Planting for the
winter months
By Kathryn Beaney
With the cooler months ahead of us, this is now a great time to start spending more time in the
outside area and to plant some flowers and vegetables.
These activities provide first hand experiences as the children plant and watch their seeds grow.
Gardening can be used as a learning tool to cover many areas of development and can help children
to take on responsibility and ownership.
Try making it an ongoing activity rather than a one off ‘plant a seed’, the children can start planting
seeds in small containers before transplanting them into the garden or larger pots. They will need to
be very gentle with the small seedlings. Teach the children how to care for and look after their tools
and use the correct one for the job. As well as watering, they can weed the garden and dead-head
flowers. You can discuss why some flowers and vegetables grow better than others and why some
die. Teach the children how to care for vegetables and how to know when they are ready to be picked.
Children can think about where food comes from and what a plant needs to grow by photographing
the process daily. They can look back and discuss how the plant has grown and developed. Children
could also make their own notes, pictures or recordings.
Even in small areas, fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, courgettes, tomatoes and herbs are
easy to grow. Children need to plant, water and eventually have the opportunity to pick and eat their
produce. They can cut or grate vegetables and make them into a meal. This enables them to see the
whole process and understand where food comes from. They can turn vegetables into soups or
casseroles, even very young children can wash herbs and tear them to put into a dish.
When planting flowers, think about growing different coloured flowers, tall and short plants and
herbs that the children can smell.