Gardening With Children

Our garden is not great for growing things.  It is very shaded and the soil is terrible (basically George Wimpey put some turf on top of builder's rubble and called it a lawn!)  However, just because I'm never going to have a productive cottage garden, it doesn't mean we can't enjoy growing things with the children.  Using pots of compost makes the process much easier to manage and also creates an attractive display.  The simple process of having fun with dirt and water is enough to get little ones eagerly involved.  Whether or not anything grows is secondary, but we keep our fingers crossed that the children will get to grow something that they can be proud of.

This weekend, blessed with some glorious sunshine, we embarked on a bit of gardening with three year old Freddy and ten year old big sister Kizzy.  We were lucky to have been sent two lots of fab gardening products to try out and Freddy was in his element with his new shiny watering cans, tools and seeds!  Both brands are perfect for little gardeners, encouraging them to get outside in the garden and explore their environment in a positive way, learning new skills and discovering nature in a hands on way.

Seedlets

Seedlets sell an impressive, quality range of gardening gear that is age appropriate, to encourage children to grow their own with the help of sunshine, rain and bugs.  Chris Collins, Blue Peter's resident gardener is the name behind the brand and he features on the website giving children ideas for projects and offering top tips on gardening.  The project ideas are for begginners, intermediate and experts, so children can find their level and really get involved in the gardening process supported by mum or dad.  Seedlets really bring the whole gardening experience to children from an early age, teaching them about science and nature in the process.

The products themselves are grouped into three stages.  The Beginner's Stage includes some lovely colourful, plastic tools, watering can, a broom, gloves, tool bag and a magnifying glass, as well as some easy to grow seeds and an insect hotel to encourage bugs into your garden.  The range is well designed and perfect for tiny tots.  Stage 2 looks more grown up with wooden handled metal tools and a gorgeous metal watering can.  A sieve and a propagator help to hone gardening skills and a thermometer and rain gauge help little gardeners to explore the other factors affecting plants in the garden.  The Advanced stage 3  products introduce some more grown-up type tools such as a spade and rake and also includes vegetable seeds and a snazzy tool belt.

Stage 1 and 2 Hand Tools

The Seedlets products are available from the Handpicked Collection and are really reasonably priced from just £2.99 -£10.99

www.myseedlets.com

Wilko's

Wilkinson's have a great range of products to encourage kids to have fun growing things in the garden or on the windowsill.  They are stocking some Johnson's Little Gardeners products that include growing kits that the children will love.  Kids can grow their own pizza toppings, their own spooky pumpkin or sweet strawberries.  The grass haircut kit comes with stickers to decorate the pot to make your own grass haired monster!  The packaging features cartoon children that are very appealing, making these products really kid-friendly.  They make gardening a fun activity.  Priced between £1 and £5 they are a great way to get kids growing.

Find out more at the Wilko's Kids Growing section of the website.

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Using their lovely selection of tools, pots and growing kits, Kizzy and Freddy had a great time planting up a selection of pots.  They talked about what plants needed to grow and what would happen to the seeds over time.  It was a lovely activity for them to do together and they felt quite inspired to do more.  Both brands had packaging that came complete with hints, tips and gardening facts making them educational as well as fun. We are now planning on getting some grow bags to grow some home produce.  The children like the idea of growing strawberries and I'd love a potted herb garden!  With my two eager green fingered helpers, we will be growing our own in no time!