Fun Tips for Gardening with Kids in Small Gardens and Balconies

Fun Tips for Gardening with Kids in Small Gardens and Balconies is inspired by two things – National Children’s Gardening Week which starts today and the RHS Virtual Chelsea Flower Show, whose main theme for the last day is small space gardening (more on these below).

This article is not about designing child friendly gardens – I have written on that topic elsewhere. Neither does it presume that you have a large garden, with space for a cricket pitch as well as a tree house, children’s veggie garden and more. I want to focus on gardening with kids in small gardens and balconies because that’s all a lot of families have. The ideas are just as good for those with larger gardens to join in, but down scaling is not always as easy as up scaling.

Many have taken to gardening during the Covid-19 lock-down and been encouraging their children to join in. But it occurred to me that you may be running out of ideas. Hopefully, I’ve got a few here that you haven’t tried!

Gardening with Kids in Small Gardens and Balconies – Growing Plants

Potted Plants

Now whilst I applaud recycling all sorts of items into containers for plants, there are times when you as an adult want something a dash more stylish than yoghurt cartons on your kitchen windowsill.

Why not keep with the kitchen theme and use washed food cans. For example, instant coffee, syrup, olive oil. The paper label on some food cans will start peeling off as it gets wet; but may last a while. Or remove the labels and have aluminium plant pots!

Make holes in the base, and fill the first centimetre or two with grit to improve drainage.
Add peat free multipurpose compost and then your plants.

Herbs are an obvious choice for a kitchen windowsill in coffee tins. But succulents and other houseplants look good in aluminium cans on any shelf.

Microgreens – very ‘on trend’

Growing micro-greens is easily accomplished in small spaces. And depending on the plants you grow this way, they can be ready to eat from a few days to a couple of weeks. Soon enough for even the most impatient children!

Gardening with kids in small gardens and balconies is a challenge and growing quick maturing salads is one way to meet that. You can buy packets of mixed microgreen seeds, but I’d suggest buying individual packets of different seeds. That way you could have peppery mustard for grownups and mild spinach for toddlers (or vice versa). I also think (being a gardening teacher) that its interesting to let a few of your microgreens grow a bit bigger. Then you and your children can see how quickly little seedlings begin to look different from each other. And it gives you the opportunity to carry out lots of taste testing. Its all good fun and learning too.

Rather than buying new plastic containers for all these different microgreens that you’ll be growing why not recycle? Cut off the lower part of a plastic milk carton, add drainage holes grit and compost: sorted. The advantage of recycling is that you can make containers of different depths. Quickly harvested microgreens only need a shallow tray; if they are to be grown for longer they need more soil depth for roots.

New Plants for Old

Carrot tops and parsnip tops are among the two easiest vegetables to use. Place in a saucer and fill with water cover about half on the cut end. Keep the level topped up as they grow.

In a couple of days they’ll have green buds. And will soon start growing leafy tops which are edible and taste quite different to the root vegetable they came from. Be bold and suggest taste testing – just a nibble of the raw leaf. If it’s a yuck that’s fine!

Your children may prefer to create a salad with the tops and any other herbs or micro greens you’ve been busy growing during lock-down. Or chop and add them to a pasta sauce.

If you have pet rabbits, guinea pigs or tortoise they’ll enjoy the parsnip and carrot tops.

Make a fairy garden or dinosaur garden

Or a Star Wars garden, or a Lego / Duplo garden…you get the gist. This can be a messy soil and water version for outside. For those with only a balcony you may prefer the indoor version.

Indoor version

The main part of your garden could be a garden box or plastic tray. Use scrunched up wrapping paper and packaging to pad out and be pretend soil (as its brown!) Then add pebbles, decorative stones, flowers, twigs and leaves you’ve collected, small plants in tiny plant pots or child sized yoghurt cartons.
Arrange your fairies and dinosaurs in their magic garden and admire. Or, my preferred version, use the garden as a setting for imaginative play with the toys.

Outdoor version

Or indoor if you’re feeling brave!
Use real soil / multipurpose compost in your box. Make a magic pool – paint the inside of a washed food tray /plastic pot saucer blue or turn the water blue with food colouring for extra fun.

Arty Gardening with Kids in Small Gardens and Balconies

And while we’ve got the paints out….

Painting stones and plant pots is always popular – but have you tried these? Gardening with kids can be fun and you may find yourself wanting to join in with these…

Possibly more popular with slightly older children. Choose a feather or flower and draw a study of it in as much detail as you can. Learning to focus on one thing for a length of time, to observe it and recreate the detail is a useful skill. Pencil and eraser are needed for this one.

Gather twigs, flowers, leaves, feathers and create a work of art. It could be two dimensional on paper, or three dimensional – a sculpture.

Or make a mosaic with leaves and petals.

More resources for Gardening with Kids in Small Gardens and Balconies

And as someone brought up on Blue Peter… here’s one I made (wrote) earlier “Fun in the Garden with Your Children” – Article for Children’s Gardening Week, published in Families South East Magazine

As I said at the beginning, one of my inspirations for this blog was National Children’s Gardening Week. In 2020 takes place from 23rd – 31st May, and was originally timed for May half-term. Their motto

“Together, we help children grow”

Focuses on making gardening fun for kids so that they are able to learn through play and projects. A good method of encouraging both younger and older children and teenagers to discover some of the delights and dramas of gardening.

The week is sponsored by National Garden Vouchers and funds raised support the Greenfingers Charity. Greenfingers is a national charity dedicated to supporting children who spend time in hospices around the UK by creating inspiring gardens for them to relax in and enjoy.

They have plenty more ideas for making gardening fun. And so to do Plews – so do get in touch if you’d like your garden to be child friendly and still good for grown-ups.