Last Updated on March 15, 2025 by Audrey
This post contains affiliate links.
Get kids involved in the garden with these gardening activities for kids! There’s so much more to gardening than just planting seeds, watching them grow, and harvesting, although those are all great things for kids to participate in. A garden provides a place to play, explore, be creative, witness nature, and learn about growing your own food!
A lot of these activities are great options if you need to do some work in the garden but your little ones aren’t necessarily in the mood to help water or weed again. Let’s get started!
1. Pick out and Plant Seeds.
It’s so much fun to decide what you’re going to plant and plan out your garden, and my kids have always enjoyed being part of this process! Once it’s time to plant, kids will love helping poke holes in the dirt, sprinkling in the seeds, and patting the dirt back in place. They can also be great at helping water! Make sure they’ve got their own little gardening set!
2. Go on Scavenger Hunts.
There’s plenty to explore in the garden, and nature scavenger hunts are a great activity to keep kids occupied! Try out these fun search and find nature cards.
3. Create A Mud Play Space in the Garden.
Of all the gardening activities for kids that we’ve personally tried, this one has single-handedly occupied my kids the most. The best part is that you don’t even necessarily need to provide an actual “kitchen”. A mud “area will more than suffice! If you simply leave part of the garden available for digging and playing in the mud and provide various pots, pans, spoons, bowls, etc., your kids will be occupied for hours.
Just check out all of the mud creations that have happened over the years! This can also inevitably lead to a lot of imaginative play like restaurant, house, picnic, etc. Here are some of the essentials for stocking your mud kitchen:
- mud kitchen
- pots/pans
- spoons
- muffin pan (I just used my old one. Goodwill is also a great place to stock your mud kitchen!)
- tea pot/cups
- bowls
- mud kitchen recipe cards
For more ideas on to set up a mud kitchen area, check out this blog post!
4. Build Fairy Gardens.
Gardening activities for kids don’t all have to involve tending the plants! The garden is the perfect place for kids for kids to play with loose parts and pieces to create little fairy homes! Provide a specific area in the garden or even a designated flower pot, as well as the following items and see what they create!
- fairy home
- wood slabs
- twigs
- figurines
- artificial plants
- moss
- pine cones
- pebbles
- flowers
- butterflies
- plus anything your kids find in the garden or around the yard!
5. Let Them Help Harvest.
Waiting for things to grow can be hard, but one of the gardening activities for kids that they’re always excited about is helping harvest! After watching the veggies start to grow and slowly get bigger and bigger over time until they’re finally ripe, it’s always exciting when it’s actually time to pick something! And more often than not, the things my kids pick end up being a snack right there in the garden.
If you grow flowers, your kids might enjoy helping you snip fresh blooms to create bouquets for indoors! My daughter loves grabbing her own pair of scissors and heading out to create a flower arrangement in her own jar.
6. Make A Pollinator Friendly Area.
Getting to observe all the creatures that visit your garden is one of our favorite things! Add a bee and bug hotel like this one or a butterfly feeder to your garden to attract pollinator friends. We like to include some native flowers to entice even more butterfly and bee visitors. Find out what are some good pollinator plants that are local to your area and check out these ideas for creating a pollinator paradise!
7. Make Your Own Garden Stepping Stone.
Some gardening activities for kids can involve getting creative and decorating! My favorite garden decoration that kids can help with are these homemade stepping stones. The best part about these is that they last basically forever and are a great keepsake!
8. Look For Insects in the Garden with a Bug Catching Kit.
Gardening activities for kids should definitely involve insect hunting! We’ve seen so many interesting bugs in our garden that probably wouldn’t have been in our yard otherwise. Our favorite is when we see caterpillars munching on our dill or a praying mantis hiding in the flower stems. Get a bug catching kit for your kids to keep roly-polys and lady bugs to look at for a little while before releasing them back into the garden. And don’t forget to dig for worms in the soil!
9. Create A Mini Farmer’s Market or Flower Stand.
Let your kids create a mini farmer’s market with the produce or flower bouquets. This one would be fun for pretend or for real if you have a budding entrepreneur on your hands! Even if they just do imaginary play with it, it can still be lots of fun as well as a great learning opportunity.
10. Make Garden Shadow Watercolor Paintings.
Gardening activities for kids can also involve art! Bring out a painting pad and some watercolors and put the paper under the shadow of some flowers, then paint the shadow. You can do this one over and over again on different flowers!
11. Make Recipes Together
Arguably the most rewarding part of gardening is eating the fruits of your labor! Let kids be involved in the process of making recipes with you! Mine have always especially loved making pickles and dilly beans and, of course, snacking on them later! Mine also love harvesting lettuce and herbs to make their own salads.
Conclusion
Gardening activities for kids offer endless opportunities for learning, creativity, and outdoor fun. From planting seeds and watching them grow to harvesting fresh produce, kids learn patience and responsibility. Adding art projects sparks creativity and exploring the garden through play helps children connect with the natural world.
Whether they’re digging in the soil, observing insects, or creating garden-themed art, these activities nurture curiosity and a love for nature. So embrace the mess and try out these gardening activities for kids!
Looking for more outdoor activities for kids? Check out these 30 spring activities or these easy play ideas you can do right in your backyard!
PS – Know someone that would like this blog? Please forward it to them!
