Best Gardening Activities for Kids

Here are several fun gardening activities for kids that are easy to do and kids will love. Teaching kids how to garden and plant encourages them to eat more vegetables and inspires them to cook too. Great life skill to have and you’ll be amazed at how delicious fresh fruits are you grew yourself!

It is that time of year again!! The sun is warming everything back up, and the garden is ready to be replenished….what should we plant this year we thought?? Some of our favorites had survived but a few other plants just didn’t make it so it was time to create a few hands on gardening activities for kids that would yield something yummy….this is what we came up with! 😉 Special thanks goes out to Tree Top for sponsoring this post, and getting our Kids Gardening again. (affiliate links present)

Gardening Activities for Kids

We have so much fun getting our hands dirty, and thinking of all the wonderful things our garden will bring for us each year. One year we grew a zucchini that was 16″ long….seriously!!

I had so many zucchini that year that I had to search for more and more recipes, and not only did we have zucchini every night for dinner but we had it for dessert too (we found out we absolutely love zucchini bread with pineapple that year)!

It is fun for kids to see things grow from start to finish. Some plants are more “kid friendly” than others because they either grow quickly (kids aren’t patient), or they just “look cool”!! No need to buy garden books, we have suggestions for gardening in plastic bottles and more here.

Gardening Activities for Kids

It is proven that digging in the dirt is great for your attitude, adults and kids alike. Really any outdoor activity is great for the brain and attitude. With little ones there are so many great learning opportunities right outside while building a sensory garden, plant berries with a fairy garden amongst the leaves, right next to your bird feeder.

• Plant Strawberries – Let’s face it….everyone loves strawberries!! You can usually find small strawberry plants that have already started to sprout, some may even have a few pieces of fruit on them.
  • It is fun to have plants in a few different stages so kids don’t get discouraged as they wait for something to grow.
  • Here we share the best way to grow strawberries so you can get started too. Starting them in egg cartons and then transplanting them in a milk jug with a little added seed starter soil works great to start.
  • We just cut the jug in half and put a few holes in the bottom to drain(we love repurposing things if at all possible)! This is a fun plant for kids!
• Make gardening aprons – Just get ready for them to get dirty! That is half the fun so don’t send them out with nice clothes. You can decorate kids aprons with permanent markers and puffy paint. Or order gardening aprons with pockets that are already made to make it extra fun.

Order an extra so they can cook with that when their food is grown and ready to cook. You can make things like air fryer turnip fries, make a garden salad, or pico de gallo salsa with chips.

Gardening Activities to do With Your Kids

Really the simplest is usually the most exciting and doesn’t cost a lot. To get them really excited do something that seems weird but totally works and you know it. Think back to your days in Kindergarten, I bet you remember your Teacher “planting” the avocado seed right? Do that!!

How to Grow an Avocado From Seed

Plant an Avocado Seed – Now this is a fun one to do. Not only do we LOVE avocados, but there is nothing like watching this seed turn into a plant!

• All you need are plastic cups (I like ones that you can see thru so you can begin to see the roots grow).
• 3 toothpicks per seed
• Water
• The seed itself. Once you remove them from the avocado and rinse the seeds off the outside is a bit soft.

Just push the 3 toothpicks into the sides of the pit about 1/3″ in so that they are tilted upwards as you can see here. The fat end should face down. Then set it on top of the cup and fill it up with water until it touches the bottom of the seed. After a few days you may need to add a bit more water….then just wait for it to sprout!!

Kids Gardening

Plant Seeds – It is fun watching a flower grow from a teeny tiny seed all the way to a sweet smelling flower! I allowed both girls to choose which flower seeds they’d like.

• Then I cut an egg carton down the center so it created 6 small “flower pots” to plant their seeds in(yes we got to repurpose again….woohoo)!
• You can also use these nifty seed starter pots kit and let them watch it grow grow grow! Watching seeds grow is really fun….one of our favorite gardening activities for kids!

• Planting an herb garden is fun – Since herbs are small they tend to grow rather quickly and they can help you add “their herbs” to recipes too and eat them…now that is fun! Use an egg carton and then transition them to small and fun ceramic pots like these.
• Make garden markers to keep track of what you’re growing and make it really “cute!” It is fun when things start to grow but if you don’t keep track of things you’ll pull up a turnip when you really wanted a carrot. :/

Another fun way to mark what is planted is to glue a bottle cap to the top of a popsicle stick with a letter that signifies what is underneath. Or make a color guide with a key showing which color has what seed there.

How do You Involve Kids in Gardening

Everything needs to be fun with little ones right? Think of something they love, especially if you want to plant something that will yield something they will eat.

• Plant a Fruit Tree – Fruit trees are fun to plant in your back yard….lemon and apple trees are probably the most fun! Everyone loves apples.
  • Just pick them off the tree, rinse them off, and you have a yummy and healthy treat.
  • Lemon trees are fun too because they yield a lot of fruit (sometimes BIG ones like the one my little one is holding).

It is fun to make lemonade or have a lemonade stand! Of course this isn’t something that will grow in a few weeks like some of the others, but if you have the room for a fruit tree. I’d recommend buying one that is beginning to mature, and by the next year you should have some fruit to eat!

Hands On Gardening Activities

They are much more likely to want to veggies when they can say “I grew it myself!” My kids weren’t big zucchini lovers before, but after the Summer we had so many we didn’t know what to do with all of them. Then they grew to like the taste (I guess eating anything every day for weeks would do that to a person…he he).

• Plant Vegetables – This is a great gardening activity for kids. We love to plant zucchini every year….did I mention how much we love them? 😉 There are several reasons I suggest planting vegetables. If your kids aren’t big vegetable eaters this is a great way to get them to try them more willingly. If your child is involved in actually growing the squash, tomatoes, or other vegetables.
  • Another reason vegetables are great when gardening with kids is they grow pretty quickly (we all know how impatient kids are so this is important)!
  • I suggest planting zucchini specifically because they are pretty hearty and really proliferous!! Just one zucchini plant can produce many of them and will get HUGE if you leave them there. Of course it’s better to eat them when they are med. sized, larger ones don’t taste very good but are fun to do just once. Then cook with them, you can try this easy zucchini noodles and shrimp casserole I am sure they’ll love.
• Once you’ve done these fun gardening activities for kids try these fun ideas.
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  • summer to do list

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Tree Top.