The Creativity for Kids Enchanted Fairy Garden Craft Kit combines gardening with arts and crafts to keep kids active in the experience.

With the Creativity for Kids Enchanted Fairy Garden Craft Kit, children can create, paint, and decorate a fairy garden all their own. The kit blends together arts and crafts with indoor gardening, as children start out by painting the 11-inch-diameter potting dish, resin fairy house, and resin toadstools. Then, kids can plant the wheatgrass and bean mixture seeds using the included potting soil. Included gravel, glass stones, fabric flower bouquets, pixie dust, and gems give kids plenty of creative freedom in how they decorate their fairy garden. Once the scene is set, kids can decide on the perfect place for Hannah, the included fairy figurine.

This product goes beyond many other gardening kits in terms of the overall activity it offers kids. From painting the dish and accessories to setting up — and redesigning — the scene, kids are more involved in play with this kit than with more traditional gardening kits. The grass grows within one to two weeks, so the “complete” garden will be visible promptly. While the garden consists mostly of grass, adding in some flower seeds that have relatively shallow root structures would add a little more color and variety to the scene.

The Creativity for Kids Enchanted Fairy Garden Craft Kit has a 4.3 out of 5-star Amazon rating, based on nearly 700 reviews. This customer found that kids of all ages enjoyed this kit: “Bought for a 6-year-old, 10-year old, and 16-year old sisters for a craft project. I even made one with them. They enjoyed it and so did I. The decorations are adorable. All items were intact in the boxes. It took us about 3 hours to complete.”

Another customer wrote: “This fairy planter really grew great! My 8-year-old daughter loves it. We bought DIY planters but the seeds never grew out … Comes with a lot of seeds. You don’t need to use whole bag.”

Pros: Kit incorporates gardening with arts and crafts, includes many items that allow kids to decorate their fairy garden

Cons: Seeds are mostly grass, no drainage in the potting dish

Buy the Creativity for Kids Enchanted Fairy Garden Craft Kit on Amazon for $20.86

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“Get gangsta with your shovel, okay?” Ron Finley told the TED Conference crowd back in 2013, “and let that be your weapon of choice.” The crowd roared with applause, a video of the talk went viral and Finley, a fashion designer-turned-community garden activist from South Central, became internationally known as the “Gangsta Gardener.”

At that point, Finley was already something of a local celebrity. Frustrated with the lack options for buying fresh produce in his neighborhood — and the community health problems that “food deserts” can trigger — Finley grew a garden in the parkway in front of his home. The harvest was bountiful, but city powers weren’t so keen on his use of the tiny patch of green space that’s technically owned by them. Finley fought to keep the garden and his cause was picked up by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez.  This, however, would turn out to be just one of the battles in Finley’s quest to create “food forests.”

Ron Finley walks through his garden. | Still from “Broken Bread”

A peek into Ron Finley’s garden. | Still from “Broken Bread”

Ron Finley gardening out of a planter labeled “Respect the Land” in his garden. | Still from “Broken Bread”

Pots and plants in Ron Finley’s garden. | Still from “Broken Bread”

Previously, Finley was a renter. The space was also the headquarters for The Ron Finley Project, an effort to create a “self-sufficient ecosystem of gardening, education, cooking, business learning and management” in his South Los Angeles community.

In 2016, Finley’s original landlord defaulted on his mortgage payments and sold to another party, who then started an eviction process against Finley. In an effort to stay in his residence, Finley started a crowdfunding campaign in January 2017 to purchase the property from its new owners. His campaign was already in full swing when he approached the executives of natural food companies for help. According to the New York Times, Nell Newman of Newman’s Own pitched in $21,000, and other companies, like Annie’s, Applegate Farms and Califia Farms, offered monetary support as well. By April 2017, Finley raised enough to purchase the land.

Finley has often likened his gardens to graffiti and, like some of the world’s top graffiti artists, he was part of the massive 2018 art exhibition “Beyond the Streets.” Like street art, Finley’s work is rebellious, public and a feast for the eyes. While both can provide creative nourishment, gardens provide nourishment for the body as well.

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