Kid’s Garden Fun: Make a Bucket Garden

A child’s very own garden in a bucket!

Here’s an easy, fun way to get the kids outside, connected to nature, and maybe even get them to eat more fruits and veggies!

Kids are natural gardeners.  They love to get their hands in the dirt and they are keen observers of nature.  Planting their very own garden in a bucket is a great kid size project to give them ownership and understanding of the process of growing food.

Supplies Needed:

• 1 bucket per child (plastic or metal)
• Potting soil
• Seeds (radishes, lettuce, peas, carrots are good choices) or
• Already started plants (lettuce, peas, strawberries, tomatoes are good choices)
• Paints or permanent markers for decorating bucket and plant id tags
• Paint stir sticks for id tags
• If growing tall plants like peas or tomatoes, three bamboo poles and twine to make teepee trellis

Tools Needed:

• Screwdriver or awl for poking holes in the bottom of bucket (grown ups should do this)
• Trowel (optional, you can just use your hands)
• Gloves (optional)
• Watering can (kid size, if possible, as water gets heavy)
• Paintbrushes (if painting buckets)

Instructions:

• Poke drainage holes in bottom of bucket with screwdriver or awl (grown ups to do)
• Fill bucket with potting soil to within one inch of top of bucket, firming soil by patting gently.
• Plant seeds according to package directions.  -or-
• Plant purchased plants by digging small hole the same depth as rootball of plant.  Gently loosen roots of plant by ‘tickling’ (see video).  Place plant in hole and firm soil around plant.  The number of plants in a bucket depends on the type of plant.  ie:  one tomato per bucket, 4-6 lettuce plants, a couple dozen radishes or carrots.  Don’t fret too much though about spacing, you and your child can learn as you grow!
• Water until you see water draining out of bottom of bucket.
• If growing tall plants, place three bamboo poles in soil, evenly spaced around edge, tie together at top with twine, to make a ‘teepee’ trellis to support plant as it grows.
• Place in sunny spot.
• If you plant seeds, keep constantly moist until seeds germinate, then taper off watering.  Water established plants when top 1/2 inch of soil is dry.  (Have kids stick their finger into soil to test, they love this!)

Here’s a link to a video I did for Home Depot and Scott’s Miracle Gro which demonstrates how to do this fun project:

How To Create Bucket Gardens – The Home Depot Gardenieres – YouTube.