too which is a bit more of a gamble. They were reduced to just £1 because it is now time to start planting them but they need chitting first. I decided it was worth the risk so they are in our kitchen window again waiting for the shoots to grow.
I will, of course, keep you updated about how all our plants are doing this summer but until then I’ve included my top tips for getting started gardening with children and listed 9 easy to grow plants for kids.
How to get started gardening with children
1 – Buy them some mini tools – you can pick up a child’s garden set cheaply in your local garden centre or even with your weekly shop. Mini tools will be easy for your child to use and help them feel independent.
2 – Take them shopping to help choose what to grow – Children love to feel involved in choosing what to grow. It starts getting them excited from the very beginning of the process.
3 – Make some plant markers – I love these DIY vegetable markers that your children can make. Markers will help you remember what you’ve planted where.
4 – Start growing from seed indoors – Some plants need starting off inside. Always read the back of the packet to see what you should start off indoors. For us, we have started basil, tomatoes and courgettes indoors.
5 – Transplant the seedlings outdoors or sow direct – once your seedlings are ready to plant outside following the advice on the packet
6 – Water and care for your plants – my kids love using mini watering cans to water the plants.
7 – Harvest and enjoy eating all your edible plants – is there anything better than eating homegrown produce? Who knows you may even get a fussy eater to try something new.
8. – Build a fairy garden – Children love these miniature gardens full of magic and make-believe. Find out exactly how to make a fairy garden and see just how much your child loves their miniature world.
9. Make it fun. How about creating a fairy garden
9 Easy to grow plants
1 – Herbs – not only easy to grow but they are a great sensory plant.
2 – Strawberries – we grew some in hanging baskets and my toddler loved picking them and eating them in the garden. Learn more about planting strawberries here – Best compost for strawberries
3 – Carrot – My kids love eating carrots, they can also be sown directly outside which is a bonus.
4 – Tomatoes – These can be grown in grow bags or even hanging baskets.
5 – Salad leaves – Salad leaves can be grown in just a few short weeks. This is perfect for young children who aren’t known for their patience. I have even grown pea shoots from dried peas bought in the supermarket.
6 – Potatoes – simple to grow and can be grown in containers.
7 – Sunflowers – who can grow the tallest sunflower? and just how tall will it be?
8 – Beetroot – another plant that can be sown directly outside.
9 – Cress – really quick to grow and can be grown on a windowsill.
10 – Pumpkins – Find out how here – How to grow pumpkins
You might also find my post on creating a raised bed vegetable garden useful too.
Don’t have much space? Find the best plants to grow in pots here.
Find some Easy ways to revamp your garden this spring here.
What next?
There are so many options to build on this experience. Perhaps you could start making compost? Find out how here – How to compost at home
Or encourage birds into your garden? or insects? start a garden journal and help your child watch and learn about the plants as they grow. How about planting a winter Pansy planter?
Here are a couple of articles that you might find useful:
- Gardening with kids – from CBeebies
- How to get kids gardening from The Guardian is packed full of expert tips.
- Getting children interested in gardening from Royal Horticultural society.
- Find more summer outdoor activities for kids here.
- How to transform your garden on a budget from Savy in Somerset.
- For more ideas of things to do in the garden, head over to my post – things to do outside at home.
- If you want to get your children even more excited about gardening then why not read some gardening books together, you’ll find all my favourites in this post on the best children’s gardening books.
Starting gardening with kids is a great thing to do on earth day. Find more ideas and facts in my Earth day facts for kids post.
Find 50+ inspiring outdoor play quotes here.
Find more Nature activities for kids here.
Find more outdoor preschool learning activities here.
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Great tips and ideas- I will be using this!
I’m glad it was useful.
Some great tips! I really REALLY want to get my children involved in the garden this year as i think its such a great hands on learning tool!
It’s fantastic for hands on learning.
I love growing with my girls, the slugs love it too… I really recommend growing peas because you get to see shoots really quickly and you can eat the shoots too and don’t have to wait for the pea pods.
Great tips. I think we will try peas again.
Ah these are fantastic tips! My kids love gardening because their dad is very green fingered x
That’s fantastic.
My girls love to help me in the garden and look forward to it every year x
That’s so lovely. I hope mine will be the same as they get older.
We have had so much fun planting things already this year, and my daughter loves to check on everything each day to see if it has grown. I just can’t wait until the weather is a bit warmer so we can move more of the plants outside!
It’s lovely to see little ones so excited about watching plants grow.
Some amazing tips here – I’d love to get my little one started in a few years time, an amazing way to get outside!!
Thank you. I’m sure your little one will enjoy it.
Some great advice here. I really want to get Noah involved when we eventually get cracking on our garden this year.
Fantastic. Good luck with your garden plans.
Hi Claire,
I’m in the process of writing a very similar post! This is great! I think all children should be able to try gardening at school but it rarely happens which is such a shame. I have linked a post about the benefit of gardening in a child’s sensory development so we are all obviously craving spring time! Thanks for hosting. #bloggerpinparty
I look forward to reading your posts. I agree it is a shame more schools don’t include gardening.
This is on my to do list! The weather has been so horrible this year we have spent zero time in the garden. Fingers crossed it will improve so I can get Freddie to help me 🙂
It’s meant to be nice this next week.
I can’t wait to do this with my little one! Right now we have rock landscape and it’s rattlesnake season, so we’re avoiding potted plants or beds for a while, but one my husband puts in our grass, we’ll be out there playing and making a mess!
My mom and I planted strawberries and tomatoes all the time when I was young and I adored bringing in my “crops” and sharing them for lunch or dinner!
#bloggerpinparty
Sounds lovely (except the snakes!). It’s lovely to eat the products you’ve worked hard to grow.
Great tips on getting kids into gardening! #bloggerpinparty
Thank you.
I need to get my 2 year old into gardening I think she will love it! Pinned for later 🙂
I’m sure she will.
This is my Blogcrush over at Lucyathome.
https://lucyathome.co.uk/blogcrush/blogcrush-week-61/
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Thank you so much for nominating me.
This looks like so much fun! We are moving house to a place with a nice garden soon, so I can’t wait to learn a bit of gardening and maybe eventually teach Violet when she’s old enough too! Hope you grow some lovely plants over the summer 🙂
Fingers crossed. I hope you are happy in your new house and garden.
Great ideas here- we have been growing some bits and bobs, mostly on the windowsill until the weather perks up- it is great fun! #bloggerpinparty
Our kitchen windowsill is full!
Looks like your little one is enjoying gardening. Our seven-year-old also likes to potter around in the garden with her dad. It’s never early to start them, isn’t it? 🙂 #countrykids
Never too early!
Such a lovely post! We have tried many of these over the years and I have to confess to not being the best but my kids have always enjoyed the experience. Strawberries I think were the favourite, though being patient to let them ripen was always an issue! I hope your garden flourishes this summer.
thank you for sharing with me on #CountryKids
We have mixed success too. Hopefully this year!
I love gardening and I love that my 4 year old is suddenly really interested. So far this year we’ve planted potatoes, and we’ll be planting up sunflowers, dahlias, and growing strawberries. We had great success last year with beetroot and if I can clear our raised bed in time I’d like to try that again. It’s such a great idea to get them their own tools, they really do love having them and it makes all the difference. Thanks for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
I want to get a raised bed too. I love dahlias but I’ve never tried to grow them.
This is a great idea. I love the photos too! I think I am going to get the kiddies to do this over the next few weeks. 🙂
Popping over from #CountryKids x
I hope they enjoy it too.
I let my daughter pick some seeds and have her own little pots. That way she’s kept amused while we sort the bigger garden things out #SharingtheBlogLove
That’s a great idea.
My eldest daughter loves to do gardening with me. A couple of weeks ago we planted our annual sunflowers. Thank you for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
I hope your sunflowers grow really tall.
This is a wonderful introduction to gardening with children. I think I need to try and locate where my daughters gardening set is now. #SharingtheBlogLove
Good luck!
My children loved gardening when they were little especially things that you can eat or grow quickly! A lovely family activity to do now spring is here. #CountryKids
I couldn’t agree more.
Great tips, my girls like to get out in the garden with me. They love seeing the plants flowering and growing and that they have played a part in it
Seeing the results is the best bit for kids.
We won a mud and bloom box recently which was really good – we’re growing some peas and some flowers – the name of which escapes me! I’m terrible at gardening so it was nice to just be given all the kit and crack on with it.
And congratulations, someone loved this post so much, they added it to the #BlogCrush linky! Feel free to collect your ‘I’ve been featured’ blog badge 🙂
We loved our mud and bloom boxes. How lovely that someone nominated my post.
I’m trying to get Penguin involved in a bit of gardening now that we’ve got a garden again. Some really nice suggestions here ??x #bloggerpinparty
Thanks for the list of easy to grow veggies, very helpful! Need to get the kids more involved as well.
Great tips! I like the idea of them having their own tools