Easy Gardening Projects You Can Do With Your Kids

 

Contemporary parents find it difficult to balance between work and family duties. Gone are the days when one of the spouses stayed at home to take care of the kids while the other one had a well-paid job. Today things are pretty different and if you are also torn between the urgent projects in the office and the family duties, you must be utilising every free minute in spending some quality time with your loved ones. Let’s leave aside going to the cinema, having picnics in the park and going to the zoo. If you have a garden to look after, why don’t you engage your kids? It will be fun to teach them some basic gardening skills and enjoy each other’s company. However, you have to pick up gardening activities suitable for your kids’ age. If you assign them a difficult task, they will lose interest pretty quickly. Here are a few ideas to choose from:

• If your kids have a flair for doing different arts and crafts, you can ask them to make a birdhouse. If they are too young for such a project, you can simply make a trip to the nearest store and buy one. Then, you can have some fun painting the birdhouse together.
• If you want to teach your little gardeners how to take care of another live creature, you have probably considered getting them a pet. If you are still hesitating whether they will be responsible enough towards their eventual furry friend, the best thing you can do is to assign them a flower to take care of. As you know, some plants require special attention. They don’t like too sunny/ too shady places, they need to be regularly watered, etc. You are not willing to sacrifice none of your precious flowers, right? In this case, you just have to ask them to look after a plant that does not require so much attention. Sunflowers and Marigolds would do the good job.
• Do you have small empty jars that do not have lids? Here is another easy to perform gardening project. Ask the kids to fill up the jars with soil and plant different seeds. Then, hang the jars on the patio wall and enjoy the beauty of the flowers you have planted.
• Your kids might not like to take the role of cleaners and collect the broken branches or sweep the patio or driveway, but when it comes to watering and playing with the garden hose, they get really enthusiastic. In order to avoid arguments, you can ask them to make a watering chart. Then figure out together when the plants need watering. If necessary, go and get the kids some supplies from the arts and crafts store.
• If you don’t have much experience in performing gardening projects, you’d better start with a really easy one or contact your local gardeners for some advice. What do you think about taking care of planted strawberries? You can find them in the gardening department at the home improvement stores. However, you have to be informed that strawberries, planted in small containers are a bit more expensive than buying soil and seeds and planting them in your own containers.
• What do you do with the eggs cartons? Don’t throw them out because you can use them as starter pots. Cut an egg carton in half and you will get two carton starter trays. You and your kids can plant some seeds and wait a few days to see the result of your efforts.
• Do you know what would make kids enthusiastic about taking an active part in gardening activities? If you decide to apply this trick you will kill two birds with one stone. Plant the ingredients for the favourite meal of the kids. If they love pizza, go ahead and plant some herbs, tomatoes, peppers, etc. When you harvest the crops, you can cook together. It will be a lot of fun, not to mention your kids will feel happy that they have contributed to the entire plants growing process.
• If you have a slightly damaged basin or any other container you don’t use, you can take up a decorating project to hide the damage and plant some beautiful flowers. If you want to make the garden even more enjoyable and fun, you can use colourful boots kids have outgrown as flower pots.

So, what are you waiting for? Engage the kids in performing gardening projects with you the next weekend. Shopping and choosing the plants will also be fun. Make sure you don’t miss any precious moment of their childhood. When your kids grow up, they will not remember the expensive gifts they received but the happy memories you had together.