Top tips for getting kids into gardening
Best known to his fans as the Skinny Jean Gardener, Lee Connelly is passionate about inspiring a love of plants in the next generation. Here’s how the man behind RHS Hampton Court’s weekend Children’s Mini Festival inspires little green fingers
1) Encourage hands-on learning
To inspire children, we have to give them something hands-on to do. At the Children’s Mini Festival on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 July we’re making bug hotels, sowing seeds and designing gardens with play bricks. And the fun is for the whole family, not just for the kids. I want to start conversations between parents and children that will carry on once everyone’s back home – gardening with kids is all about families connecting and creating memories.
![]()
Lee Connelly, aka Skinny Jean Gardener, enjoys inspiring little green fingers to garden
Lee Connelly, aka Skinny Jean Gardener, enjoys inspiring little green fingers to garden
I thought potatoes grew on trees until I was 24. When we were growing up, my brother and I weren’t allowed to touch anything growing in the garden, and gardening was never something we did together as a family. That missing part of my childhood is why I’m so passionate about getting kids to garden now; I don’t want other children to miss out, and I don’t want parents to miss out either.
3) Head outside together
I started gardening with my daughter Olive when she was three months old. I put some seeds in her hand and she sprinkled them on the soil – not that she remembers it, but I always remind her, even now that she’s 10. At primary school age and below, your kids want your attention more than anything else, and they feel good by being together with you – so take that time out into the garden.
![Skinny Jean Gardener and his daughter Olive]()
Lee began gardening with his daughter Olive when she was three months old
![Skinny Jean Gardener and his daughter Olive]()
Lee strongly recommends letting children use all their senses when gardening
Lee began gardening with his daughter Olive when she was three months old
Lee strongly recommends letting children use all their senses when gardening
5) Use sensory play
Children are curious and can feel the wonder of nature – but we need to relax our ‘look but don’t touch’ attitude if we’re not to squash that. Plant lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) so your kids can stroke the leaves; get a pot of chocolate cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus) so they can smell it; fill a tub with soil and water and let them make a bit of a mess.
6) Allow them to decide
Allow kids to make their own decisions. Last year, Olive and I each made a garden in a pot. We went to the garden centre and bought the plants we wanted with our £10 budget (and had a chocolate bun, obviously). It was so, so hard to let Olive just pick the plants she liked. But she still plays with her fairy pot, and she loves it because she has full ownership of it.
