How to start gardening with your child

Find out how to develop and encourage gardening with kids. Get green fingered and grow easy plants in your home and garden.

Spring is a wonderful time to introduce your child to gardening. Wildflowers are beginning to pop their heads out of the soil. Your child may have questions about bulbs, sprouts and flowers emerging, different types of insects and birds appearing, or even where their fruit and vegetables come from. If your child loves berries, they might ask when they can eat them, or if they love bees, they may want to know about their important jobs in the garden. There’s so much discovery and fun to enjoy with your family in the garden.

For growing indoors you will need a sunny spot, like a windowsill. You'll need something to plant in, small plant pots or you could use recycled containers like plastic bottles or egg cartons. You'll need soil, seeds and water for the plants. To keep things tidy, use a tray to keep soil and seeds contained, or lay out newspaper.

For growing outside you will need to think about the weather, wear protective clothing if it's sunny, a sun hat and sun cream. Gardening gloves will come in handy, but may not always be available for little hands, so be ready for lots of hand washing. Prepair to get muddy, so old clothes if you want to protect clothing. Grab a trowel, small spade or stick for making holes and a watering can with a sprinkler head, and if you have one, a spray bottle.

Challenge your little one to click and drag the steps into the correct order.

Find out which plants to try first with our helpful plant pairing quiz, just tell the quiz how much time and space you have, and it’ll recommend your perfect plant.

The best way to encourage your child to be a great gardening assistant is to give them their own clear and simple jobs. Kids love feeling important and trusted with their own roles and (child-safe) tools. Encourage them to take care of their tools and tidy up after themselves, as any good gardener would! Patience is key, it may take them a while to get the hang of things, but it’s great to have them by your side.

To build confidence in the garden, ask your little one to help you as you weed the flower beds, rake the soil, collect grass clippings or even make mud pies - a very important part of gardening...! Show them different plants in the garden, talk about their names and what they look like. Show them herbs and flowers and encourage them to smell and explore them mindfully. Be careful and know which plants are safe for kids, check labels for toxicity and look out for prickles. Some plants and flowers are poisonous to children and animals, so best avoided.

You don't need acres of space or even a garden to begin to grow plants. You can grow seeds indoors. A sunny indoor spot, like a windowsill, is the perfect place. You'll need some yoghurt pots or egg cartons (or even a plastic bottle) with some soil to begin your child's journey.

Making gardening a fun, shared family project will encourage engagement and commitment, and once a child can see how their handiwork contributes to green spaces, they will double their efforts.

Seed picker

Allow your child to choose which seeds to plant from a carefully curated selection. 

Asking them to choose between'this one' or 'that one' willgive them a great sense of agency and investment in the planting process.

Hole digger and soil excavator

One of the best parts of gardening is getting muddy! If your child likes to get messy, give them the job of hole digger. You can provide them with child-sized tools or a stick to make holes. If you have more than one assistant, one can fill pots with soil, and the other can dig the holes. Giving your children a safe space to get messy is beneficial for their creativity and resilience and contact with soil is also great for their mental health. Again, hand washing after this activity is a must.

Seed planter

Handling seeds and giving your child the very important job of sowing them is a coveted garden position! The satisfaction of sowing seeds and tucking them into the pots or flower beds gives your child a wonderful sense of completion and achievement, especially when all the seeds are in the ground, safe and cosy. Make sure you show them how many seeds are needed and how closely they should be sown. This is good job to help them develop their fine motor skills and counting practice.

Watering champion

Watering is one of the most important jobs in the garden. Without a steady supply of fresh water, the plants cannot thrive. Give this job to a completionist, and the whole garden will bloom. If your little one can’t resist watering one plant until it’s swimming, use a clean water bottle with a spray attachment, or recycled bottle with holes in the lid, this will help prevent overwatering and keep them entertained.

If you and your child have never grown plants before, try this budget hack. You can grow plants for ‘free’ by growing food scraps. You might already have these items in your fridge or cupboards, so instead of throwing away the scraps, ends and used bags, you can try to grow MORE food from what you would have thrown in your food recycling or compost bin.

You can use plain water, rocks or wet kitchen towel to grow some of these into seedlings, so you don't even need soil.

Did you know it’s National Gardening Week in the UK between Monday 27 April to Sunday 3 May 2026. National Gardening Week is all about building and embracing curiosity in the garden, and it’s so much fun to do that with your little person by your side. Slow down, take notice, think about colours, textures and life springing all around you. It’s the perfect time to get outdoors with your little one and take time to enjoy nature and really notice the green spaces around you.

Learn more about what children can learn from looking after plants with CBeebies Parenting.

Springtime things to do: Seasonal activity ideas for babies and toddlers.

CBeebies gardening tips: Help your child learn more about nature whilst having fun.

Get up close with nature: Teaching your child to stop and pay attention to the details in a garden.

Check out the CBeebies spring collection or explore programmes with a focus on exploringnature andgrowing plants with children.

I Can Grow It: Follow Aaron Roach Bridgeman and his young “Garden Buds” as they uncover the magic of nature in a colourful inner‑city garden.

What's in Your Plant Pot?: This exciting new show explores the incredible plants that awesome people from across the UK grow, work with or are inspired by.

Down on the Farm: Explore the outdoor world of farming and the countryside with JB and Storm from Down on the Farm.

Ranger Hamza's Eco Quest: Join Ranger Hamza and the Ramblers on an eco quest.

Mr Bloom's Nursery: Explore Mr Bloom's allotment with games and songs.

For episodes featuring plants and growing you can watch Bluey, Hey Duggee, JoJo & Gran Gran and The Clangers and more on CBeebies BBC iPlayer.