Gardening with kids!  I’ve pretty much always loved gardening.   Even when I lived in town I had a small garden or flower bed.  I don’t always have a green thumb with every plant, but it is always so fulfilling when you watch your plants grow into beautiful flowers and food!  I think my favorite is food.  There is nothing like fresh vegetables and fruits, especially tomatoes.  You just can not buy a tomato in the store that compares to fresh from the garden!

Generally, I buy tomato plants directly from the store around the month of May.  I also mostly start seeds directly in the garden.  Last year I started a few seeds inside, and had some good luck!  Even a couple of tomato plants.  This year my daughter is 5-years-old and becoming a very big helper.  She’s curious to learn and get her hands in the dirt, water, and mud.

We started seeds in mini greenhouses in March.  Most of our plants have now outgrown their little pods, so we needed to transplant them into larger pots.  We actually had snow today, so the weather will not allow for us to move anything outside for close to another month.

What we used:

• multi-purpose potting soil
• small pots to transfer your plants to (I had a bunch left over from years past.  I’m not a hoarder!  I promise.)
• Coffee grounds – slowly releases nutrients(optional)
• crushed eggshells – extra calcium (optional)
• water
• plants to transfer
• (I used shells and coffee grounds when I planted my peppers and tomatoes outside last year.  I put about 2 tablespoons of each in the bottom of each hole before I put the plants in.  I think I found this idea on Pinterest, and it worked out great last year.  I had so many tomatoes and peppers!  It was fabulous!)

Examine Your Plants

Most of our seedlings were outgrowing their tiny seedpod homes!  Especially our tomatoes.  It was time to transfer them to larger pots.

Set Up Your Work Space

We were working in the kitchen because it was freezing outside.  This would be a great project to do outside if it was a nice day.  I laid out an old plastic table clothe left over from a Birthday party.  I got out our crushed eggs shells, coffee grounds, tomato plants, water, potting soil, and a measuring cup to scoop the potting soil from the bag.

Add Potting Soil, Eggshells, and Coffee Grounds

We started with our pots, adding enough potting soil to cover the bottom while also filling it so our plants would set on top of our soil to be just below the top of our pot.  We placed a little bit of coffee grounds and eggshells in(only use eggshells & coffee grounds with tomato and pepper plants), then stirred them with the dirt.  Next, we packed the dirt in.

Prep Your Plants For Transplant

Since we planted our seeds into pods, we had to loosen the netting on the bottom of each of our plants before placing them into their new pots.  You can go to our Starting a Garden for Beginners post to get great tips to start your first garden.

We added more dirt to our pot to fill around the root ball of the plant.  We then packed the dirt around the plant and added water. (I’m not sure how she managed to get our supplies on her face! =))  All done!

Our tomatoes look much happier!

We also transplanted lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, peppers, jalapenos, parsley, and lavender.  We moved everything in front of our sliding glass door to get as much sun as possible.

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