Gardening is good for all of us, it improves our wellbeing by being outside and closer to nature. Did you know it can especially benefit children?
- It encourages healthy eating by understanding where fruits and vegetables come from and how they grow. If children are engaged in growing their own vegetables, they have a keener interest in eating them too!
- It teaches responsibility and patience by nurturing and caring for seedlings and plants as they develop (they will learn quickly that they get out of it what they put into it)
- It can help with sensory development. Gardening engages all sorts of senses and helps children to develop and recognise them without even realising. They can feel the texture of soil, seeds, flowers and vegetables. They get to see all the beautiful colours and smell all the amazing scents too!
- Gardening helps with overall learning as it teaches children about wider topics such as seasons, weather, life cycles, animals, insects and biodiversity. These are important subjects that children learn about from nursery right through their school lives – and carry with them into adulthood.
Now that the end of May is here, seeds and plants can be planted outdoors with little fear of weather damage or the need for more complicated protective growing. In fact, you don’t even need an outdoor garden, a warm windowsill is enough to get you started. You can pick up seeds and compost in many of the shops right now, plus you can even harvest your own free seeds from the fruits and veg you already buy – including tomatoes, apples, lemons, cucumbers, peaches and bean sprouts (just to name a few). So why not get your little green thumbs going on a fun gardening activity? We’ve got plenty of easy and inexpensive projects to inspire you and your family to get growing:
- Make a mini garden in a plant pot
- Create a snail racetrack
- Take part in a garden treasure hunt
- Make a homemade suncatcher
- Create a pinecone bird feeder
- Plant a bulb lasagne!
For more details about these and other great gardening projects, just visit the Children's Gardening Week website.
Don’t forget! You can still get a free digital copy of our Wildlife Trust ‘Wildlife Outside Your Window’ booklet and order free wildflower seeds.
