Get your kid(s) out there doing something useful – and fun! They will love learning to plant in garden pots and it keeps them from getting bored. What could be better than getting their little hands dirty and growing their own food (that they might be inclined to actually eat since they grew it themselves)? This actually works since I saw it happen with my own 6-year old son.

Containers

Let’s start off with the containers. Garden pots come in a wide variety of styles and materials they are made from, like clay, stone, wood, plastic, etc. For kids, the safest material to use is plastic – its lightweight and its pretty hard to break. The next best option is wood but wood containers are mostly used for decoration as they don’t hold water well and a plastic pot will have to be placed inside the wood container.

Now is a great time to have your kids decorate the pots. Acrylic paints work well on both plastic and wood. Look for paints that are non-toxic. Once the pots are decorated to your taste (or rather, your child’s taste), you should pick out the location where you are going to put the pot as it can be heavy once its filled with soil and harder to move.

The Soil

I recommend using a good potting soil as opposed to putting in plain old dirt. Potting soils are blended specifically for use in containers and they are made to hold water (which means less watering – and less maintenance). Its always a good idea to help freshly placed plants get a good start by feeding them with the proper nutrients. Mix the recommended amount into the potting soil (a guide will be printed on the bag). Be careful not to add too much as this can kill the plant.

Plants

Choose you plants according to the type of garden you want to grow – herb, vegetable, or flower. Then pick by size according to the size of your pots. Certain plants (such as tomatoes) will require larger sized pots. Remember, plants can be easily transplanted into larger garden pots later if they get to large for the pot you started with. As you can tell, this would be a great project for you and your kids and they are sure to love seeing (and eating) the fruits of their labor.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm and is filed under gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.