Teaching Kids about Gardening Using Containers

Using containers to teach kids about gardening is a great way to promote creativity. It’s a project, which not only teaches children about plants and growing things it also touches on other subjects, as well.

Container gardening is an activity that is well suited to groups of children, both large and small. It is a wonderful classroom activity or a great way to for families to spend quality time together.

Containers can be as large or as small as space permits. Larger containers, such as an old bathtub can be used for outside projects. Several children can easily work on this together.

For inside projects or small areas smaller containers of almost any type can be used. By allowing children to use their imagination, to choose a suitable container, they will learn a bit about recycling, as well

Container gardening can be a simple project or one, which is more involved. Smaller children will probably enjoy planting a single plant or seed in their own individual container, to watch it grow. (This would make a great Mother’s Day project.)

Older children can actually decide what they’d like to plant, based on things like planting zones (if an outside garden), type of plants (annuals or perennials), variety of plants (flowers, vegetables and herbs), color scheme and type of containers.

They can also decide if they’d like to sell their crop to raise money for future class projects or give the plants away to people in the community, such as nursing home recipients.

Container gardening isn’t limited to one type of plant, per container. As long as plants have the same growing requirements, it is feasible to grow vegetables with flowers, flowers with herbs, ect.

Herbs are a wonderful plant choice, when you are teaching kids about gardening. They grow very well from seed. Because they are contained, there is no chance of them taking over, as they sometimes do in a traditional garden setting.

Many herbs grow successfully when started indoors. Once the plants begin to grow they can be moved outdoors.

When it comes to flowers, two of the easiest and hardiest to grow are petunias and zinnias. They do well in almost any type of container, even hanging baskets. Petunias do not do well in heat. Zinnias, on the other hand, love the warm afternoon sun.

There are many plants that will grow well, vertically. Tomatoes and beans are two vegetables suited, for this type of planting. This method of container gardening saves space and is an excellent choice for city gardeners

Interesting plants, like the Venus Flytrap, can also be grown in containers. This is a fun project for older children, as these plants take a bit more work to grow successfully. With over 500 different species, they are actually quite beautiful plants to grow.

They do best in a terrarium like setting, where the humidity is at least 50%. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate setup. One Flytrap can be grown in a terrarium made from something as simple as a 1 liter bottle.