5 Tips for Gardening with Kids, Plus How to Plant a Flower Pot

It’s not often we get outdoors to do gardening work. I’m not one to have much of a green thumb and though I enjoy looking at beautiful spring flowers, gardening is not an activity I typically would call a hobby of mine. However, my kids do enjoy flowers and occasionally gardening – my girl has even asked for a flower garden in the past and has recently asked to plant her own seeds! Since gardening is of interest to the kids, we took advantage of the gardening center at Walmart to find each of them some gardening essentials and decided to let them plant flowers in a flower pot for the front of our house. Check out our adventure in gardening with kids!

Gardening with Kids: Planting a Flower Pot

Materials Needed:

Flower pot
Potting mix
Flowers of your kids’ choosing
Kids’ gardening gloves – There are many to choose from in stores, like Disney characters and whimsical caterpillar and bug designs, with various price points starting at $1.97!
Kids’ gardening tools – Likewise, kids can choose from a variety of fun tool designs, like these bright spring color tools my daughter chose for only $2.97!

How to Plant a Flower Pot With Kids

First, fill the pot half-way with the potting mix. I did this step myself for my kids, but if you have an older child, you could easily let him or her do this. Next, let your kids rake and shovel the soil using their gardening tools. This not only lets them get a feel for “playing with dirt,” but it also helps the potting soil settle a bit in the pot.

Once the kids have finished raking the potting soil, create some spaces for placing your flowers. Gently take each flower out of its individual pot and let the kids transfer it into the potting soil. Your older kids will be able to remove the flowers from the pots themselves. This is a great opportunity to talk to them about being gentle so as to not damage the flowers and to point out the roots for an educational value.

After transferring each flower into the pot, add more potting soil to blend with the soil that came with the flowers. Let your kids gently pat down the soil using their hands or even their shovels, being careful with the flowers and their leaves. The last step would be to generously water your new flowers, which kids will of course love to do!