It doesn’t matter whether you have a green thumb or not!
You can still help your kids grow an appreciation for gardening and all things green!
The snow has finally disappeared from around Grand Rapids and soon spring WILL paint our town green! But you don’t have to wait! You can start the green indoors with the help of your little ones!
Getting seeds started is a wonderful way for kids to gain a little insight on how plants grow and you don’t need a greenhouse to do it! The reason I start my seeds this way is so that my kids can watch the seeds germinate and so that my plants get a head start. You’ll have a much higher success rate if you get your seeds started before you put them in the soil!
Getting Seeds Started
- Paper towel
- Seeds
- plastic bag
- container(s)
What you do…
Step 1: Picking out seeds: When you’re picking out seeds, consider something fun for kids to grow like “cat oats”. They’re easy to find (even Meijer carries them) and they grow quick! It’s also fun to grow herbs that you and your kids can use in the kitchen too!
So quick and easy to grow!
Step 2: Wet a few squares of paper towel and sprinkle it with seeds. Be carefull to not saturate the seeds. Your towel should be good and wet without dripping.
Let your kids shake them out!
Step 3: Fold up your towel and slip it into a plastic bag. It’s a good idea to label your bags! Then set your plastic-bag-greenhouse in a sunny window.
Seal it and set it in the sunshine!
Step 4: Check in on your seeds every few days. Once you see that the seed coat has cracked and life is popping through, it’s ready to plant.
Thyme!
Step 5: Pick some fun containers out from around the house! We used mason jars and tin pails but it would look adorable to use your childs old froggy rain boot (just line it with a plastic bag)! Fill the container with soil, and plant your baby seeds. Hint: if your container doesn’t have drainage holes, add a few rocks at the bottom of it.
I picked these cute tin pails up at Target.
Step 6: Watch (and measure) them grow! Check out those cat oats! The pails that have something popping up green were seeds that we started in a bag. The pail that just looks like dirt…we just poked seeds right into the soil.
- 1 week later!
Yumm!
If you give this activity a whirl, I would LOVE to hear what you grow! Leave a comment!
I want to grow a vegetable garden this summer. Are there any veggies I can start this way or are there any to avoid that you know of?
LOVE this!!!
So very clever and easy!
Grandma H and V would be proud!
If you an avid gardener like myself around Mid March I start to get that itch to get started but up here in the cold north that just isnt possible but by using a Hydrofarm grow light system I can…Using a grow light enables me to start off many of my vegetables from seeds indoors early and grow hardy seedlings ahead of time so that when the weather does warm up I can get a jump start on my garden and enjoy fresh vegetables that much sooner…The other advantage to using a grow light system is that you can also extend your growing past harvest time and in effect get 3 harvests out of one season an early spring harvest your regular summer harvest and another harvest just before or after the fall frost hits. The other advantage to using grow lights is it saves you from having to buy expensive vegetable seedlings and you get the satisfaction of starting your garden from seeds.