If you’re planning to introduce your children to gardening as soon as Mother Nature allows it, you’ll love spending a few hours laying out the groundwork with them, personalizing terracotta pots, and making fun yet informative garden markers. Before grabbing your shovel and hose, get out your paintbrushes and markers and show your colours!

A thousand-and-one ways to paint a terracotta pot

Using regular acrylic paint, which you can find in any art store and even dollar stores, you can turn your (very brown) terracotta pots into little masterpieces to put on your balcony. You’ll just need to add your favourite plants to them. Here are a few easy arts and crafts ideas to help your budding gardeners unleash their creativity.

Layered tie-dye style

You’ve probably heard of tie-dye before. This technique, popular in the 70s, consists of creating colourful, somewhat psychedelic patterns on t-shirts, pants, scarves, and so on. How about recreating this effect on your terracotta pots?

1. Paint the outside of the pot white, overflowing a little over the edge and inside, as this part will be visible even once filled with soil. Set aside to dry.
2. Wrap a strip of masking tape about ¾ of the way up the pot.
3. Mix some coloured paint (ideally neon coloured) with the white paint to give it a very light hue.
4. Paint the entire lower portion of the pot and overlap onto the masking tape. Let dry.
5. Remove the tape and apply a new strip of tape a little lower than the first.
6. Mix the same neon colour with the white, this time to achieve a tint that is a little brighter than the previous one.
7. Paint the portion below the tape, going over it lightly. Let dry and remove the tape.

And there you have it: cute little colourful pots your little artists can be proud of!

Friendly faces, fun emojis, and epic textures

Want even more ideas to decorate your terracotta pots? Have the kids recreate their favourite cartoon character or the emoji that best represents them. You can also use accessories you have on hand for a more whimsical touch—think googly eyes, pompons, stickers, plastic marbles, cotton swabs, etc. You can even stick some spaghetti for shaggy hair, or macaroni if you prefer curls!

You can also have fun adding different shapes and patterns, like stripes and chevrons, or coating your pot with fabric pieces, like burlap or lace. Your plants will truly feel the love with such care given to their receptacles!

Eye-catching garden markers

Easily identify the vegetable, fruit, and herb plants in your garden with homemade markers for carrots, lettuce, radishes, strawberries, squash, basil, thyme, rhubarb, etc. On your marks . . . Get set . . . Start planting!

• Paint the end of old spoons or wood spatulas a given colour and use a water-resistant marker to draw the plant to be identified. Next, write the plant’s name. You can also do this using the sticks used to mix paint. You can colour-code your craft, using orange for carrots and pumpkins, dark green for cucumbers, lettuces, and beans, light green for herbs, red for tomatoes and peppers, and so on.
• Build mini panels using craft sticks (or Popsicle sticks): glue together three sticks horizontally, one under the other, and attach them to two sticks positioned vertically (one on the left and one on the right), to resemble a road sign planted in the ground. You can paint them if you want, and identify them accordingly.
• Paint the fruit, veggie, or herb in question onto stones placed in the soil next to the plant.

Seeds in an egg carton: learning by the dozen

Come spring, try planting seeds in an egg carton with the lid, flap, and centre peaks cut out. Start off by having your child mix potting soil with river sand (if you have compost, you can add a little of that as well) and fill up the slots. You can also use good quality soil. Lightly compact the soil and add 3 or 4 seeds per slot, making sure they don’t touch. Top with 1 or 2 mm of soil and push down lightly. Repeat for each slot, and water to dampen the soil (this is kids’ favourite part!).

Reuse plastic containers

Seeds thrive in damp environments. You can build your own mini greenhouse in a cinch: simply cut your egg carton in half and store each half in a plastic container used for rotisserie chicken (we finally found a new use for it!). Place your little greenhouse in a well-lit area, but not in direct sunlight. Now you just need to water it daily and wait a few days to see a fascinating tiny green stem emerge!

Once the warmer weather officially sets in, you can cut each slot out and plant it directly in your garden or a pot: the young sprout will adapt more easily to its new environment, and the carton will decompose naturally in the soil.

March is for planting . . .

. . . tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, celery, celeriac, and leek. To learn when to plant other fruits, veggies, and herbs, refer to a planting calendar or the instructions on your package of Semences solidaires by La Tablée des Chefs.