Kids Gardening Activities for Outdoor Fun

With the right equipment, gardening with kids can be both safe, fun and an excellent children’s activity. It’s commonly recognised by most parents that children lack an interest in vegetables, but we also know that the flavour of home grown produce can’t be beaten.

So read on and watch the videos to find out how gardening with kids can be fun!

Preparing for the Garden Centre

A good idea is to start at the very beginning with your child. I decided that with my son Sam who is three, we would try planting up a set of Hug Pots as a fun children’s activity. I began by taking him along to the Garden Centre to choose some plants.

As an idea I would suggest to any parents who are deciding to do some gardening with their children to select plants which are either quick to grow, or are already looking interesting such as strawberries, peppers, tomatoes or seeds such as salads and cress.

There is nothing worse that staring at a blank patch of soil with nothing happening. Even as adults I think we can all admit to getting over-excited at the sight of a brand new shoot poking through the soil. For myself, it usually involves me shouting ‘shoooots’ in an odd high-pitched voice and dragging my other half into the garden so he too can understand my joy.

If I said the trip around the garden centre was without the stresses and strains usually associated with shopping with a young child I would be lying. Having to keep one eye on him and one eye on where the trolley was going is surely testing my multi-tasking abilities. Overall it was however a really enjoyable experience for both of us and it was good to see an inquisitive little mind at work having fun and wanting to learn.

As an additional treat, albeit a compromise so we could actually leave before the Garden Centre shut, we also went and looked at the ‘fish-ies’, you may notice we spotted some ‘coral chicken’.
I fear that’s a phrase I wont be allowed to forget in a long time!

Planting up the Hug Pots

Planting was fun and it turned out to be a good children’s activity. We planted some peppers, tomatoes and chillies. Sam loved his Hug Pots and in turn enjoyed his gardening becoming chief dirt digger and deliverer in no time! This was a great opportunity for him to make a mess, learn about planting and also as a result to take an interest in caring for the plants later on.

Being a creative child, Sam also found that the Hug Pots were ideal for building sand castles!