If you’re looking for ways to get your kids out of the house and away from their screens, gardening is a fun activity that’s perfect for warm spring and summer weather. Let your kids be creative, learn about nature, and have fun outside. We’ve gathered some of our favorite gardening activities for kids so you can keep your children entertained at home.
17 Creative Gardening Projects for Kids
1. Grow Veggies from Kitchen Scraps
Explore the regenerative natured of some vegetables by doing this fun garden experiment with your children. It’s a perfect gardening project that can be done year-round indoors, or you can even transfer your “new” plants to your garden beds.
Many common veggies that you buy at the grocery store can be “regenerated” from the kitchen scraps you would normally throw away. You can take the root base of veggies like green onions, celery, cabbage, or lettuce and place them in a cup of water in a sunny window. Change the water regularly and over time you will see them regrowing fresh leaves and stems to use in cooking.
You can also try growing root vegetables like potatoes, garlic, and ginger. Learn more about this activity from HGTV. (Image from HGTV)
2. Fairy Garden Kit
If you want to start small, this kit is a fun way to introduce your child to the world of gardening. This fairy garden themed kit has everything you need to grow a whimsical scene, including soil, seeds, tools, and decorative toys. Let your kids customized their plants with the included fairy themed decorations. For kids four years old and up.
3. DIY Recycled Bottle Planters
This is a fun activity to combine creative crafting with gardening, perfect for spring or summer time. Save up bottles and other plastic containers that would normally end up in your recycling bin and let your child come up with a fun character to create. While you can grow flowers from seeds, visiting a nursery or garden center can be a good inspiration for your child. Let them pick out flowers or succulents that go with the character they want to make. Use paint and other craft supplies like googly eyes, dowels, beads or even other recycled materials. Parental supervision with a hot glue gun and utility knife will be important for younger kids to complete this project.
Check out eHow to see all of their character and creature ideas. (Image from eHow)
4. Grow N Glow Dinosaur Habitat
If your kid isn’t into fairies, they may like this dino-themed project instead. This kit is a fun combination of gardening and creativity. In addition to all the seeds and soil you need to grow chia, wheatgrass, and beans, the kit also has cool dinosaurs and even a light-up volcano! Putting all these elements together creates a cool prehistoric scene that is fun to grow and play with.
5. DIY Greenhouse Activity for Kids
This is an easy gardening activity perfect for springtime that requires minimal supplies or creativity. The Handmade Home designed this easy activity with two clear plastic cups. Fill one cup with soil, plant some easy to grow seeds. (Herbs work great, they used carrot seeds.) Water so the soil is moist. Take the second cup and punch a few air holes in the top. Place it upside down on the first cup and secure with tape.
Keep your little greenhouse in a sunny windowsill. Add water as needed to keep the soil moist (but not too wet!). Soon the seeds will grow. Eventually, you can transplant to larger pots or your garden bed.
6. Grow a Windowsill Herb Garden
If you’re limited on space or live in an apartment building, you can give your kids some urban gardening experience with their very own windowsill vegetable garden. Perfect for a porch, patio, or sunny window, this kit comes with everything you need to grow five different types of herbs (parsley, dill, basil, cilantro, and oregano). The cedar box is cool and rustic and the included potting soil will let you grow your herbs as soon as you’re ready to plant them.
7. Recycled Soda Can Garden Flower Art
For creative kids, this fun art project is a cool way to beautify your garden or yard. Using recycled soda cans and bottle caps, a supervising adult can help the kids cut the cans with tin snips to create the flower shapes. Then it’s up to the kids to decorate their flower using paint. Attach the painted flowers to rods or wood to display in your garden.
Get all the step-by-step guidance from Second Chance to Dream.
8. Garden Root Viewer
If you’re looking for an indoor gardening activity that is also educational, this kit is so cool! Great for kids 8 years old and above, this kit comes with three test tubes in which you can grow carrot, onion, and radish. The test tubes make it easy to see the roots growing and how these unique vegetables grow under the soil. You can also grow the same types of veggies in your garden as a fun lesson on what’s going on underground.
9. Painted Rock Garden Markers
Sometimes it’s hard to get kids excited about gardening early in the season when it’s mostly hard work of digging, planting, and weeding. This craft activity will help your children get excited about the delicious food you’re growing in your garden.
Lu Bird Baby found some flat rocks in her yard and painted them with the names and pictures of what they’re growing in their veggie garden. If you have extra rocks, let your kids make their own cool designs for display in flower beds. (Image from Lu Bird Baby)
10. Butterfly Growing Kit
Pollinators are an important part of any successful garden and this kit is a great way to give your kids a hands-on experience to learn more about them. This butterfly growing kit allows you to watch caterpillars go through their life cycle, eventually becoming butterflies that you can release in your yard. Teach your children about metamorphosis at home.
You have to send in a voucher to receive the caterpillars in the mail.
11. DIY Animal Grass Heads
This activity is like a DIY Chia pet! All you need from around the house are some recycled pantyhose plus a needle and thread (or you can use a sewing machine). Stop by your favorite garden store to pick up potting soil and grass seeds.
Sew your stockings into an animal shape. Mix up the seeds and soil and pour them inside the stockings. Soak your animals in water then keep them on a tray in a sunny spot. Make sure to keep them moist. Soon you’ll have grass sprouting, which will create a cool creature.
Get all the step by step instructions at Mother Natured.
12. Toysmith Flower Press Kit
If your child enjoys flowers, learning flower pressing is a great way to enjoy their favorite flowers for years to come. This flower press kit is designed for kids five years of age and older and comes with everything you need to introduce them to flower pressing. Have your kids help you plant and grow a flower garden and then at the end of the season they can save some of their favorite flowers.
13. Make Your Own Stepping Stones
This is a fun craft project perfect for beautifying your garden or yard. This kit comes with everything you need to make four personalized stepping stones. Mix your own cement and use the included paint and gems (plus any other craft material in your home) to make cool custom stones. Your children can paint their names, their hands, or some of their favorite nature scenes. Lots of fun for the whole family.
14. Teach Your Kids Composting
If you want your kids to get involved with gardening and growing their own food, teaching them composting is a great step to help them understand the whole growing process. They can see first hand the cycle of growing their own food, eating it, and then using the scraps to create compost that will help grow the next batch of food. And while this doesn’t seem fun, Kid World Citizen has an entire lesson plan built around composting kitchen scraps. Perfect for homeschoolers or summer activities.
Whether you want to use a small compost bin that’s easy for your child to use or create your own pile, there’s plenty of fun way to incorporate composting in your gardening plan.
15. The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids
If you really want to keep your kids busy all summer, this book can be your guide! The Book of Gardening Project for Kids includes 101 different activities to help your kids have fun outside in the garden. More engaging than trying to trick your children into weeding, the activities in this book are perfect for the whole family to have fun together. It includes practical ideas, like designing a play-friendly family garden and also fun activities like garden games. Enjoy the nice weather and the outdoors with your little ones.
16. DIY Recycled Milk Jug Watering Can
Teach your child about the importance of recycling with this fun craft project. Using an empty milk, water, or juice jug, you can create a watering can that they can decorate and personalize. A fun and easy activity for a rainy summer afternoon. Follow all the instructions here: How to Make a DIY Watering Can from a Recycled Milk Jug.
17. Grow Your Own Mushrooms
It’s hard to find gardening activities you can do during winter, but this one can be enjoyed year-round. This mushroom grow kit is easy to use and a fun activity for the whole family. It includes everything you need to grow oyster mushrooms in your own home. Kids will love spraying the mushrooms each day and watching them grow. Watch this video review to see the process in real-time.
18. DIY Rain Gauge
A fun and easy activity using a recycled 2 liter soda bottle, you can easily make a rain gauge to track rainfall at home. This is a fun activity for young kids and the rain gauge can be used all summer long to track rainfall and decide whether or not your garden needs supplemental water. Learn how to make a DIY rain gauge.
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Need more ways to get your kids into gardening? Check out these gardening gifts for kids. Help your kids be more active with these fitness trackers for kids and action cameras for kids.