In order to get children involved in gardening, it is best to get them involved in hands-on projects that they can make or do. Below we will detail the top 10 garden projects that you can do with your children or grandchildren. These projects are fun and inexpensive that will get your children or grandchildren excited about gardening.
Gardening with your children and/or grandchildren can start at any age to establish a great family time event and tradition.
Best Garden Projects
Planting Beans
This is great for younger children since the seeds are larger and easy to handle and they are one of the easiest to grow so the children can watch their progress.
Planter Decoration
There are many ways to decorate a planter with children. One simple thing to do is take a clay pot and have them paint the rim with a favorite color or stencil. If you want it more personalized you can have them do a handprint on a larger pot or planter.
For older children, you can have them draw flowers on the planters and come back to paint and glue on rocks, shells, or other items.
Older children can also personalize it by painting their name on the planter or a saying they like.
Garden Signs
Similar to the planter ideas you can do the same with signs that they can place in the garden.
Some ideas I have used are they can do plant identification markers that are using paint colors of the vegetable, herb or fruit with the name of the fruit.
They can make a sign such as “Emerie’s Garden” with flowers or other designs painted on it.
Fairy Garden signs are another great way to designate an area of the garden.
Herb planters
Having an herb garden planter or box designated to the herbs you use is a great way to get children introduced to using herbs in cooking.
Children can pick herbs to use each night in preparing dinner.
They can also make plant markers for each herb to place by the herb, making it more personalized.
Having a herb garden box/planter that they plant and harvest gives them pride in gardening and cooking for the family.
Plant Markers
There are many ways to make plant markers for your garden, here are just a few.
- Take flat rocks that children can paint and write plant names on them to place by the plants in the garden
- Use popsicle sticks to decorate and write the name of the plant on to place by the plant in the garden
- Make plant markers by cutting boards into smaller pieces that can be nailed together for them to decorate
- Purchase kits to make plant markers
Stepping Stone
You can buy kits with all the components to make a stepping stone or you can have them make their own with either plaster or cement, adding shells, marbles, or colorful stones to decorate the stepping stone.
Having personalized stepping stones that your family makes is fun and so satisfying to the children to contribute in making the garden theirs.
Seed Strips
Seed strips are an easy and fun way to get children involved in gardening and planting the garden. To make a seed strip all you need is a roll of toilet paper, Elmer’s glue, and seeds.
Roll toilet paper out and place 1 drop of glue where you want each seed, place one seed on the glue spot to let dry. Once dry roll up the seed strips for planting in the Spring.
You can use vegetable seeds or flower seeds and it is a great project to do in the winter when it is too cold and wet to be in the garden.
Seed Collecting
When Fall is in full swing now is the time to collect your seeds for next year’s plantings. This is a great project for you and your children to do to show them how fruit, vegetables, and flowers can live on in next year’s planting.
The larger the seed is the longer time needed to dry the seeds before storing them. Make sure the larger seeds are fuller and not flat after drying them.
To collect seeds here are some specific examples to help you save seeds.
Tomatoes
Cut a ripe tomato in half to remove the seeds, to place them in a dish of water for 1-2 days to allow the pulp to separate off from the seeds. Use a spoon to lay the seeds on a piece of parchment paper for 5-7 days to dry out before storing them
Squash
When you are cutting ripe squash for use, you can separate the seeds out and lay them out on parchment paper for 7-10 days to dry out before storing
Cucumbers
Remove seeds from ripe cucumber and place in water to remove any pulp before laying out on parchment paper to dry for 7-10 days before storing
Peppers
Remove seeds and place on parchment paper to dry for 5-7 days before storing
Beans
Remove seeds and place on parchment paper for 7-10 days before storing
Pumpkins
Remove seeds and place on parchment paper for 7-10 days before storing
Marigolds
Let the flower dry on the plant before removing it (the flower should turn brown), once you have removed you can lay it on paper or tray to continue to dry. Once it is completely dry you can remove the seeds for storage.
Zinnias
Let the flower dry on the plant before removing it (the flower should turn brown), once you have removed you can lay it on paper or tray to continue to dry. Once it is completely dry you can remove the seeds for storage.
Sweet Peas
Let seed pods dry on the plant before harvesting the pods, be sure to harvest before the pods open otherwise, seeds will drop to the ground.
Seed Bombs
Shred enough paper to fill the blender (use several colors of paper), and add 1 cup of water, let this sit for 10 minutes making sure the paper is submerged in the water, and turn the blender on mixing the water and paper to make a pulp. dump the pulp into a strainer lined with cloth to remove any additional water. Add 1-2 teaspoons of flower seeds, and squeeze pulp and seeds together before closing the cloth and squeezing the remainder of the water off. Form little balls or press them into other shapes before letting them dry overnight.
Now that they are dry the kids can find areas in the garden to toss them to watch them grow. Seeds that are good to use are zinnia, marigold, and cosmos.
Themed Garden
Have the child pick a theme they would like to have for their garden that they can decorate around the plants, not only will they have fun arranging the decorations it will allow them to take pride in their own garden plot. They can choose and plant the vegetables and flowers they love in the garden to enjoy throughout the summer.
Harvesting with your family
Showing your children and grandchildren how to harvest what they have grown will instill great pride in them to know that they have grown and harvested something that the entire family can eat and enjoy. Get them involved in all aspects of gardening from planting to harvesting, and cooking the food to get the full impact.
Garden Tote
Purchase a garden tote that your child can decorate. One great way to do this is to purchase hand paints that the child can make their handprint to place on the tote with their name or for the artist in your family they can paint flowers and other decorations.
Best Recipes for Kids to Make
It is important to have the children pick out a recipe using their favorite fruit or vegetable they have grown in their garden to prepare for the family.
Here are some suggestions that our children and grandchildren have made using the vegetables they have grown.
Veggie Smilie Face Snack
This is one of the easiest recipes and the child can use their favorite veggies.
Carrots, Cucumbers, Peppers, Peas, and Cheese to make it more nutritious. You can be creative to use your own favorite veggies. Add a scoop of hummus or ranch for dipping the vegetables in.
Berry Smoothie
Take one cup each of your favorite berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries) one banana, and one cup of greek yogurt plain or vanilla in a blender until smooth.
Best when the children can pick the berries from their own garden.
This is a great treat for children or adults on a hot summer day.
Yum Yum!!!
I hope that you will try one or several of these fun garden projects with your family, and watch for new projects and pictures as I do projects this summer with my grandchildren.
Happy Gardening with your children and/or grandchildren from the PNW Gardener!
