Backyard Summer Camp: Gardening Theme

We love gardening. While we don’t necessarily love the work that goes into tilling the area and weed, and plant, we definitely love the rewards. Fresh vegetables and some fresh fruit are the best rewards. Do you garden with your kids? Teaching them to grow their own food, to harvest, it’s all so important.

Backyard Summer Camp: Gardening Theme

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I don’t believe that we should have our kids scheduled for every minute of everyday. My kids don’t expect me to entertain them. But they need a little help understanding the importance of gardening and how it can be fun. Worms definitely add an element of fun when gardening and they all love finding worms.

Gardening Activities for a DIY Summer Camp

Garden Stake Art – Make sure you know what is planted where, especially when the plants are small and you can’t easily identify them. There are some fun ways to do that with your kids. Grab some paint (not washable) and make you own stake.

We made some with wooden spoons. Long ones so that we could easily see them standing tall. You could also paint rocks.

Mini Greenhouse – I love starting my seeds in a mini greenhouse. I can sit them in a window and in no time I have little spurts of green. You can easily do this with your kids. Herbs are fast growing if you are looking for something quick to grow with you kids.

Snack Garden – Grow food that your kids are going to be able to walk out into the garden and grab a snack. Small tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, are a great choice. Snap sugar peas, strawberries, melons. Healthy snacks for growing bodies.

Soil Testing Science – Test your soil! There are small, inexpensive kits you can buy at your local Walmart or on Amazon. We used one. We have also created our own test, and you can use vinegar and baking soda to test your soil as well.

Clay Pot Painting – Paint some clay pots for your plants to grow in, these can be great for flowers or patio gardens.

Garden Seed Bombs – I can’t believe it, but I don’t have a post on these. We made some last spring and they worked really well.

Cut construction paper paper up into small pieces and soak in warm water for about 10 minutes. Then squeeze excess water out of your paper and then put into a food processor to shred it into pulp.

Mix seeds in with your paper pulp and form into balls. Let them dry over night and then you can gift them or plant.

Earth Worm Farm – Create you own worm farm. Grab a container with a lid. Shred up newspaper to place in the bucket. Black and white newspaper works best. You can then spray the bedding with a spray bottle to dampen it. Once the bedding is made, add some gardening soil and give it all a good mix.

Finding worms is the part that kids love. Have kids save their fruit and veggie peels and scraps to feed the worms. This is a fun way for them to care for the worms while also finding a use for the scraps.

Give your kids a garden trowel to turn the bedding over and around once per week. This will help add some air and oxygen to the farm which the worms will need. In time, the worms will turn the scraps and paper into rich soil perfect for your plants.