From avocados to carrot tops to pineapples, have fun introducing your child to gardening with these easy growing projects. They’ll definitely enjoy these 12 playful planting projects for kids!
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Growing things at home, even without a large garden, can be simpler than you think. Some things don’t even need soil or compost, and it’s fun for your child to see something growing from planting a seed or popping the end of a plant or a pit into water.
Here are some simple ideas for planting projects to inspire you.
Planting Projects For Kids At Home
#1. Grow An Avocado Tree
Next time you have an avocado, save the pit. Clean it off, removing any avocado debris. Dry the pit off, then use toothpicks to suspend the pit in water in a glass jar, keep the point side of the pit facing upwards.
Place the jar in a sunlit spot and change the water every couple of days. After 3-6 weeks, you’ll see roots forming, the pit splitting with a stem and leaves appearing. 12 weeks or so later, when your tree is around 7-8 inches tall, plant it in a 10-inch pot with drainage holes.
Fill the pot with soil, and press your avocado sapling into it, roots down and keep the top half of the pit uncovered. Keep your baby avocado plant in a sunny spot and water it regularly.
Tip: Not every pit will produce roots, so try two or three pits at once.
#2. Eggy Cressheads
Cress is one of the best planting projects for kids and is an absolute cinch to grow – you don’t even need soil or potting compost, since cress will grow in kitchen paper or cotton wool. And you don’t need a pot or container because you can just use an empty egg shell!
Your kids will really enjoy creating these egg cress heads, especially when they get to decorate the shell to give their cress head a face to go with the funky green hair on its head. More fun cress growing projects for kids here.
#3. A Sweet Potato Vine
Did you know you can grow a vine from a sweet potato? All you need are some toothpicks and a glass jar as well as your sweet potato.
Use four or five toothpicks spaced around the middle of your sweet potato then put the potato into a wide-mouthed glass jar filled with water, with the pointy end facing down into the water and the toothpicks resting on the rim of the jar.
Replenish the water in the jar to keep the water level constant. Refill your jar with clean water every week to keep bacteria from growing.
Once your sweet potato has rooted (about 3-4 weeks) plant in some soil in a pot when the roots are about 2 inches long. Or you can plant outdoors if you wish once frost has gone.
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#4. Sprouts
Seeds will sprout by putting them on moist kitchen paper at the bottom of a shallow plastic tray. If you don’t have sprout seeds like alfafa, you can try lentils, beans (mung beans work well) or brown rice. Or try some seeds you may have in the kitchen such as pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds or mustard seeds.
The great thing is the seeds will sprout really quickly, and they add a bit of crunch to salads too.
#5. Carrot or Parsnip Tops
Did you know you can grow the top of carrots or parsnips? Just cut the tops off and place them in a shallow dish of water. Keep them on a windowsill and they should sprout after a few days.
Be aware that you won’t grow an actual carrot-yielding plant, just so you don’t disappoint your child! You’ll find more tips on the Gardeningknowhow.com website.
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#6. Grass Handprints
Image courtesy of Nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu
Why not try planting grass in the shape of your child’s handprint? It’s really easy to do and grass grows quickly. You’ll need some grass seeds, some potting compost in a tray or pot.
Have your child press their hand gently into the compost then sprinkle the grass seeds in the handprint impression. Cover lightly with some more compost and water. More instructions here.
#7. Salad Leaves or Rocket
My children always loved sprinkling salad or rocket seeds on some compost (cover lightly with some more compost then water) and seeing their salads grow!
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#8. Sunflowers
Sunflowers are a fun, bright flower to grow and you can even harvest their edible seeds as well. Here are tips for how to grow sunflowers successfully.
#9. Radishes
Radishes are fun to grow because they sprout quickly, you will see the sprouts appear after a few days and the radishes will be ready to harvest 30 days later. You can also keep growing them through spring, summer and autumn.
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#10. Pineapple
I didn’t know this before I was writing this article, but I am definitely going to try this out! You can grow a plant from a pineapple top!
Cut the top off a pineapple and you can sprout it and grow it into a spiky plant. How cool is that. You’ll find all the directions here.
#11. Edible Flowers
Why not grow some edible flowers? My kids always got a kick out of picking flowers that they could eat. Here is a list of edible flowers that you can grow. Nasturtiums are the easiest ones that we tried grown. The red, orange and yellow flowers look fabulous in a summer salad.
#12. Celery
You can grow a celery plant from the bottom of the celery. Cut the stalks from the celery bottom, leaving a 2-inch stub at the bottom. Rinse your celery stub and set it in a shallow dish of water.
Leave the celery bottom in the dish for about a week. Change the water every day and during the week, you will see that the outer portion dries and shrivels and the inner part begins to grow. You can plant it out after it starts growing.
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What fun things have you grown with your child? Any other planting projects for kids you could recommend? Leave a comment below and let us know – we’d love to hear from you!
