35 Helpful Tips on How to Garden with Kids! {Yes, It’s Already Time!}

Planting a garden with kids reaps benefits for the whole family. You spend quality time together while introducing your kids to a hobby that could last them a lifetime!

In Texas, it’s already time to start gardening. Head to your local gardening store and see what you find. Whatever is out is ready to plant! The end of January is perfect for planting blackberry bushes and fig trees.

These 35 Helpful Tips on How to Garden with Kids are sure to inspire and encourage (and your little helpers) in the garden!

35 Helpful Tips on How to Garden with Kids

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Studies show that kids who garden make healthier eating habits and score better in science. Kids love watching new life spring from a seed, and, let’s face it, kids like getting muddy, too!

We love the sense of awe that gardening gives them. We hope that as you go through our list that you too will get excited to garden with kids!

Fun Gardening Activities for Kids

• Create a compost bin with this tutorial from Preparedness Mama, and teach your kids how to be responsible with their waste.
• You can recycle DIY watering cans with this brilliant idea from A Childhood List.
• This painted wooden spoon craft is perfect for using as plant markers. A set of these makes a wonderful housewarming, Mother’s Day, or birthday gift! 
• Kids will have fun dressing up their garden with these 10 Garden Decorating Ideas from Your House and Garden.
• Share garden fruit together ! We love the edible garden that At Home with Ali showcased.
• Here’s a cool idea: Create a moon garden. I had one of these as a kid, and it was awesome! It was something my brother and I looked forward to working on with our mom each summer!

Garden Crafts for Kids

• Young kids will like making these Crafty Garden Critters. 
• Have fun creating gardening labels! Dilly-Dally Art‘s adorable labels are a fun way to organize your garden. 
• Turn old bottles into new buddies with eHow‘s upcycled planter idea for a garden with kids. 
• Your kids are going to love this sunflower house from Lasso the Moon! Good thing sunflowers are so easy to grow.
• Enjoy a post-gardening snack of flower pot cupcakes with this recipe from Anna of The Imagination Tree.
• Darice‘s adorable recycled tin cans make great gardening containers.
• This bean fort from Joyful Toddlers is so awesome!
• Grow edible art and create an egg carton cress caterpillar, inspired by Science Sparks.

Teaching Kids About Gardening 

• Looking for something simple and easy to grow? Try growing peas with these tips from Educators Spin on It!
• Use toilet paper tubes to create planters with this tutorial from Kitchen Counter Chronicles.
• Want to recycle those Easter Eggs? Use egg shells as a nutrient-rich seed starter.  Great tips from Babylandia (be sure to translate the page).
• Here’s another idea on starting seeds in eggshells (you wanted omelets anyway) from Gina Klirk of Is She Really.
• Love this Kids garden table – give your children space to create and observe with At Home with Ali.
• Use an Egg carton as DIY seed pods to start your plants. Kitchen Counter Chronicles‘ brilliant idea is the perfect size for a window sill!
• This is such a smart tip from Bonzai Aphrodite! Hang tomato plants upside down to grow in a repurposed water bottle. 
• Have a kid that likes origami? All you need is newspaper to make these biodegradable pots from Goosie Girl’s.
• This looks like so much fun! Learn how to grow tomatoes the easy way from Homestead Lifestyle.

Garden Science Projects for Kids

• Housing a Forest has a great idea to plant seeds in a sponge. It contains the sprouts, it’s soil/mess free, and it is able to be planted as a unit. Brilliant!
• Have limited space? Looking for a contained garden? Why don’t you make an herb garden inside mason jars? Check out Weeping Cherries’ tutorial.
• You need to know what kind of soil you have before you start planning your garden with kids. Check out this simple science experiment with soil from Left Brain Craft Brain.
• Experiment with sunlight and watch the plants follow the sun as you rotate them with this fun idea from Mama Smiles.
• My Romana Apartment uses grapefruit peels as plant containers for another great eco-friendly gardening pod to start your plants, using fruit rinds.
• This grass head kids craft from Red Ted Art is such a fun idea! It combines art and science into one. You could even use wheat grass for the hair, to make it edible! 
• Science is all about observing–print this Garden Journal from Happy Mothering, and help kids record everything they learn from their plants. 
• We are looking forward to starting our spring garden! TipNut has a great list of things that you can both grow indoors to give your garden a head start. It’s also a perfect tutorial for anyone who prefers having a smaller garden indoors.
• The kids will love to watch their plants grow in sock heads with this adorable craft from Happy Whimsical Hearts. 
• Check out these 10 Ways Preschoolers Learn in the Garden. It’s perfect for home or the classroom! 
• Create a mini-greenhouse out of a CD case with this awesome upcycled craft from Curbly.
• A good garden has lots of worms! NurtureStore shares how she created a wormery with her daughter.

Some Of Our Favorite Gardening Tools

The best thing about gardening is that it’s a hobby that not only teaches important life skills, but can be tailored to any budget! You can make do with what you have and be thrifty and creative. I have also scored really good deals on gardening tools and items at garage sales, the dollar store, and the Target dollar spot (especially when they roll out all of the spring stuff). 

When my daughter and I garden, I like to make sure she has a good sunhat to protect her little face, and gardening gloves. How sweet is this gardening tool set for kids? Her favorite part is the watering can (I let her pick out a new one as we need them. I prefer to buy cheaper, cute ones every year or every other year when the wear out).

My personal gardening must-have is these knee pads (oh, the joys of getting older, ha!). I like to keep a few of them on hand each season, so I can use them at the same time for larger gardening projects, and to stay stocked up in case they wear out. The newest addition to our gardening supplies is called The Bug Bite Thing. It acts as a tiny vacuum that sucks out venom (and even stingers, apparently!) from bug bites and stings from mosquitos, bees, wasps, and ants to name a few! (This is NOT meant to replace emergency medication for anyone with an allergy). 

More Gardening Ideas & Activities

• Gardening projects
• Herb garden ideas 
• Gardening tips!
• Air plant fun 

Do you have any tips for gardening with kids? Comment below!