Are you looking for some fun and entertaining ways to get your kids outdoors and in the garden? Do you need to spend some quality time with them and get away from the screen distractions that take away from family time? Here are some garden activities that are sure to provide lots of smiles for you and your children and are sure to get their hands dirty!
Indoor/Outdoor Themed Gardens
Starting your garden from seeds is a great way to begin teaching young one's responsibility and care and is a great indoor and outdoor project to get the whole family involved, from parents to grandparents or friends! It's also a perfect project for any space you may have to work with, whether you have an ample outdoor growing space, are limited to a patio, or only have indoor space in your home to grow!
Try picking a theme for your garden to make it even more fun! You could use the Spicy Pepper Starter Kit to grow a "Salsa Garden" or the Edible Flowers Starter Kit to create a Flower Garden or Pollinator Garden.
A couple more creative ideas are to use the Culinary Herbs Starter Kit to make a "Pizza Sauce" garden or use the Exotic Veggies Starter Kit for a " Snack Garden" as a sneaky way to get the kids to eat their vegetables. Get creative with the themes! You can grow two kits at the same time and have them pick the theme!
Garden Teepee
What child doesn't like building and hiding out in an awesome fort? A garden Teepee is a great way to add vertical planting space to your garden and get the kids excited about building something fun!
Start by marking out a circle shape area ( however big you want your fort's base) in your garden/yard. You'll want to get at least 6 branches/bamboo poles/posts to make the structure. You'll want them to be tall enough for the kids to stand inside, but not so tall that you can't pick vegetables growing at the top!
Push the poles a few inches into the ground, spacing them evenly, be sure to leave a space for the fort "entrance." Tie the stakes together at the top with some strong rope or twine. You can test the strength of your teepee by going inside and carefully hanging from the center to make sure it doesn't collapse under the weight.
Then to the fun part, planting the covering of your teepee! Vining varieties, such as Beans, Peas and other small vegetable varieties, such as Lemon Cucumber, which can be found in our Exotic Veggie Starter kit
You could even do two different plant varieties on your teepee!
Lasagna Garden
Did someone say lasagna?! Yummy! Unfortunately, you can't eat this garden, but you can eat what you grow in it! This is a great way to prepare your garden beds 3-5 months ahead of time to build nutrient-rich soil!
You'll want to start by collecting "green" items such as fresh plant and grass clippings, fruit and veggie scraps, and coffee grounds. These are all nitrogen-rich items that will help everything break down. You'll also want "brown" things such as mulch, straw/hay, and dried leaves, which are rich in carbon.
The next step is to clear out the area you will want to put your garden bed. It's helpful to mark out the ground with stakes and twine, but not needed.
Now It's time to build your lasagna layers!! Start by laying down newspaper over the whole area. You'll want the newspapers to be a few sheets thick to prevent weeds from growing. Make sure you overlap newspapers by a couple inches and get the newspapers wet!
After this, you will want to start adding the greens and browns. You will want to alternate each one, making each layer about 2" thick. You will also want to get each layer wet. Do this until your garden pasta is about one foot tall.
You will want to make sure you don't let your lasagna dry out. You want it to stay moist but not swampy.
After a few months, all the organic matter should be decomposed and ready to plant! If any material is left, you will want to push it aside, especially if you start from seed. You can plant anything you like in your Lasagna bed! If you need some ideas of what to grow, you can check out our Grow and Seed Kits here.
"Freddy the Frog" Tire Planter
This super froggy tire planter is a great way to use those old tires lying around your yard and recycle them and other items that need to be re-purposed for a kid-friendly project! You can get creative as you would like with your planter! A quick search online will show you all different kinds of variations of frog planters.
You will need 3-5 tires( depending on if you want 2 small tires as eyes or just paint eyes on the top tire), paint, an old yoga mat or doormat, plastic bowls, an old piece of plywood/plastic tub lid, tire tubing, and a garden hose.
- Clean and paint the tires green.
- Stack the tires
- Paint the eyes and mouth
- Cut the feet out of the mat.
- Cut the legs out of the hose.
- Cut the lashes out of tire tubing.
- Attached the feet, legs, lashes
- Place the plywood/plastic tub in the bottom of the top tire so it can hold soil.
- Fill all tire with soil. We recommend drilling some holes in the tires and plywood for water drainage!!
From there, you can plant anything in there! From Herbs to Veggies, to Flowers. Our Edible Flowers Grow Kit is an excellent choice to fill up the belly of Freddy!
Let's go get those hands dirty!!
