National Children’s Gardening Week – 29th May to 6th June 2021

National Children’s Gardening Week celebrates the fun that gardens hold for kids. Children love growing plants and enjoy being in the garden, although you can of course grow things on your balcony, window box etc!

“National Children’s Gardening Week aims to capture children’s enthusiasm at a time when results are immediate. National Children’s Gardening Week takes place annually in the ‘warm’ week at the end of May. This means that pretty much throughout the UK they can plant all the popular plants with little fear of weather damage or the need for complicated protective growing.” (childrensgardeningweek.co.uk, 2021)

British horticulturist and garden writer, Gertrude Jekyll, said,

“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.” These are lofty character traits—ones we want our children to gain. Teaching kids to garden also encourages an attitude of conservation and respect for nature. Perhaps most importantly, though, gardening with children is downright fun. Children are natural explorers who find joy in the simple pleasures of planting seeds or searching for earthworms.”

(brighthorizons.com, 2021)

Last year UK Fostering held a sunflower growing competition for our foster carers and young people, and we had a great response. Why not give it a go!