How to make children like gardening

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Sow small batches of seeds indoors

This is an interesting idea, because it will help your little one follow his or her seeds up daily! Indeed, patience doesn’t come naturally to most children. This situation sounds like a daring proposal, no? Making them wait for seeds to sprout out of the soil? You’ll be surprised at how well the children will cope with the waiting.

Simply prepare your small sowing pots with any available recovered materials: your children will simply love it. Gather empty yogurt pots (glass, plastic, terra cotta ones are fine, whichever you usually have for dessert). Prepare seeds from your favorite herb plants: basil, parsley, etc. Other tools are a pen, enriched soil mix and of course a tiny watering can.

Start with a painting activity for your child:

• Decorate each pot (plastic, glass, clay) with paint. Select a paint suited to the material.
• Once the pots have dried out – patience again – ask your child to fill them in with soil mix.
• Press the soil down somewhat and moisten it with water.
• Sink the pen or simply a stick into the center of each pot, down to a depth of just under an inch. Have your child plop a couple seeds in each hole, and cover the hole shut again.
• Water a bit to keep the soil mix a little moist.

Make it clear to your child that only a few days are needed for the basil seed (or parsley or marigold or other) to sprout. You’ll see: every day, your child will drop by and check!

And when the plant will finally have sprouted, he or she will be positively hooked on gardening!

Grow a head with green grass hair

Another idea to make gardening fun for your child is to find something fun that will stick to his or her mind, and may lead your children to growing their own vegetable patch or flower bed later on!

Find an old pair of tights (no holes at the tip!).

• With your child, mix a fair amount of lawn grass seeds with a few handfuls of sawdust (you may also use soil mix). Put as many handfuls of lawn seed as you do sawdust or soil mix.
• Push this mix to the very tip of the tights. Fill the tip well, to shape a ball about three to four inches across (7 to 10 cm).
• The sawdust is what will help form the shape you’re aiming for for your little green-headed friend. Agree with your child that you’re simply preparing Mr Potato head’s green cousin: much easier to form, since making a perfect sphere is difficult…
• Once that is done, tie a tight knot and cut excess stocking off.
• Now is when to customize your Mr Potato-head: use scissors, glue or safety pins, colored paper and whatever you have underhand to create eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears… Let your imagination run wild!

You can now place your Mr Plant Potato in a yogurt pot filled with water and place it in the sun. Within a couple days, Mr Plant Potato will have sprouted hair!

• Note that Mr Plant Potato must always stay a bit moist for the grass to grow.

Have fun!