Gardening for kids is gardening for the whole family. Gardening is one of the best family activities for all ages of children. Whether you have toddlers or school age kids, there’s an engaging activity for everyone when you’re gardening. This is one of the best ways to help your kids learn about growing plants and observing wildlife. Your kids will learn to value the family time they spend with you in the yard while they’re focused on a fun project.
You can help your kids to participate better in elementary school from what they experience in gardening. Let me explain…by having a sound knowledge of science, biology and even incorporating math concepts into your gardening experience this increases your child’s confidence. You even help them to better express themselves at school as a outcome of communicating with you during their gardening projects. There’s nothing better than improving your kid’s skills while having fun at the same time.
How to Teach Your Kids to Grow Their Own Garden
Gardening is great. It’s even better when you do it with someone. And kids love getting in the dirt and playing around to begin with. So why not show them how to build and grow their own raised garden. Gardening for kids can start when they’re toddlers.
Whether it’s a garden of fruits and vegetables that they get to eat, or just pretty flowers that they get to nurture and watch grow, it’s a great learning opportunity for children.
Taking things from seed to flower has so many lessons that can be taught, practical and educational. So here’s how to teach kids to grow their own garden.
Ten Easy Steps to Get Your Kids to Garden
1. Get them interested – The interest has to be there for gardening before you even start. It’s not too hard to get kids interested. Just show them what it’s all about. Show them the way a seed turns from a seed into a plant. You can even go with the gross angle if it will work with your child. Sometimes the bugs and creepy crawlies will really draw a child in. Know your child’s interests and play to that. It will make it fun and your child will really get into it.
2. Get the right tools for the job – How fun is anything if the tools you have are too big or too small for you to use? It’s just frustrating. Get your child his or her own gardening tools – gloves, aprons, rake, shovel, watering can etc. Make sure it’s kid sized and bright colors will really draw them in. You might even want to let your child pick out his or her own tools.
3. Begin growing things that are easy to grow. Let your child be involved in the decision making on what to grow, but help steer them in the direction of things that are easier for beginners to grow. You might not want something that’s going to take a long harvest time because a child will lose interest if they doesn’t see the fruits of their labor quickly. Here are some great suggestions of what you could try with your beginner gardener:
• Tomatoes
• Sunflowers
• Marigolds
• Squash
• Radishes
• Peas
• Beans
• Sweet peas
• Pansies
• Poppies
• Lettuce
All of these will be great to try with your beginning gardener.
My top choices for fast growers are: radish, cherry tomatoes and marigolds. My kids loved seeing each of these plants grow at top speed!
4. Down to the basics – To start out with you don’t want to make your child do big jobs like tilling the soil and adding nutrients. You can do that without him (unless we’re talking about an older child who might have an understanding and interest in this sort of thing). This is stuff that can be taught later, though, after they realize how fun it is to grow their own garden.
So just start out showing them how to plant the seed in the dirt. You can either plant first in some egg cartons or directly into the ground. Planting in egg cartons is great for smaller children to keep those seeds in place. You can put the egg carton right in the ground and it will disintegrate, leaving the seeds in their place to grow and thrive.
5. Be one with all of nature – There’s beneficial wildlife in your garden, but there are some creatures you’d like to keep away. Help your child learn the difference between the two. And come up with ways to attract the critters you want around to help pollinate your garden and the ones you want to keep away.
6. Show them the magic of gardening – Nothing gets a child more excited than magic. And gardening is a magical thing. Like if you take the cutting of a begonia plant and replant it another will grow. This will amaze them and have them wanting to try it with other plants.
7. Decorate – Get creative and use things from around the house to decorate the garden. Make your own pinwheels to set up around the garden. Decorate planters for the flowers seeds to be planted in. Make a bird feeder to go in your garden. Nothing fancy, but brainstorm with your child to make this garden his own.
8. Don’t forget to care for the garden – Once the seeds are planted, children need to know that now the real work begins. We need to be aware of what unwanted vegetation is (weeds) and how to best dispose of it (pulling) to keep what we’re trying to grow strong and healthy. Plenty of water and sunshine will be important to help our newly-planted plants grow healthy and strong.
9. Don’t stop just because the season changes – Keep the garden going year round, even if that means moving it indoors for the time being.
10. Always be enthusiastic – Be willing to try new things with your child. Before you know it your little gardener is going to be a pro and might even teach you a thing or two.
So get out there and get growing that garden with your kids.
Remember to have fun! It’s not a chore – it’s a hobby. Treat it as such and you’ll never get tired of it.
But…if you think a raised bed is too much effort for your kids or you don’t have enough space, why not try planting in containers. Let’s take a look.
Prefer Container Gardening for Kids?
So you want to grow a garden with your kids, but you don’t have a yard to do it in. That means you will need to create gardening for kids in containers. But what grows well in containers that’s simple and something kids will enjoy?
Simply put, pretty much any vegetable or herb will grow well in a container as long as there’s enough room. But let’s narrow this down to kid friendly.
Here are the ten best plants that you can grow in containers with your kids.
* Tomatoes – This is probably the most popular choice for growing in containers. Tomatoes are easy to grow; they can even be done from a hanging container and grown upside down. Using good soil and the right amount of water is what’s needed to make tomatoes grow well in containers.
* Potatoes – You can grow a large amount of potatoes in containers like compost bags or a large tub.
* Cucumbers – These are easy to grow in containers, but they need the right conditions. They grow best in warm temperatures so don’t plant until early summer for best results.
* Carrots – These are so simple to grow and do really well in containers. So they’re a really great starter vegetable to grow with children.
* Blueberries – These grow well in containers, but only with the right conditions. They ripen best in heat so they’re best saved for the summer. They require rain water too, so grow them outdoors unless you are able to collect the rain water in something. They won’t do well with tap water.
* Parsley – This is great in a window box. It takes a while to germinate though and requires heat. Also, be sure to use a rich soil.
* Basil – Put it in the window box with parsley, but be warned: this does not do well at all with cold. So make sure there is not going to be any frost. Basil has a few weeks’ germination time, though, so it grows quicker than parsley.
* Radish – This is probably the easiest vegetable to grow in a container and will really get the kids excited. So this is the perfect choice.
* Lettuce – This is actually a great choice for growing in containers. Water in the morning and make sure it is kept in the shade and you’ll have a quick and easy plant in a container in no time.
* Flowers – It doesn’t have to be vegetables alone that you plant in containers. Potted plants such as geraniums, petunias, mums, and sunflowers are great in a pot and something kids will love to help cultivate.
Planting anything with kids can be a whole lot of fun and very educational. Getting kids to eat more vegetables, then planting some sort of garden will be a huge help in that. Letting them get their hands dirty and eating the food they make is a huge incentive for even the pickiest of eaters.
When we started growing cherry tomatoes, my picky eater loved eating these home-grown tomatoes. The only problem was that he refused to eat any other tomatoes. So, I desperately started growing lots more cherry tomato plants. We couldn’t keep up with my sons demands for them!
So don’t think just because you don’t have a lot of room you can’t create some sort of garden. Hanging tomatoes and window boxes with herbs and including some containers on your porch of radishes and potatoes and you’re off to a great start. Gardening with the kids and getting them to try more fruits and vegetables is a wonderful incentive.
Learning in the Garden…
Children can learn so much when they garden. Not just about the process of gardening either, but about life cycles, water conservation, tending to chores, following directions, and so much more.
Gardening for kids is such a well-rounded teaching tool not only for science, but also in life lessons. You will be surprised at just how much gardening can teach a child.
Eager to Learn
Children who garden are often much more ready and willing to learn. It gives them greater control over their own education and makes them more active seekers of knowledge. It also helps teach them problem solving skills.
Gardening for kids can help children take the academic and turn it into real world experiences. It makes children much more inquisitive and with this great eagerness to learn it makes it much easier to teach the basics within education.
Because of the ever-changing circumstances of gardening (such as weather changes and plant disease), it teaches children to think on their feet.
This makes them more flexible and it’s easier for them to learn problem solving skills.
Gardening Makes Children Stronger
Resiliency is important for children to have. Gardening for kids can boost a child’s self-esteem, teach children the ability to cope with life’s ups and downs, and improve concentration.
Through many gardening setbacks (crop damage due to insects, failed crops, or weather) children become more resilient. They are forced to deal with these problems and move forward to achieve their ultimate goals.
Children can more easily concentrate when working with a garden, making it easier to teach them many different lessons. Learning the life cycle of plants, water conservation, and even the effects of the sun on plant life are easily taught to children through the garden and during gardening.
Gardening Teaches Responsibility
A lot of work goes into gardening. Watering and weeding are both important parts of keeping a garden alive. So this will help children see the importance of doing these chores if they want a healthy growing garden. Gardening for kids is always a beneficial experience.
Beyond that, responsible eating choices can be made through gardening. Children are more willing to try vegetables that they have grown with their own two hands. So they can discover a love for many foods they might never have tried before.
Since gardening often requires tools and chemicals we might not normally want our children to have, we can take this time to teach them how to be careful with these items. What it is the chemicals do to help the plants, but how they can be harmful to us and the importance of washing our hands thoroughly after working.
But also sharp tools are not toys and gardening is a great way to teach children how to responsibly use tools.
Once crops are grown children can learn about the business of selling crops. Teach them the responsibility of budgeting money and negotiating prices. These are early job skills learned right there in your own back yard.
Learning about the science behind a garden is only a very small part of what gardening can teach children. Life skills and a willingness to learn are things gardening can open up to a child’s life. So take advantage of these teaching opportunities and start gardening for kids this weekend.
Make it Easy for Kids to See Wildlife in Your Own Yard
It’s time to get the kids outside. Stop allowing them to sit in front of the screens and live in a virtual reality world and give them a place to explore nature. This can be done right in your own back yard, even if you don’t live anywhere near the woods. Gardening for kids can have huge benefits for your kids health and well-being.
Create your own little wildlife sanctuary if you will and attract nature to your home so your children can see what real life outdoors has to offer. Here’s how to bring wildlife to life in your own back yard for your kids.
1. Provide Food, Water and Shelter for Wildlife
Animals are not looking for the biggest square foot home they can find. They simply need a safe haven from other predators and a place that’s abundant in food and water.
So bird feeders and bird baths with plenty of bright flowers with pollen and nectar for butterflies and birds is a great way to start – even with the smallest of habitats for what nature has to offer.
You can even add a bird feed onto your window so you get to see the birds whether you’re inside or out.
You can even use hanging plants and window boxes if you have to in order to get a glimpse of some of nature’s wildlife in your own yard.
Some rocks and brush can provide shelter for many animals, or just putting up your own bird house. With the right plants and source of water you might just attract a nice family of birds right into your own yard or porch with a simple bird house.
2. Native Plants Are the Way to Go
Not only will they like it better, but you have a better chance of keeping things alive that naturally do well in your area’s climate and soil.
Remember, before there were cities there was land. So even if you are living in an apartment surrounded by concrete, you can still plant what’s native to the area.
You might need to do a little research to discover the best plants to plant, but you can do it.
Using hanging plants and pots and window boxes instead of the ground is still going to attract native wildlife to your makeshift garden.
You might be surprised what you can see in even the busiest of cities when you bring a little of nature’s natural habitat right to your own patio.
3. Say No to Chemicals
Of course you don’t want all of your hard work to be for nothing and there are critters you just don’t want eating up your garden and destroying what you have created. But you also don’t want to kill the wildlife you’re trying to attract with your garden. That defeats the whole purpose.
So use more natural pesticides to get rid of the critters you don’t want messing with your garden. Natural fertilizers and compost not only do great things for your garden, but can also help deter unwanted critters. Embrace mulch. This will help reduce your watering time and is good for the soil as well.
Most importantly when planting a garden, you want to make sure the kids are involved. It will make them more excited about seeing that wildlife because they did something to make them come. And if done right, then you’ll be seeing plenty of wildlife right in the comfort of your own home.
Whether you have to be indoors because it’s too cold or you’re able to get outside and look up close and personal, you can achieve some pretty amazing things when you work together and plant the right things in your yard with your children.
How to Attract Wildlife to your Garden for Your Kids to Enjoy
As part of an ecosystem it’s important to help out the native wildlife in your area. Your garden is one way to attract wildlife to your yard to help provide them with a place they too can call home. When you’re gardening for kids you can focus on the ecosystem as part of your project.
Allowing us all to live in harmony is important in supporting an ecosystem. Providing a water source of some sort is a definite must-have as a habitat for wildlife. Beyond that there are several different kinds of plants you can plant which will attract the wildlife you desire to have in your yard. Here are the things you should plant in your garden to attract and keep wildlife in your garden.
1. Goldenrod – Goldenrod is perfect for an autumn garden. It will attract many different kinds of creatures who will protect your garden like spiders, and also birds who will feed on the seeds and the insects you don’t want in your garden.
2. Aster – These plants thrive in prairie, meadow, pasture, roadside, and woodland environments. They bloom in both spring and fall. They attract bees and butterflies with their abundant pollen and nectar, making them a wonderful choice for any wildlife garden.
3. Sunflower – The plants attract many birds and other wildlife with all of their nectar and pollen. They can be planted as both perennials and annuals.
4. Joe Pye – If you want a pollinator garden, then you want Joe Pye in your garden. With the plentiful nectar and pollen it produces, you will be attracting plenty of birds and bees into your garden to pollenate. Joe Pye is one of the best native alternatives for invasive butterfly bush.
5. Morning glory – Research this one carefully and only plant what’s native to your area, or you’ll regret ever planting it. They can become very invasive in your garden. Check with the native plant society in your state for guidance.
6. Sedges – Planting sedges is twofold in what it does for the environment. Being a plant on the threatened list in the U.S., planting it in your garden will protect them while also providing for wildlife. Sedges work in grassland, prairie, and woodland environments. Grasses and sedges are an essential element for wildlife in our gardens.
7. Honeysuckle – Just not the Japanese honeysuckle! Do plenty of research to ensure you are planting honeysuckle that is native to your area because there are several very invasive alien honeysuckles wreaking havoc in many ecosystems. Native honeysuckle is wonderful for hummingbirds and butterflies.
8. Lupine – You can save several endangered butterflies, such as the Karner blue, by planting lupine. Many of these endangered butterflies rely on lupine for survival. Check with your state native plant society to determine which species will be most appropriate for your garden.
9. Violets – Who doesn’t love a good violet? Many groups of butterflies also becoming endangered, like Fritillaries, thrive on violets. These are great plants for adding early spring color to your garden.
10. Geraniums – Find a native species that will grow best in your location. Plant them and attract many different birds and insects into your garden.
These are all great plants to have growing throughout your garden to help support our ecosystem. You can even use them to help protect the rest of your garden from unwanted predators. Plus, you will get to see so much beauty in the nature of your garden. Check with your local plant society or garden center for the best species of each plant that is native to your area so you don’t end up creating more of a problem.
How to Grow a Wildlife Garden with Your Kids
There are many purposes for growing a garden. As a hobby, as a way to save on your food bill, or even just to add appeal to your yard. Gardening for kids can have multiple purposes.
Did you ever think the purpose for gardening for kids could be about growing a garden that attracts wildlife? Having a garden that attracts butterflies and birds can be a really great learning experience. This is a way to get to learn about plants and animals all at once. Plus, it does good to provide a habitat that’s suitable for wildlife, especially with the way development of the land has been eating up wildlife’s natural habitats. Here is what you will need to grow your wildlife garden.
It is important that you stick to plants, trees, and shrubs that are native to the area you live in. So you’ll need to do a little homework about what forestry is native to your area. Flowers with pollen will attract the birds and the bees. Some good flowers to plant would be crocus or daisy. This is what will provide the food and shelter for the wildlife that is native to your area. It will attract the animals and insects to your garden as they will be seeking shelter and food.
Wildlife needs water in their habitat as well. If you don’t have a natural water source flowing through your yard, then you’ll need to provide this in other ways. A shallow in-ground pool or a bird bath will provide the water needed to help sustain wildlife in your garden.
Leave a pile of dead wood in a shady area. This provides a habitat for many different creatures. Arrange them architecturally for more appeal. Partially burying some will help natural moss to grow.
Keeping a compost is not only helpful for growing your plants, but it will also attract wildlife. It makes for a good shelter for many small critters.
Don’t forget the bird feeder in your garden. What easier way to attract aviary wildlife to your garden than with a bird feeder? Keep it out year round because there will be critters foraging for food in the cold winter months.
Avoid pesticides which will be dangerous to wildlife. Using natural pesticides to protect your plants is the best way to go.
When planting you will want to keep a vertical layer. This means having many different layers of plants. Plants low to the ground, shrubs a little higher up, and trees including fruit trees. This will attract many different kinds of wildlife to your garden, and it will give many different homes for many different types of wildlife.
Grow a patch of your lawn longer than the rest to provide hibernation for many smaller animals. And remember, you don’t need to be too neat. Leaving some fallen fruit on the ground will help foraging woodland creatures find something to eat when they need it. Your garden can still look pretty with a few piles of dead leaves or fallen fruit on the ground.
Remember, if you build it they will come. If you build an animal habitat, then the animals will come to your yard. So get out your bird watching gear and your camera and be ready to snap some pictures of the beautiful wildlife that will be visiting your yard on a daily basis.
Don’t forget to look closely for the smallest of wildlife that will be visiting your wildlife garden.
Animals Your Child May See in Your Wildlife Garden
You have built it (the wildlife garden) and now they (the wildlife) are coming. Gardening for kids is getting exciting in your back yard. So what exactly should you be looking for when the wildlife is beginning to make its way into your yard?
The creatures you see in your garden are going to vary greatly based on where you live and what you have planted, but these are some of the critters you can expect to see and what you should plant to see them.
Animals:
• Birds (humming birds, hawks, owls, and many other kinds of birds)
• Chipmunks
• Squirrels
• Deer
• Woodchucks
• Raccoons
• Skunks
• Prairie dogs
• Coyote
• Foxes
• Rabbit
• Field mice
• Weasels
Do be careful with the creatures you attract, though. Your neighbors might not be too keen on coyote and foxes wandering around their neighborhood. But if you live in an area where that won’t be likely to be a huge concern, then planting grass and seeds will attract these animals as well as many of the others on this list.
Evergreens provide cover from predators and shelter and nest. And since it will live year round you are likely to see more of this wildlife in your yard even during the winter months.
Trees and shrubs grow fruit and other food for many of these animals. Vines, flowers, vegetables, and other plants will also provide food for all of these animals.
Some of these animals are nocturnal so you aren’t likely to see them during the day (skunks and raccoons). If you do see one of these animals during the day hours, then do not approach it and make sure to call your local animal control.
But if you were hoping to see more than just these animals in your yard, don’t worry; you’ll attract smaller creatures as well.
Insects and Reptiles:
• Butterflies
• Ladybugs
• Bees
• Slugs
• Worms
• Snakes
• Frogs
• Lizards
There are many other reptiles and insects you might end up seeing in your wildlife garden. As long as you supply a great water source and plenty of flowers with pollen, you will see many of these different kinds of creatures in your yard.
So do step carefully through the brush in your yard and keep your eyes peeled for the slithering snakes and earthworms burrowing into the soil. Don’t be startled to see lizards and frogs hanging out by your water source. And don’t be surprised to see butterflies and bees buzzing and fluttering about on the bright and beautiful flowers you have planted.
It will be a utopia of learning about all sorts of animals and how they use the garden you have planted for food and shelter. So take the kids outside with a camera and notebook and see what you can capture the wildlife doing in your garden.
Explaining About Critters in your Yard to the Kids
A garden is not without its creepy crawlies. When you are gardening with your children you’ll probably want to let them know what kind of critters they can expect to see in the garden.
Many insects can be very beneficial to helping your garden grow – either by eating those who will ruin a crop or helping to pollinate your crops. You will want to make your kids aware of the friends and foes of the garden insect world. Here is a short guide of some of the insects you will see in your garden.
Praying Mantis
These are scary looking bugs. They can be hard to see because of how they camouflage themselves against the plants. But if you pay close attention to areas like the petals of flowers or porch lights, you will see the praying mantis.
Mantises have big appetites. When young they will eat various aphids, leaf hoppers, mosquitoes, caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects. Later they will eat larger insects, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and other pest insects. Praying mantises are large, slow moving insects that catch their prey with their front legs. Mantises will ambush their prey by sitting on a plant or twig, waiting for their prey to come close and then will snatch them up.
This is definitely an insect you want around as they eat the bugs which like to eat your garden. You should keep a close eye out for their eggs as you definitely do not want to disturb them. It’s important to teach your children what the eggs look like. Eggs can often be found on leaves of shrubs and twigs. You will want to make sure not to place these eggs on the ground as that makes them easy prey for ants. Find a sheltered location up off the ground for these egg sacs so you can keep plenty of praying mantises in your garden.
Ladybugs when you’re gardening for kids
If you have trouble with sap-feeding insects in your yard, then you want to get ladybugs on the job.
Ladybugs are very beneficial in this sense for the garden as they are natural enemies of these sap-sucking insects.
So this is a natural pesticide for these unwanted bugs in your garden.
And they are believed to be good luck as well.
Not only do ladybugs eat many sap-sucking bugs a day, but they also will eat the larvae of many different bugs which are detrimental to the garden.
So these voracious bugs are a must have in any garden. You can even buy live ladybugs to add to your yard.
Green Lacewings
The Green Lacewing is widely beneficial in attacking destructive garden insects during its larvae stage. But that doesn’t mean they are not still without their use once they become adults. At this point they help to pollinate your garden by feeding on nectar and honeydew. But for 1-3 weeks in the larvae stage they are vigorous predators, going after aphids, mites, a wide variety of soft-bodied insects, including insect eggs, thrips, mealybugs, immature whiteflies, and small caterpillars.
The larvae of a lacewing are very small and gray-brown in color. The lacewing larva vigorously attacks its prey, injects a paralyzing venom, and draws out the body fluids of its helpless victim.
The adults can live for about four to six weeks. They will feed on nectar, pollen and honeydew. In order to continue having these voracious predators laying eggs in your garden, you will want to make sure they have plenty of access to nectar, pollen, and honeydew. Without these the green lacewings will move on to find their food somewhere else. You want these insects to remain in your garden, protecting it against its biggest threats.
These three insects are just some of the insects you want to make your children aware of protecting in your garden. The most natural pesticide you can possibly use are the predators of the insects that threaten your garden.
So learn what these bugs look like and plant what will help keep them stick around protecting your garden.
Ten Safe Ways to Get Rid of Garden Pests
Ten Safe Ways to Remove Garden Pests
There are so many great things when it comes to gardening with kids. You can teach them science lessons and also many life lessons. But while gardening with the kids you want to take measures to also make sure they are safe. And removing pests from the garden can lead to some less than safe options to protect your garden from pests.
With that in mind, here are ten safe options to remove garden pests from your home garden.
1. Sprinkle sawdust, ashes, or wood chips around your garden to deter certain pests. Slugs will not cross this barrier so to keep them out of your garden, lay this stuff along the edges and you’ll avoid those pests without having to mess with any materials which will be unsafe for your children to touch.
2. Spray grasshoppers with molasses. The sweetness attracts them, but it blocks their nasal passages and causes them to suffocate. You can easily eradicate an entire crop of grasshoppers by just spraying the grasshoppers with molasses whenever you see them.
3. Garlic is not just for vampires. Planting garlic in your garden or just spraying it with garlic will deter many unwanted insects. Plant the garlic sporadically amongst your garden to keep those pests at bay.
4. Know the helpful bugs from the destructive bugs. Keeping bugs like praying mantis, ladybugs, beetles, and spiders in your yard will be a huge help. They will eat all of those pests which do damage to your crops.
5. Having bats in the yard is not such a bad thing. Have your kids help you create bat houses to attract bats because they’ll come out at night and gobble up all of those nasty bugs you don’t want around.
6. Keep ducks and chickens in your yard. They will eat these destructive insects. Your kids will love having these new pets as well. They can’t just be on a diet of insects, though, so be prepared to feed them seed as well. Keep them protected in a coop at night so other animals that prey on them don’t get them while you sleep.
7. For larger pests, use chili powder around your garden. Capsaicin is the active ingredient in chili powder which will deter things like raccoons, skunks, and opossums. It won’t affect birds or other wanted critters in your yard, just mammals. You can even use chili powder in your bird seed to keep other animals from eating the seed.
8. Fans, radios, and balloons will deter wildlife. The movement and noise from these things will frighten this unwanted wildlife from your garden.
9. Plant native to the area plants. This will deter pests in your yard.
10. Organic gardening. By following organic gardening techniques such as building a healthy soil, using companion planting, spraying herbal pest sprays, and crop rotation, you can help keep those unwanted critters at bay.
When gardening with your kids there’s nothing more important than making sure they are safe out there. So avoiding toxic chemicals and using these more natural methods for pest control is the way to go.
Gardening Crafts for Kids
Looking for family friendly garden crafts?
You have been out in the garden all day with the kids. Or maybe it’s a rainy day and you can’t get out to work in the garden. Or perhaps you have just planted your seeds and want to create excitement about what’s to come. Why not take the time to try some of these family friendly gardening crafts with the kids?
Bring a little outdoors in with these fun craft ideas.
Hairy Hairy Caterpillar
Make this and read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar for a fun and super educational experience. This is a caterpillar made out of grass. All you have to do is mix some potting soil with grass seed and pour the mixture into a knee-high nylon stocking. Section off the seed mixture-filled nylon with a pony tail holder. Make five different segments and tie together at the end.
Place in water for ten minutes and remove and place in a plastic bag overnight. Take it out of the bag the next day. Add some googly eyes and pipe cleaners for eyes and antennae and allow to sit on a plate in the window. Water every other day and before you know it grass will begin to sprout and you’ll have a grass covered caterpillar.
Sun Catcher Spider Web
Create something decorative for your garden like a sun catcher spider web. With bamboo sticks, nylon jewelry wire, and beads you can create an eye-catching web. Wrap a piece of wire around the center of a group of about five bamboo sticks. Tie it off and spread out the sticks into an asterisk shape.
Now you can begin creating the web. Wrap another piece of wire around one of the skewers a few inches from the center. Thread some beads through the wire and move onto the next bamboo stick. Wrap it around the end and thread more beads and continue like this all the way around the circumference of the web. End where you began and trim any excess wire from the end. Do this again further out from the center all the way out until you are almost at the ends of the skewers, spacing each layer a few inches from the last.
You can create a spider out of the wire and some beads or just leave this as it is. Hang it in your garden and watch the light catch the wire and beads.
Paint Rocks
Collect some rocks from around your yard and decoratively paint them and place them in your garden.
Preserve Your Garden
As the season draws to a close, this doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye completely to your garden. You can preserve the leaves or petals of your plants and flowers. Then you can use them to stamp on note cards.
To press the leaves, you can allow them to dry out by pressing them between the pages of a dictionary or phone book. Put the material between a sheet of newspaper and allow to sit pressed for a few weeks. When you are ready to decorate with your preserved leaves and petals, mix glue and water (half and half). Affix your pressed leaves and petals onto the paper and brush with the glue mixture. Allow to dry.
Backyard Bird Feeder
There are so many different ways to make a bird feeder. Using pine cones, peanut butter, and bird seed is probably the easiest way.
Or you could take a 1-liter soda bottle and two wooden spoons and make a bird dispenser. Simply create two holes along the side of the bottle towards the bottom and slide the wooden spoons into the holes. Put a small eye screw in the top of the cap. Fill the bottle with bird seed, place the cap on top, and hang from something.
These are just a few gardening crafts you can do with the kids to make gardening that much more fun and educational.
Whether you’re teaching your toddler about planting seeds or you’re educating your school-aged kids about different birds in your back yard, there are a myriad of reasons for gardening with kids.
Gardening for kids opens their minds to lots of possibilities and amazing experiences. I hope you find the perfect gardening project for your family. If you need to start small, try container planting. And remember that radishes, tomatoes, marigolds and herbs are fast to germinate and harvest. Your kids will love them. Start gardening for kids this weekend and you’ll all benefit from the experience.
⇒ How to include edible landscaping in your yard. See here.
⇒ Want to remove mosquitoes from your back yard? Find out how here.
⇒ Get rid of ants naturally from your house. See here.