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Why wait until summer to let kids explore the joy of gardening? Indoor gardening brings nature inside all year round, turning ordinary days into green adventures. Imagine your child’s excitement when the first tiny sprout pushes through the soil – that spark of wonder is what makes it so special. With just a few simple supplies, kids can grow herbs on a sunny kitchen windowsill, start seedlings in recycled containers, or even design playful fairy gardens in a bowl.
It’s hands-on fun that gets them away from screens, while teaching responsibility, patience, and creativity. Indoor gardening proves that no matter the season or space, children can always stay connected to the magic of growth. Find 20 creative projects to try indoor gardening with kids and have your common garden questions answered before you introduce kids to gardening.
Free Printable Gardening with Kids Planner
Find free printable planner to help you get started on garden projects and activities with kids. You will find activities and journal templates for each season with guidelines and instructions.
Ready to take it up a notch? Here are some fun indoor gardening projects kids will love trying at home.
Miniature and Playful Indoor Gardens
1. DIY Indoor Zen Garden
A tabletop Zen garden filled with sand, pebbles, and greenery helps children relax while learning creative garden design.
Related: How to make a Japanese Garden?
Projects with kids
2. Easy DIY Mini Terrariums
Transparent jars become living terrariums when filled with soil, moss, and succulents – fun to make and easy to maintain. Refresh each month with new themes-like cars, ladybugs, or dinosaurs, keeping indoor gardening exciting and imaginative.
3. Indoor Fairy Garden Project for Kids
Transform a simple bowl, pot, or old teacup into a magical fairyland with moss, tiny plants, and figurines — sparking endless imaginative play.
Related: What to do with Old Teacups?
Teacup Fairy Garden
4. Create a Water Garden
Introduce water plants and air plants to kids with interesting indoor water feature and water garden projects.
5. Butterfly Habitat Indoor Garden to Attract Kids
Grow nectar-rich flowers, place caterpillars and see them grow, teaching children about pollination and nature’s balance.
6. Make Transparent Indoor Garden
Turn old CD cases or glass containers into mini indoor gardens where kids can plant seeds and watch the roots grow like a living picture frames. It is a fun and eco-friendly way to record and learn how roots grow. Use our printable at the end to make your recordings.
Indoor Herb and Edible Garden Projects
7. DIY Hanging Kokedama with Kids
Wrap small plants in moss balls and hang them as Japanese-style indoor plant.
8. Avocado Pit Planting
Kids can suspend an avocado pit with toothpicks in water (under adult supervision) and watch it sprout roots and leaves indoors.
9. Windowsill Veggie Scrap Garden
Here are 20 vegetables and herbs you can grow indoors in water using parts of the produce you would throw away and this can save you a pretty penny the next time you go grocery shopping. The link below has all the details for specific vegetable.
10. Setup an Easy Herb Garden
Grow herbs from seeds or put roots cut from the last bunch you bought from grocery store in water. Check out these 25 Unique Windowsill Herb Garden Ideas to get started.
Creative Indoor Plant Crafts
11. Introduce Air Purifying Houseplants
Easy maintenance houseplants with air purification and mental health benefits are a great way to encourage kids to grow and care for plants that live throughout the year indoors and don’t require much time and effort.
Involve them in decorating a kitchen nook garden with miniature clay crafts and repurposed materials such as tea cups, tin cans, etc. as planters as you teach bottom up watering. This will make them appreciate gardening as they enjoy creating art.
12. Paint Your Own Pot
Brighten up plain pots by decorating them with stickers, pom poms, and other craft materials. You can also paint your own DIY flower pots which is a fun way to personalize and excite kids for their indoor planters.
13. Mini Indoor Garden Village
Kids grow seeds in trays while decorating them with paper houses, turning gardening into a playful village scene.
Heather Jones
14. Terracotta Saucer Plant Holders
Create adorable turtle plant holders by painting terracotta saucers, adding small pot legs, and a foamy ball face. Perfect for kids to love and care for!
Shop: Terracotta Pot Saucers
My Enchanting Florida Life
15. Vertical Plant Wall
It’s fun to teach and grow simple plants like succulents, air plants, and moss in a photo frame. Kids can have fun decorating and painting it.
16. Bring Imagine To Life with Garden Signs
Have kids turn the indoor garden into a fantasy land with creative garden signs that excites them. Add figurines and characters to make it more fun.
17. Embroidery Garden Art
Introduce hand embroidery to kids with garden art embroidery that they will feel proud hanging in your indoor garden.
Easy Indoor Seed Starting Projects
18. DIY Seed Bombs
Mix soil, clay, and seeds into fun little balls that can later be planted indoors or outdoors.
19. Seed Germination in One Day
Plant quick sprouters like mustard or beans to keep kids excited with results they can see in just a day or two and keep record with the printable template.
20. DIY Easy Seed Storage Envelopes
Encourage children to make seed packets to collect and label seeds for their next planting season or to gift to your family and friends. Kids can also feel encouraged to sell from their tiny garden shop from the garage.
STEM Indoor Gardening Experiments for Kids
21. Self-Watering Plant Science Experiment
Show kids how plants drink by creating a simple self-watering system using fabrics, strings, etc.
22. Beginner-Friendly Indoor Hydroponic Garden
Hydroponics kits let kids grow plants in water instead of soil, teaching sustainable farming methods.
Shop: Hydroponic Growing System
23. Checking Soil pH for Kids
Older children can test soil pH to learn how acidity or alkalinity affects indoor plant growth.
24. Composting in a Bottle Experiment
Turn a clear plastic bottle into a mini compost bin to demonstrate how food scraps break down into plant food.
Commonly Asked Questions About Kids Gardening
1. How do you introduce kids to indoor gardening?
The easiest way to introduce kids to indoor gardening is to keep it simple and fun. Children are naturally curious, so start with plants that grow quickly – beans sprouting in cotton, basil in a sunny pot, or lettuce in a shallow tray. Giving them their very own container or planter makes it feel special, especially if they decorate it with paint or stickers. Involving kids in every step, from scooping soil to watering, helps them feel responsible and excited. The goal isn’t perfection – it’s to spark wonder when they notice the first green shoot breaking through the soil. Once they experience that magic, gardening quickly becomes more than an activity; it becomes something they look forward to each day.
2. What indoor gardening activities can kids do?
There are many hands-on activities that children can enjoy indoors, regardless of the season. They can start by planting seeds in recycled jars, sprouting beans in cotton, or regrowing kitchen scraps like green onions, celery, and carrot tops. Older kids may enjoy making small terrariums, building a tabletop greenhouse from a plastic box, or experimenting with simple hydroponic kits.
Herb gardens on a sunny windowsill are also a family favorite since kids can later use the leaves in cooking, adding a sense of achievement. For added fun, let them decorate pots, create plant markers, or keep a gardening journal where they sketch or record plant growth. Combining quick projects with longer-term ones keeps kids excited and teaches both patience and responsibility.
3. How do you introduce creativity in indoor gardening?
Once kids get comfortable with the basics of planting and simple indoor gardening activities, creativity is what keeps the experience fresh and exciting. Instead of just watering or watching seeds grow, children can start to design and personalize their little green spaces. They might build fairy gardens filled with tiny figurines, decorate pots with bright colors, or make their own plant markers. Even simple projects like arranging succulents in fun shapes or creating a mini Zen garden with sand and pebbles can spark imagination.
This is also where STEM learning comes in naturally. Kids can test how plants grow under different light sources, compare soil and water growth, or track progress in a plant journal. These playful experiments combine creativity with hands-on science, helping them explore, question, and problem-solve. By blending art, craft, and STEM, indoor gardening becomes more than an activity -it becomes a meaningful way for kids to connect with nature, learn new skills, and prepare for bigger DIY garden projects at home.
Indoor gardening with kids isn’t about growing the perfect plant — it’s about the little moments along the way. The excitement of spotting the first sprout, the pride in watering their own pot, or the joy of snipping fresh herbs for dinner — these are the memories that last. Indoor gardening gives children a chance to slow down, be curious, and see how small efforts lead to something beautiful.
So grab a pot, some soil, and a few seeds. Start small today, and let your child’s green adventure grow right at home.
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