Make a Collage Garden Plan

This is a fun way to include your kids in the creative process of planning what goes in the garden, adding to the magic as plants grow and fruit over the season. This family friendly garden-planning project has infinite variations, but in its most basic version, you’ll need the following materials:

• a sheet of colored construction paper or card stock

• colored pencils

• a glue stick

• scissors

• a couple of garden catalogues: we especially love the colorful catalogues that feature seasonal, organic, and heirloom seed varieties from companies such as Baker Creek, Peaceful Valley, and High Mowing Seeds.

Directions:

First, step outside and check out which areas around (or inside) your house get the most sunlight. This project is a good excuse to spend a few minutes outside at a time when restless bodies need to get out but it’s too chilly to stay out longer. You can explore the different sides of your house at different times of day. Younger kids can use their faces and bodies to feel the warmth of sun and dampness of chilly areas. Older kids might want to try using a compass and learn which sides of their homes face North, East, South and West.

Next, kids can draw a picture of their home, leaving space around it for their garden design.

Finally, cut out and collage a garden around the house full of the vegetables and fruits they’d like to plant in the Spring.

Tips for different age kids:

Young children can enjoy using safe scissors to cut and paste colorful vegetables on their map.

Older kids might try drawing the directions around their house and pasting the vegetables in the areas they found most sunny.

Even older kids might try researching and selecting varieties that are best for early Spring planting in their areas. Here in Ventura, California, we might choose some veggies like sweet peas, carrots, lettuce.