Creative Garden Projects for Kids

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Gardening Lab for Kids has 52 fun experiments to learn, grow, harvest, make, play, and enjoy your garden.

How to make rain barrels is one of the projects in the book.

Gardening projects to do with kids. Dig in to nature!

Creative Gardening Projects for Kids

Gardening Lab For Kids: 52 Fun Experiments

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The book has instructions for 52 projects plus ideas for ‘digging deeper’.

If you have kids, grandkids, homeschoolers, unschoolers, campers, or students and want creative outdoor projects, this book is packed with great ideas. I don’t have little kids at home now but I still found a bunch of projects I want to make as well.

Consider it a great resource for nature nuts (or kids who just need a little nudge) who just want to get outdoors and do fun stuff.

If you want to see an excerpt from the book, have a look at this DIY rain barrel project. Good for those who like building and art.

The list below shows some of the projects you will find in the book plus links to related projects here on Empress of Dirt.

The images below, by Dave Brown, are from the book. The commentary is my own.

1. Make A Bird Feeder

What a great way to start a relationship with the garden: make a bird feeder and see who comes to visit! Some kids who have never had the opportunity to really play in the mud and watch insects can be really squeamish about getting outside and exploring. A bird feeder can bridge that gap as they see the direct cause and effect: Hey, I put out that bird seed and look who came to visit us!

Make a bird feeder | Gardening Lab For Kids: 52 Fun Experiments

I make recycled bird feeders from water bottles. See how:

DIY Water Bottle Bird Feeders

2. Seeds In A Bag

How beautiful is this? This project is a great way to see not only the new growth that would be above the soil, but what goes on underground. Very cool.

Seed in a bag | Gardening Lab For Kids: 52 Fun Experiments

My best tips for starting seeds indoors are here:

Seed Starting 101

3. Rock Bugs

A fun idea for the crafty kids: research various bugs, paint your own, and then display them or play with them in the garden.

DIY rock bugs | Gardening Lab For Kids: 52 Fun Experiments

I have two rock and stone painting tutorials:

Birds & Owl Painted Stones

Painted Animal Rocks

4. Pollinator Palace

I love how bug hotels / pollinator palaces have become so popular lately, combining funky garden art with the intention of attracting a variety of wee wild things.

Pollinator palace | Gardening Lab For Kids: 52 Fun Experiments

I made my bug house from a thrift shop shelf:

DIY Bug House

5. Rain Barrel

Food grade containers can be transformed into functioning rain barrels with some plumbing supplies.

DIY painted rain barrel | Gardening Lab For Kids: 52 Fun Experiments

DIY Rain Barrel

More projects/ labs in the book: 

  • Make a rain gauge
  • Grow mini pizza and salsa gardens
  • Make your own seed tape
  • Grow a butterfly garden
  • Make a clay pot fountain
  • Create a compost bin
  • Make a toad abode
  • Make a plant press
  • Grow a sweet pea teepee

and more!

Buy it Here

I would have loved a book like this when I was a kid and I found plenty of projects I want to make now.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

Seed Starting for Beginners | Ebook

Seed Starting for Beginners: Sow Inside Grow Outside by Melissa J. Will

$7.99 US | Instant Download

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Complete guide to indoor seed starting. Grow your own garden!
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Comments

  3. darlene says

    April 30, 2014 at 10:36 am

    This is perfect for my 4 yr old granddaughter. I want to help her love the garden as much as her gramma and greatgramma

  5. Brandi Longfellow says

    April 30, 2014 at 9:28 am

    Can’t wait to try some of these projects my kidos are going to have so much fun this summer.

  6. Vera Wiest says

    April 30, 2014 at 8:40 am

    As a teacher and a grandmother I would love to use these activities with the children I’m fortunate to work with. Thanks for a terrific blog. I always look forward to it.

  8. Susan C says

    April 29, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    What a fabulous book…….my 2 grandchildren would live to share in the fun, in their garden and mine!

  10. Judy says

    April 29, 2014 at 10:27 am

    I think I need this just as much as the kids..haha..looks like lots of fun things to try & DO!!

  11. Valerie Hohenberger says

    April 29, 2014 at 10:20 am

    This books looks like so much fun! Thanks for giving me this opportunity to win a copy! I have 3 grandsons that NEED to get outdoors!

  13. Darlene Tucker says

    April 29, 2014 at 12:58 am

    This book has inspired me already! With 10 grandkids there should be something for everybody to have fun with in this book. And hopefully it will encourage some of the pickier eaters to actually try “green things”. lol. The only one I see having a problem settling on one activity at a time is Grampa… he’s the biggest kid of them all!

  14. Jim Lipscomb says

    April 29, 2014 at 12:29 am

    Wow a bunch of cool science ideas all in one place! My daughter would enjoy doing these with me.

  15. Susan says

    April 28, 2014 at 11:47 pm

    I would love to win this book for my school Garden Club students. I am always looking for new and creative ideas that give students a chance to blend nature together with crafts.
    Thank you!

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