Gardening indoors to beat the wet weather blues

Like nearly everyone else I am itching for spring. I want some warmth and to spend time outside with the children gardening.

It's been a long, hard winter which, I've heard, is going to delay spring by a month. So I'm going to have to be patient, which admittedly I'm not too good at.

We can sow seeds, which I sometimes don't let the children join in with because the seeds are teeny and I'm a bit of a control freak.

Going for walks is something we can enjoy whatever the weather, and we do, but when the gardening bug bites, it bites hard. So what can we do?

What we can do to stave off a bit of cabin fever and to get them reconnecting with nature again is a spot of indoor gardening.

Cress heads is a classic and great for this. They can be grown in nearly anything. Half an empty eggshell is wonderful, allowing for some cool faces to be drawn on it. Or a potato with some of the top scooped out makes wonderful people with cool cress hair. Pipe cleaners or cocktail sticks stuck in the sides work as arms.

Grass can also be used - more details here - but I prefer cress because at least you can eat the results! Just place damp cotton wool or kitchen towels in the bottom and sprinkle on the seeds. Results should be very speedy.

A quick scan of your fridge may also turn up things to be used for indoor gardening.

Cutting the tops off carrots and placing them in a dish of water, as in here, can produce some interesting results but obviously not straight away. Other dishes with parsnip or turnip tops too can add a different slant to the activity.

Our favourite, not least because I have to eat it first, is to use an avocado. Well, the stone inside.
There are some great instructions here.

What indoor growing activities do you do with your children when it's too wet to garden?

Photo: Copyright Debbie Webber