Gardening with children
Get Growing!
Gardening is a great way to get children outdoors and to develop an interest in nature and the environment. Growing and picking their own fruit and veg is a great way to encourage children to eat more of them. If you have the space in your garden, why not give them a small patch of their own to look after? Even if you only have a windowbox, you can still encourage children to grow and look after some herbs or salad crops.
Junior Groups Bulb Competition
As part of our Spring Bulb Show, we have a special bulb growing competition that is aimed at primary schools, community groups and youth groups. This competition is fun and light-hearted and the children all enjoy taking part.
If you would like your school or group to enter the 2024 competition, please contact springshow@rchs.co.uk.
Young Gardeners at The Caley
Here at The Caley, we are keen to encourage young gardeners to get involved. If your child would prefer to enter a competition working on their own, we have a junior section in our main Spring Bulb Show (6th & 7th April 2024). The only stipulations are that they should be under that age of 13 on the date of the show and that they should have grown the bulbs on their own. This is a great way to get your kids (or grandkids) involved in gardening. For many, it becomes a lifelong interest. For further details, see the ‘Spring Bulb Show’ page of the website or contact springshow@rchs.co.uk.
Gardening with Children
Below you will find a few practical activities that you can work on with the young person in your life. We change these activities regularly in keeping with the season so that you will always have something relevant to work on. The activities are easy to follow, fun to do and give a good introduction to growing plants, gardening, and other garden related skills. It is not necessary to have a large garden as many of the activities can be done in a variety of locations and plants can be grown in containers.
Many older children will be capable of working through the activities by themselves, but in the interests of safety and to achieve the best learning results, gardening as a family or a group is recommended, with direct mentoring and encouragement from a responsible adult.
Projects for you to do
March
With some flowers appearing you may think that spring has arrived with the month of March, but the winter weather can linger. March can be windy and cold with clear, bright days and frosty nights. At the end of the month when the clocks go forward (spring forward, fall back – as the saying goes) and we get lighter evenings it often seems that spring has arrived and everything is starting to grow.
But don’t be too eager to start sowing seeds into open ground as generally the soil will be too wet and cold and seeds, onion sets and potatoes can rot and die if they are planted too early in cold soil. Any seed sowing should be into trays and pots that are protected by the warmth of a greenhouse or a sunny windowsill where the germinating seeds can be protected from frost. As you walk around the garden you may notice that the buds on many trees and shrubs are swelling. New young shoots may also be pushing through the soil – a sign of brighter days to come.
Make a bird table
Seed Sowing
Watching Plants Grow
Get involved or get further information!