I’ve long wanted to get the kids into gardening (beyond the plastic cup seeds we’ve planted!) but I hesitate to buy planters since I have no green thumb myself. Enter this adorable upcycling idea for garden containers, made from empty soy milk cartons. They’re just right for kids to plant flowers or herbs, with no commitment.

To start, I cut one side flap off each of two empty soy milk cartons, then thoroughly washed with soap and water and let dry.

We headed outside with our containers on a hot morning. I had a new set of garden toys for the kids, to add to the fun, including a mini wheelbarrow, gardening tools, and even pretend flower pots. These will be fun to mime garden play even when we’re not actually planting!

But now to set up our real containers, Veronika helped scoop potting soil into each of the cleaned out cartons.

Pat down the dirt and then water until moist. Our elephant watering can is always a big hit.

Next, we made small holes in the dirt with our fingers to about 1/4-inch deep, and dropped in seeds. Big brother Travis loved this part! We used one carton for flowers (you could even plant homemade paper seed bombs)…

… and the second carton for herbs.

Of course we’ll have to wait a while to see the fruits of our labor, but for this morning, the kids weren’t done yet! First there was fun to be had planting the fake flowers in real dirt.

Then they wanted to water the grass and clover in the yard.

Gardening is such a beautiful way to get kids outside and interacting with nature, even when it’s as simple as beginner gardening like this.

Update: We have growth! It’s been just over two weeks since we planted the herbs, and now they are just starting to pop up. Travis in particular is so excited for when the plants are large enough to snip off some and use in our kitchen.