Gardening with Kids in January: A Fun Winter Prep Activity

Just because it's cold outside doesn’t mean gardening has to stop—especially when you're gardening with kids! January is the perfect time to spark curiosity and build anticipation for the spring season. In this post, we’ll walk you through a fun, educational activity to do indoors with children that ties directly into growing your own food. Get ready to start the season with creativity, connection, and a little dirt under your fingernails.

🧠 Why Start in January?

• Planning builds excitement and gives kids ownership over the process

• Hands-on activities keep them engaged during long winter days

• Indoor projects like this make the transition to outdoor gardening more natural

• It teaches patience—a core gardening skill!

🎨 January Activity: Design Your Dream Garden (With Recycled Materials!)

This activity is part craft project, part garden plan, and fully interactive.

Supplies:

• Old magazines, seed catalogs, or printed pictures of fruits & veggies

• Construction paper or cardboard

• Scissors and glue sticks

• Crayons or markers

• Ruler or measuring tape

• Garden journal (optional—download ours!)

🪴 Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Make a “Garden Map”

Use construction paper or cardboard to draw a garden layout. If you’ve got a real garden bed in mind, help your child measure it (or estimate it), then draw it to scale.

2. Pick Your Crops

Flip through old magazines or seed catalogs and cut out pictures of vegetables, herbs, and flowers your child wants to grow. Let them be creative—purple carrots? Rainbow chard? Sure!

3. Design the Beds

Glue the pictures into the drawn layout. Use crayons to add labels, paths, bug hotels, bird baths, or anything else they’d love to see in their garden.

4. Talk About Timing

Use this opportunity to talk about when each crop should be planted. Reference our Zone 6 planting calendar and color-code cool season vs warm season crops.

5. Create a Garden Wish List

Have your child make a short list of the top 3–5 things they want to grow. Use this list to order seeds together or explore your current stash.

💡 Bonus: Make Plant Tags

Cut plant tags from old yogurt containers, popsicle sticks, or cardboard. Let kids decorate them now so they’re ready to go come spring.

🌱 Learning Outcomes

• Science: Understanding plant growth cycles

• Math: Measuring and spatial awareness

• Art: Creativity and design

• Responsibility: Ownership over choices

🛠️ Keep the Momentum Going

After you build your dream garden together:

• Hang the map somewhere visible (fridge or wall)

• Revisit it each month to track what’s next

• Start some herbs or microgreens indoors to bridge the gap

📦 Ready to Grow?

Our Kids Garden Collection is full of easy-to-grow seeds and colorful characters that bring gardens to life. Perfect for first-time growers, young learners, and curious hands.

Love and Vegetables: Helping families grow together, one seed and one smile at a time.