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| Photo Credit: Jenny Hooks |
| Gracie’s container garden isn’t fancy, but it’s something my little sprout can be proud of! We’ll have fun caring for it throughout the season. | This project’s so easy, a 3-year-old can do it. In my case, that 3-year-old is my daughter, Gracie. And as of early May, she officially has the prettiest (and only) container garden on our patio.
If you’re looking for a professional-looking, but home-planted, decorative container to add a touch of elegant beauty to your patio, this project isn’t for you. But if you’ve got kids or grandchildren, some old pots in the garage, cheap annuals, potting soil, sidewalk chalk, a sunny day and a willingness to get messy, then you’ve come to the right article. I’ll admit, Gracie’s garden came to be by accident. We were at our local garden center, buying plants for some hanging baskets, when my out-of-cart child picked a pack of petunias off one of the shelves. She loved them immediately and asked if they could “be our friends.” (Can she melt my heart any more, please?) I wasn’t planning on buying petunias that day, but then figured, hey, for $1.88, why not? (And if they distract Gracie enough to stop her from insisting we plant her handpicked dandelions in the garden, even better.) We had some old, plastic containers in the garage and some leftover indoor/outdoor potting mix from when I repotted a houseplant last month, so this “impulse project” wasn’t going to be much of an expense. So okay, Gracie – let’s grow your friends! Here’s all you need:
● Three little annual starter plants (or however many will fit nicely in your container)
● A small, clean, old, plastic pot you’ve got hanging around the garage or shed (or buy the cheapest one you can find)
● Potting soil
● Water
● Sidewalk chalk (optional)
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| Photo Credit: Jenny Hooks |
| Although Gracie had a little help from Mommy, she pretty much put the flowers in the container all by herself. | Here’s all you do:
1. Let your child pick out a little cell pack of whatever annual catches his eye. On your way home from the store, talk about how fun it will be to create and take care of a tiny garden with the special plants he just picked out.
2. When you get home, gather all your materials and bring them out to the patio (or wherever you plan on planting and/or keeping your child’s container garden). 3. With your guidance and supervision, let your child plant his plants on his own – adding soil to the pot, putting the plants on top of the soil, adding more soil around the plants and patting down each plant lightly. You’ll know better than anyone how much help your child will need. With Gracie, for example, I had to remove the petunias from the cell pack for her, so she wouldn’t damage the plants. We also added the soil to the pot (and around the plants) together.
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