Container Herb Garden for Kids

Do your kids love to play in the dirt? What about growing plants, do they like that too? If they do nurture that gardening excitement by letting them plant their very own herb garden.

Even if you don’t have much room to work with, you can still let the kids have their own herb garden in a pot. We have a pot on our front porch just for this purpose.

Starting the Herbs from Seeds

If you are starting early in the gardening season, you might want to start the seeds inside.

We have in the past recycled plastic strawberry or grape containers into little greenhouses for seedlings. Just fill up a plastic container half full with seed starting soil. Then plant the seeds and water.

The holes in the bottom help to keep the plants from getting too much water and the top helps to act like a mini greenhouse but with built in vents.

To get the seeds off to a good start we like to wrap the whole mini green house in a plastic bag, to hold the moisture in and place on top of the refrigerator, after we have planted and watered the seeds.

The warmth of the refrigerator will help the seeds to sprout.

Once sprouted, they can be moved to a sunny windowsill or if the weather is warm enough they can be moved outside.

If it’s a little later in the growing season you can plant the seed directly into the pot, water well. In a week or so, the kids should have some seedlings to look at.

Starting with Plants

If you don’t feel like starting the herbs from seeds, make a trip to your local nursery. The kids can pick out some plants and most of them are around a dollar each.

A little more expensive than seeds, but worth it if you don’t want to try to sprout your own seeds. Plus the kids will find it fun to shop for their very own plants.

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Planting the Herbs

When your plants are ready to be transplanted to the pot, break up the soil, if you will be reusing a pot from the year before.

If you are starting with a new pot, I mix potting soil with compost. Mix 3/4 potting soil to 1/4 compost. That should make a really nice soil to grow in.

If you live in a warm climate or have forgetful kids, you might want to purchase water storing crystals,  (affiliate link) which helps to hold the moisture in longer, just mix them in with your soil.

These help to maintain moisture so you can go longer between watering.

Caring for the Herbs

My kids have found growing herbs to be fairly easy. They just need a good amount of sun each day, about 6 hours, and regular water.

If you have a good planting mix, you might not even need to use any fertilizer.

If the potting soil is a little older, you might want to fertilize the plants once every two weeks with a fertilizer like Miracle-Gro  (affiliate link) or use an organic fertilizer (affiliate link) go side dress the plants.

Using the Herbs

Be sure to plan a few recipes using the herbs the kids have grown. I know my kid have fun harvesting and helping me cook with the herbs they grow themselves.

If the kids have mint growing, we have a super easy recipe for mint water. My kids love to drink it in the summer, it so refreshing.

That’s about all there is to getting your kids started with their very own herb garden. It just takes a pot, soil, plants or seeds, water and a little love.

Do you grow any herbs at your house? What is your favorite?

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