Little Gardeners - projects for spring

Studious pruning

A few fellow mums have got in touch recently asking about what they can grow with little children, and about what they can be getting on with right now.  It’s still very early in the year, so there is plenty of time to prepare for what to grow in the coming months, and I thought I’d put together a list of good projects that my (nearly) 3-year-old has loved.  I feel like teaching children to garden and to love nature is giving them a huge gift.  It’s a form of mindfulness and quiet focus, it teaches appreciation of the world we live in and, more than anything, it’s a source of joy and excitement which they can carry on for life, which is free and which is everywhere.  So many people march past a tree in blossom or the first flowers of spring without noticing, but once children have an eye for the details of nature, they will find interest and happiness in it wherever they turn.

Making mud pies

I’ve read quite a few books on gardening projects for children and, although many of them are excellent, they often seem aimed at older kids.  Arthur likes mess.  Arthur gets frustrated (understandably) when he’s expected to carry out complicated tasks that take ages.  He’s currently suited to projects that are quick to complete and that have quick results.  He likes to nurture but will forget about something if there’s no obvious progress. I wrote an article last year (link here) about trying to allow children freedom in the garden and so, ahead of starting all the projects below I’ve been trying to let Arty do his own thing outdoors. His absolute favourite activity is making mud pies. A few toy pots, a metal spoon, a plastic jug - Arty will make mudpies with anything and for hours. He also loves to stir in grass, leaves and flowers ‘for the flavour’. It’s not really my bag, but it’s the sort of unstructured connection with nature that beats me trying to instruct him hands down. If there’s a small corner of the garden you can set up that is free for digging then you will end up saving the rest of the garden from destruction.

Below are some projects for early spring. I’ll write about ideas for mid-spring, summer and early autumn as the seasons pass, in the hope that each instalment is easily digestible rather than trying to include the whole year in one go.

Feed the birds 

I’m putting this first because even if it’s nothing to do with plants, it is still a huge part of gardening in terms of being a good custodian of your garden and all that lives within it.  At its simplest, just filling a bird feeder with birdseed outside a window (ideally near something like the kitchen table) will give little ones lots of fun watching birds arrive.  If you can, laying out wood on a table and then scattering food on them will be great for the birds and a lot of fun to watch.  It’s also helpful if you can leave a dish of water for them, making sure it hasn’t frozen over on cold mornings.  Finally, for kids that love cooking as much as Arty I recommend making bird cakes by melting down lard or suet and stirring in birdseed.  The mix can then be rolled into balls or else put into yoghurt pots to harden, just be aware that in hot sun they may start to melt!

Plant Winter Bedding

Planting up primulas

At a time when nothing is growing in the garden, winter bedding can offer a great kids project for very little money and with instant gratification!  Lots of winter bedding will flower in the coming weeks in an array of bright colours and, if it doesn’t seem too indulgent, I think it’s lovely to let kids choose the flowers they want from the garden centre (within reason).  Options include Primulas, Violas and Bellis (pompom daisies) all of which are also edible flowers which can be fun to pop on cakes or into salads.  My first gardening experience was choosing primulas with my grandmother and I’m hugely fond of them (see my article on the history of primulas here). Having a few bright flowers in tiny terracotta pots can be very cheering for grownups as much as for kids or, if you have enough space, give your child a little patch of garden to take ownership of, and let them fill it with these cheap and cheerful flowers.

Chit Potatoes

Arthur loves growing potatoes.  The process of planting them is simple, very physical, and involves getting muddy.  Digging them up is a magical experience: it involves getting even more muddy than planting them as you rootle around in the soil; it’s a treasure hunt, turning over the earth searching for hidden gold; and new potatoes fresh from the soil are completely delicious.

It’s too early to plant your potatoes right now, but it’s a really good moment to start chitting them.  Order what are called ‘First Early’ varieties, for example ‘Swift’, ‘Rocket’, ‘Duke of York’ and ‘Red Duke of York’.  Most first earlies are new potatoes, which suits little children anyway, and means you can have an early harvest.  When your potatoes arrive, get your child to lay them out in an old egg box and leave it somewhere bright and warm in the house.  The potatoes will start to develop shoots which will mean that when it is time to plant them (in mid-March) they will be off to a flying start.

Potatoes can then be planted into the ground or into big pots or bags.  I would recommend planting them in the soil if you can because of the pleasure it gives a child to dig around in the ground for them, but if you grow your potatoes in pots you can tip the contents of the pot out and a child can hunt around for potatoes just the same.  Traditionally you’re told to dig a big trench to plant potatoes but actually, you can just dig out a good, deep hole for each one with a trowel and little hands can then pop the potatoes in.  As the plants grow, you cover over the foliage with more compost or another mulch to exclude light, but apart from that they really are very easy and unfussy (I won’t give full description here, but if you search online there are plenty of videos showing what to do if you’re nervous!).

Buy some Dahlia tubers

 OK, buying the tubers isn’t exactly a kids activity, but they sell out quickly online, so it’s worth having a look at which you might like to grow and ordering them now.  Dahlias are great for kids because the tubers look weird and knobbly, like alien hands and they’re relatively easy to grow. The flowers are bright and dramatic and since they’re big plants, you only need a couple.

By the end of March you can put these into compost in plastic pots and keep them somewhere warm and protected where they should start to grow shoots.  You can then move them out into the garden after any risk of frost.  Once they are growing well, pinch shoots out above a pair of leaves about 4 leaves up, and plant them out into the garden or into big containers.  They make lovely cut flowers so a big bonus for mummies and daddies too!

Bulbs ready to bloom

If you didn’t get round to planting spring bulbs last year don’t despair. You can buy lots of bulbs that are already growing from garden centres, local greengrocers, and last year I even found Lidl had a great range. These can then either be planted up into pots outdoors (for slower results) or kept on the kitchen table where kids can watch them grow and bloom day by day. If you want to create something together then you can plant bulbs up into a bowl indoors. Just make sure there is some grit at the bottom, or else water very sparingly as any container without drainage holes can end up getting waterlogged.

Learning to sow seeds

One of the hardest parts of gardening with little kids is getting them to engage with projects over a long time span.  I wrote last week about the importance of holding off on sowing seeds for a few more weeks and this is particularly true with little gardeners.  Sowing a load of tender seeds in late Feb/ early March will end up with sad looking plants on windowsills and the whole process will be complicated and teach the wrong lessons.

But you can still get children ready for the growing year by sowing some indoor crops now!  The following will all germinate and show results really quickly and also offer a great opportunity to teach children about how plants grow and their requirement for water and light.

Pea and Bean shoots

You can buy big bags of dried peas and broad beans for cooking from any supermarket or corner shop with a really good dried goods, pulse and spice section.  They germinate and start to grow really quickly and very visibly (big fat shoots) so a child can really engage with the process.  They’re easy for kids to harvest (just cut the top inch or so off with scissors) and they taste of peas so have a flavour kids will love, especially if you harvest them when they are very young before the pea shoots get too tendrilly (tendrils put Arty off as they’re chewy).  If getting them to eat them raw is a struggle, both actually taste much sweeter cooked, so they can be chopped up and put in an omelette or stirred into pasta etc.

Soak these overnight in water to give them a head start.  A seed tray with drainage holes is ideal to grow them but you can use things like large yoghurt tubs with holes in the bottom, or big greengrocers boxes lined with newspaper.  Fill to a few centimetres below the rim with compost (you can use old, spent compost).  Then scatter the soaked peas or beans thickly (closely but not touching) and then cover with compost and keep on a warm sunny windowsill.  It’s a very inexact science so don’t worry about sowing too thickly or thinly.  Just experiment and it will still work out.

Cress men

This is a bit of an old classic, but Arthur is currently loving growing cress men.  We cracked a few eggs near the top (and ate them), washed out the shells and painted on faces.  Then we filled them with damp cotton wool and scattered cress seeds on top.  Arty loves watering them every morning and evening and then giving the men a haircut when they’ve grown enough.  He has a little spray bottle to water them, but you could drip water from your fingers or punch a few holes in the lid of a plastic bottle.  If the flavour of cress doesn’t go down well you can also use microgreen seeds for things like broccoli.

A scary looking cress man…

If cress men seem too childish, microgreens can be grown in a dish on damp paper towel, or in a very thin layer of compost, and there are all sorts of different seeds and flavours to experiment with, all of which are super good for you and fun for kids to sprinkle on their dinner. You can even write letters or try to draw a picture with them and experiment with different colours.

I hope some of these ideas will keep you busy for the coming month. By mid-March it will be time to sow the first seeds for the year ahead with so many veg and flowers to choose from, and the weather will be brighter and warmer ready for even more play time outside.