Gardening for kids is essential outdoor play and learning - and we don't need to leave the house to do it

People talk about stopping and smelling the roses, but for the next generation, it's about stopping and planting some, which is why gardening initiatives are blossoming around the country, in schools and through various community projects.

As we enter a period of social distancing and more time spent at home, getting our urban kids into gardening - whether turning old welly boots into planters or dedicating some garden space to making things grow - is ever more important.

Why is planting the seed for an interest in gardening so important for children? Let us count the ways: gardening can get children to spend more time outdoors and away from their screens. It can help educate them about the environment - after all, mass tree planting can help combat global warming (we hope). Gardening is also a mindful activity, promoting a feeling of being in the now that can help ease anxiety and worries.

Gardening can also teach kids that all-important lesson of where food comes from - crucial if we want our children to learn to eat healthily, and integrate lots of fruit and vegetables into their diets.

For London kids, who may not have gardens at home, spending time in the soil can be hugely beneficial. As the RHS's Alana Cama, Schools and Groups Programme Manager, says:

"Getting children gardening is a great way to spark their interest in the natural world. It’s an easy way to help them discover where our food comes from, improve their health and wellbeing, and teach them to look after the environment."

Here are some tips and ideas to inspire a love of gardens - and gardening - in your children.

Find a friendly gardening initiative

Whether you're an urban mouse or a country one, there are plenty of initiatives around the UK to get kids planting, from Innocent's Big Grow, Grow Your Own Potatoes, The Garden Classroom and the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, which has resources, competitions and more for kids to get stuck into. Alana Cama gave us a few of her top tips for getting kids excited about gardening:

• Give them their own garden

Whether it’s a sunny patch of bedding or planters on a patio, help your young gardener to plan, plant and care for their own bit of land. They could even help to pick out their favourite plants to go in their patch.

• Get MUDDY!

Get elbow deep in mud! Besides being fun, real hands-on learning will help children to feel more connected to the earth around them. Put them in some old clothes and get stuck in!

• Choose quick growers

Quick-growing plants such as radishes and salad leaves will offer near-instant results before little minds lose interest. You can paint faces on your plant pots, plant marrow fat peas and watch tasty shoots become hair! Keep kids engaged initially and then build up to plants that require a little more patience.

• Go wild with a bug hotel

Encourage wildlife into your garden and build a home for creepy crawlies. A great opportunity to recycle odds and ends, your new creation will welcome a whole host of residents. You can even add in some bee-friendly planting!

• Make a mini pond

Whether it’s an old basin or a washing-up bowl, you can use anything to make a mini pond in your garden and help encourage the declining population of pond wildlife. Just add some pebbles, pond plants and rainwater. You can sink your mini pond into the ground or have it sitting on top; just make sure animals can get in and out with ease.

• Try something tasty

Fruit and vegetables don’t come in a packet! Teach your kids where their food comes from by growing tasty treats in the garden. From this activity they’ll begin to understand about seasonal eating, the energy that goes into food production and might even be more open to tasting new things.

• Introduce the weird and wonderful

Grow something wonderful. Find a plant that’s out of the ordinary to encourage interest in gardening whether that be a touch-sensitive mimosa plant, a fascinating cuca-melon or purple carrots.

• Garden for good!

Calculate the food miles in a favourite dish and try to replace with items grown in your own garden or locally. Help your children see that they can garden for a purpose and make a real difference to the world!

• Cook and eat

Harvest vegetables, salad leaves or fruit you have growing in the garden and make something tasty. Can you make a yummy soup, fruit salad or vegetable cake?

• The cycle of life

Make an origami seed packet and collect seeds from your flowers as they finish blooming, ready to plant next spring.

Embrace biophilia

A lack of outside space doesn't mean you can't create an urban oasis in London: just decorate your urban interior with plants to embrace the most natural thing in the world, our connection with nature (aka biophilia).

If you need some inspo on how to do this, check out coworking space Second Home, a plant and light-filled oasis with live moss and hanging ferns to ensure nature is always there, even when you're mid client-call.

At your actual home, a few plants in the kitchen is a good start - and getting the kids to learn to take care of them (water, sunlight), is even better, while house plants in baby's nurseries are having a moment in interiors right now. Some families may even be interested in schemes like Rewild My Street, which offers resources to help encourage wildlife back into your street and garden.