Garden-Themed Mother's Day Gift Ideas for Families to Do Together

I love spending time with my children and my own mom in the garden. There's always so much to do together, from sowing more seeds to harvesting. This Mother's Day weekend is the perfect time to do a fun garden-themed project with your mom or grandmother or partner or daughter. Even if she doesn't have a garden space set up yet, I've got some activities that will take you outdoors for some quality time.

These 10 garden project ideas work for gardeners of all levels, from beginners to master gardeners. Some can be done in an afternoon, while others will take a bit more planning and prep work. They're all guaranteed to make the mom in your life super happy!

Build a Raised Bed Together

Raised beds make gardening more accessible. If your mom or grandma has any kind of mobility issue like a bad back or knees, raised beds can make it so much easier to tend and harvest their plants. A standing planter or even just a raised bed that's 2 feet tall will put the plants right on their level.

Raised beds also make gardening more accessible for your loved ones who live in an apartment or townhome. You can put a large container on a balcony or patio (just be mindful of weight limits).

You don't have to spend a ton of money on a raised bed or build anything fancy. Here's how to build a wood raised bed for around $100, and here's how to turn a cattle trough into a rollable raised bed.

We built my mom some raised beds for Mother's Day years back, and she's still in love with them. This is one of my favorite gift ideas for families who want to grow together.

Make a Wreath with Greenery from Your Yard

If the mom figure in your life is crafty, then grab some supplies and make a garden wreath together. All you need is a grapevine wreath for the base and a pair of pruners. Explore the yard together looking for the perfect stems to cut for your wreath.

Making your own wreath together is a beautiful and inexpensive way to brighten up her door without buying more plastic decor that'll just get tossed in a couple of years. Plus, she'll think of this fun time you spent together every time she looks at the wreath.

Find inspiration and how-to steps for making your own natural wreaths.

Add Lights to the Kitchen Garden

If your loved one already has a garden set up, help them make their space a little more festive by stringing some bistro lights or clipping some solar-powered garden lights to the sides of her raised beds. Now, she'll be able to slip outside after sundown to cut some more herbs for dinner without worrying about tripping on something. Or maybe the coziness of the lights will inspire her to enjoy a peaceful dinner in the garden. (Because if there's anything moms deserve, it's a quiet meal every now and then!)

Add a Garden Trellis

A metal trellis can add that instant wow factor to your mom's garden, all while maximizing her total available growing space. My three favorite types of trellises to use in my garden designs are panel trellises, obelisk trellises, and arch trellises. I recommend going with a metal trellis for its strength and durability. Select something that's powder coated for a gift she'll be able to enjoy for decades to come.

Start a Salad Garden

A salad garden is ideal for a new gardener or someone who wants to start eating lots of fresh, healthy food. Even a small container can provide leaves for delicious, organic salads, and they're super easy to maintain. You can scatter lettuce seeds or buy some little plant starts from your local nursery to fill the container.

Your loved one can keep this type of container on their patio or even in a sunny windowsill. All they have to do is cut some leaves for their next salad bowl and leave the rest of their little garden to keep growing.

Learn more about setting up this type of salad garden.

Plant Sunflowers

Sunflowers are sure to add some cheer to your mom or grandma's outdoor space. These beautiful yellow flowers are super easy to plant and grow right in the ground or in a raised bed, and they attract a ton of pollinators. Plus, she'll be able to save her own sunflower seeds at the end of the season.

Our new Summer Seed Collection includes not one but two different types of sunflowers. We love these flowers so much we just couldn't decide between Lemon Queen Sunflower and Mammoth Gray Stripe Sunflower. Seed collections make perfect Mother's Day gifts for grandma or flower lovers, but it'll be the quality time spent scattering seeds together that she'll really love. She's pretty much guaranteed to smile every time she looks out her window and sees a bunch of sunflowers winking at her.

Start an Herb Garden

May is the perfect time to start an herb garden with your loved one, and this is one of my favorite gift ideas for small space gardeners. Your mom can grow her own fresh, organic leaves in a sunny windowsill or on a patio.

Just grab a large steel tub from the hardware store, drill some holes in the bottom, and fill it with soil. Plant all her favorite culinary herbs in this one container to make it super easy for her to care for them. If you've passed your last frost date, then you can do basil plus all of the perennial herbs (think rosemary, sage, lavender, thyme, and oregano). Find the complete steps to setting up a small herb garden here.

This is a quick and easy gardening project that your loved one can enjoy on a daily basis when she steps outside to snip some sprigs of her favorite herbs to bring inside the kitchen.

Plant Native Plants Together

Native plants are ideal if your loved one would like a beautiful but ridiculously low-maintenance garden space. These plants are used to growing in your climate, so you don't really have to worry about taking care of them.

Some of my favorite plants to grow in a native plant and pollinator-friendly garden are milkweed, anise hyssop, echinacea, sunflowers, daisies, and rudbeckia. To lend a sense of softness and ethereal beauty to the space, add in some native grasses.

Within days, this native plant space will be teeming with life. The mother figure in your life can drink her coffee outside and watch the butterflies visit all her flowers.

Learn more about setting up a native plant and pollinator garden.

Make an Edible Planter

If you're looking for an easy and fun project to do in an hour together, throw together an edible planter for her front stoop or back porch. This kind of planter is perfect for gardeners with no yard. They're low maintenance, and if you pack them with herbs and leafy greens, you'll be surprised by how much there is to harvest each week.

Some of my favorite plants to add to edible planters are rosemary, chives, marigolds, pansies, parsley, and Swiss chard. Not only will she have some welcoming greenery to brighten up her front door, her guests can pinch off a little something and take a bite.

Learn more about creating an edible planter.

Put Up a Bird House

If she appreciates our winged friends, then adding a bird house or a little nesting bag to her space would be a quick and easy project to do together on Mother's Day. If she has a garden, then the birds this house invites in will help out by gobbling up those pesky caterpillars and tomato hornworms for her. And she'll be able to sit outside and enjoy the comings and goings of whichever little birds make the new house their home.

Happy Mother's Day from Gardenary!

I hope these ideas inspired you to incorporate quality time and some nature into your plan for Mother's Day weekend. No matter how small or ambitious the garden project, it's doing it together that's the real gift.

Thanks for being here and spreading the joy of gardening.