Not all kids have access to gardens or even have a sunny balcony, so here are 7 ideas for growing an indoor garden for kids to enjoy. This will even benefit kids during rainy and chilly days too so it’s well worth doing.
Nothing is more rewarding or decorative than a window ledge or craft table full of living plants and kids projects. It’s time to get the imagination flowing and get the kids involved in some indoor gardening.
Here are our top 7 ideas to create a fun, simple and imaginative indoor garden with your kids!
Tip 1. Create a Terrarium World
A Terrarium is an enclosed glass container with plants and decor items in it. It is the perfect option for creating an easy indoor garden for kids!
A fun theme is a dinosaur garden or a jungle.
What you require:
- A large glass jar with a lid.
- Jungle type indoor plants like ferns.
- Soil
- Decor items like moss, stones, coloured glass.
- Plastic dinosaurs or jungle creatures.
Fill your jar with about ¼ soil. Plant your jungle plants in the soil and water well. Position your decor items and close the lid.
Put the terrarium in a sunny spot and leave it to grow. Water will evaporate and then run down the inside of the jar, keeping your dinosaur jungle damp and steamy.
Tip 2. A Super Succulent Garden
Succulents grow beautifully indoors and require very little water or direct light. It’s easy to make a desert garden for succulents, in a flat pot. Succulents can be grown in soil or even fine gravel.
They come in beautiful greens, greys mauves and purples and have interesting shapes.
Succulents are so easy to propagate and spread easily. A simple leaf lying on the soil will put down roots and start growing.
A challenging but entertaining project is to make a string garden. A kokedama is a succulent, tucked into a ball of clay and coconut fibre and then tightly wound up in string, to form a hanging ball with the plant sticking out of the top.
It requires very little watering and looks amazingly effective. You can hang these string gardens from hooks on windows or pelmets or on verandas.
Tip 3. Indoor Herb Garden for Kids
Kids love to grow common herbs on a window sill. Pot up delicious basil, oregano or chives in little terracotta pots and place them on a sunny window ledge.
Add a seedling tray or two of microgreens like rocket, mustard or radish and you will have a variety of delicious herbs to add to your salads.
READ MORE: Why not try a Herbie Aerogarden! Read our full Herbie Aerogarden review.
Tip 4. A Magical Fairy Garden
Children love creating Fairy Gardens. Often thought to be the realm of little girls, they certainly seem to charm little boys too.
Plant a deep tray or pot with delicate flowering plants like pansies, nasturtiums or violas and water well.
Make little wandering paths of mosaic or pastel shades of glass beads among hills of moss.
Add some doll’s house garden furniture and bury a bowl of water to make a little pond.
Then wait for the fairies….
Your fairy garden will need a sunny spot and outdoor plants might need to be replaced every so often.
Tip 5. Quirky Grass Heads
These guys are fun. Grass seed grows quickly and kids love giving their Grass Heads a haircut with a pair of scissors.
What you need:
- A clear plastic cup with a small hole in the base.
- Potting soil.
- Paint or coloured markers.
- Grass seed.
Paint a funny or beautiful face on your plastic cup. Fill it with potting soil. Plant your grass seed thickly and water well.
The grass will be up in a few days and your Grass Head will have a head of long green hair, standing bolt upright in no time.
Give it a regular trim. And do give your Grass Head a name.
Tip 6. Hydroponics for Kids
Surprise your kids by showing them how plants can be rooted in water. This is a fun and educational way to create an indoor garden for kids!
Place a row of small jars filled with water on the kitchen window sill and try different plants.
Plectranthus and pelargoniums and other fleshy plants soon push out white roots.
Old veggies like lettuce, celery and onion will grow new leaves from the cut off rooted base if they are placed in water. You can plant them in the sand as soon as they are shooting and enjoy another harvest from the plant you intended to throw away.
An avo pit will form a little tree in no time when the pit is rested on three matchsticks and the base dangles in a jar of water.
Practise some Hydroponics for Kids by growing a lucky bamboo or a money plant in a mix of water and hydroponic plant food. As long as the water is clear and not too deep, the roots will sustain the leafy growth and the plants will thrive.
It’s just important to remember that old stale water will make plants sick. They need fresh aerated water in which to root or grow. So change it regularly
Tip 7. Pretty Pots
Gardening is enhanced by pretty containers and kids love decorating their pots.
Paint, glitter, glass beads and mosaic all create decorative pots for the indoor garden.
You can even try your hand at a bit of pottery if you can find somewhere to get it fired
It’s easy to create a rustic terracotta pot with moss growing on it as long as you keep it damp and cover it with a live culture yoghurt till the moss grows.
Final Word – Creating an Indoor Garden for Kids
Creating an indoor garden for kids is exciting and creative. The list of possible ideas is only limited by your imagination. Overall it is a great opportunity for kids to learn, use their imagination and be responisble for their creations. So now there is no excuse! Even if you don’t have a backyard or outdoor garden area, you can still create an indoor garden for your kids!
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