These ideas for a children’s garden can provide you with different crafts and fun DIY garden projects that you can make throughout the season with your child.
Creating a children’s garden will instill learning, imagining, creating, and playing.
How our garden started
When the pandemic first started and many of us were suddenly working from home with young children, it was a challenge to keep all the little ones active and content. I know because I was in that boat with my very (very) active two-year-old son.
Finding different activities was a challenge at times, but we spent a lot of our time playing outside once the weather warmed up. Getting into some gardening myself and thinking of how to get my son involved, I decided to create a garden space for him in the backyard that was just for him, and just for fun. And even though he was still very young, it was a fun experience for us both.
A garden for your child gets them in nature
Having a garden for your child gets them out in nature, which benefits them in all areas of mental, physical, and emotional development. The benefits of children interacting with nature have been documented in many studies, like this one on Significant Life Experiences that Connect Children with Nature, or this one on the Benefits of Nature Contact for Children.
Now that my son is four, we’re getting ready for another fun year of outdoor activities as the weather warms up, and that includes creating another garden space for him. You don’t need a big space for your child’s garden either. We’ve dug out an area in the yard in the past, but other options are less cumbersome to create and maintain.
Here are some fun ideas for a children’s garden that I’ve been thinking about and planning to incorporate for my son this year. Keep in mind the idea is to treat this as an activity that gets your child outside, learning, and having fun with you.
1. Get your child involved from the start
What makes a children’s garden so much fun is getting your child involved. Let them choose the plants they want to grow. Whether it’s going through a catalog or visiting a garden center, let them choose a mix of flowers, vegetables, or herbs.
You can decide how many to grow based on the space you have. This year, I’m going to buy a couple of big pots just for his plants, so he can choose some flowers and veggies.
Getting children’s garden tools (or letting them use yours) and children’s garden gloves can also help them get more excited about it. But steer away from cheap plastic tools. They won’t hold up, are bad for the environment, and besides, there’s nothing better to a kid than using grown-up tools.
2. Create a unique garden design
There are some creative and fun garden designs you can create with your child. If you have a larger space to work with, spell their name or make shapes with seeds that start quickly, like lettuce, spinach, or radishes.
As part of a creative design, including tunnels or a trellis will let peas, beans, or squash grow up and around them, creating a fun feature. Tunnels also make it easier for your child to see and pick veggies when they’re ready to harvest.
Of course, you can also create a container garden, using a raised bed or colorful pots, which they can walk around. Even though we have a big yard, I plan on purchasing some colorful pots that we can keep close to the back door and fill with different plants. If you have a balcony or a small deck, this could be a great option too.
3. Incorporate a fairy garden
Fairy gardens have become very popular, and it’s easy to see why. A fairy garden is a small container garden or a small-cultivated space near a tree with miniature-sized plants and elements as a place for fairies to live.
Imaginations fly with all the little items you can put out for these fairy gardens. You can buy or make items yourself, using twigs for little ladders, or cut-outs in logs to look like doors. You can even include little fairy characters for lots of playtime and adventures.
Fairy gardens may not seem like much, but they encourage creativity, dreaming, and pretending. They also encourage your child to take responsibility for keeping their fairy gardens clean and taken care of.
With all the fun little items you can add, you and your child will get a lot of bonding time as you help them with their creations.
4. Make and feature garden art
There are some fun additions you can add to their garden, which can be fun DIY projects on their own. Adding painted rocks or ceramic pieces can give the space more color and personality.
You can also buy steppingstones for your child to hop on. There are even stone kits, like this one, that you can make together to create different shapes, and add little “jewels” or rocks you find nearby.
Making and hanging decorative garden flags are a nice feature to add. They can flap in the wind, send your child’s wishes into the world, and show which way the wind is blowing, creating a fun learning experience.
5. Let them get dirty
Did you know that playing in the dirt can boost your child’s immune system? Dr. Jack Gilbert says that exposing children to the everyday microbes found outside in nature – including dirt – can help a child develop a strong, healthy immune system.
So many of us feel the need to keep everything clean all the time, and it’s simply doing us more harm than good. It’s been noted that kids who grow up in a rural setting where they’re exposed to dirt and animals from a young age are less prone to allergies and asthma.
Dress your kids up in clothes that can get stained and let them get dirty and have fun – let them be kids!
Conclusion
Whatever you choose to include in your child’s garden, the point is not to grow a ton of food to harvest but to simply get your child outside, involved, and having fun.
The seeds or plant starts may end up in the wrong spots, items may get picked early, or the garden could turn into a mud pit. Regardless, it’s an activity with hands-on learning while connecting with nature.
In this stage of independence, I know my son will love taking charge in choosing what he wants, helping plant everything, and watering the plants. It may get messy, but big deal! Let them play and get dirty.