Woodlands Nurseries
Kid's Area

Gardening with children

Whatever the weather gardening is an activity that the whole family can enjoy and a great way to entertain your children too! Why not print off our activity sheets to give you some ideas of indoor and outdoor activities that your children can enjoy, from making a wormery or bird cake to creating compost or growing tomatoes.

Tips on gardening with children

• Start small - don't be too ambitious and embark on massive gardening projects with your children. Better to keep it small and keep them interested. Why not start with growing potatoes in a bucket, sunflowers or simply cress, which grows quickly and children can eat in egg sandwiches after only a few days!
• Wear old clothes! Gardening can be messy (which children love) so we suggest that you keep some old clothes ready for when they go gardening. Also don't forget sun cream and a sun hat - even on days that are overcast children still need skin protection.
• Keep it fun and let them do as much as possible themselves. Giving children their own small section of garden or their own pots will help their enjoyment. Why not invest in a children’s sized watering can, some gardening tools of their own and some funky wellies?
• Children can become easily discouraged, so it's important to make their first gardening experiences as positive and fun as possible. Choose plants and seeds which are easy to grow and care for such as:
• Flowering plants like pansies, primroses, marigolds, sunflowers, nasturtiums, sweet peas and cornflowers
• Vegetables and salads like lettuce, courgettes, radish, cress, potatoes, tomatoes and runner beans.
• Recycle! Gardening with children doesn't have to be expensive. To start with you could use old margarine tubs and yogurt pots to start seeds in. Use lolly pop sticks as plant label and rather than buy seed trays with separate sections why not use egg cartons.
• Be relaxed and patient about what your children are doing and be prepared for a mess, that way you won't feel frustrated when they don't plant seeds in straight lines.

Love plants from inside the house!

Even if you don't have a garden you could encourage your children to have a love of plants from inside the house:

• Grow pips and seeds from fruit

• Consider growing mustard or cress seeds, which seem to grow overnight on damp kitchen paper

• Carrots, parsnips and radish tops will all grow leaves in a saucer with a small amount of water if left on a windowsill

• And a great way for children to see how seeds germinate is to put pea or bean seeds in a jar with a damp dishcloth and a small amount of water – they will soon sprout!