St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than planting a magical leprechaun garden! Whether DIY’ing a green gift, or looking for a useful and unique St. Patrick’s Day kids’ craft, these miniature gardens offer a fun, fresh take on the old Irish folklore.
Ok, this is going to sound a little kooky, but have you ever planted a few old pennies the day before St. Patrick’s day…? Call me crazy, but I enjoy a little good-natured mischief, so instead of trapping leprechauns, I try to keep them happy by planting something green and giving them a cozy leprechaun garden to move into for the spring.
Legend has it (at our house, at least) that if a leprechaun visits your garden, your pennies will turn to gold, and you’ll have good luck the rest of the year!
You can make your own leprechaun garden (or give them as a gift!) with a little potted plant and our free printable leprechaun garden accessories. It’s a great St. Patrick’s Day craft for preschoolers too, because they can participate in potting a plant and arranging the pieces – no need for scissors and glue – if you can pre-assemble a few decorative elements or add your own trinkets!
Rainbows, paper shamrocks, whimsical mushrooms, a festive garland – even a tiny little leprechaun house! Natural materials from outside, like pebbles, sticks, and shells, also make fantastic additions to your gardens. You can even make your own air-dry clay diy leprechaun gold!
This post was originally created for our friends at hello, Wonderful, and though you can no longer download our free printable set of mini garden accessories there, we’ve made them available for download here on our site!
Heads up, we just added a set of free printable DIY leprechaun mail to the site! Download it for instant St. Patrick’s day fun (it’s a great compliment to this little green garden too!).
To make your own DIY leprechaun garden you’ll need:
BASIC SUPPLIES:
- A small potted plant (clover for extra luck!)
- 2 Sheets of white cardstock
- Our free printable leprechaun garden accessories
- Scissors
- A glue stick or tape
OPTIONAL SUPPLIES:
- Toothpicks or popsicle sticks to create stakes for your garden accessories
- Wooden craft sticks
- Coins to entice a leprechaun!
How to Make a Leprechaun Garden With Kids
DIY Leprechaun Garden Craft Instructions
Pot a small plant.
You can build your garden anywhere you’d like, but we chose to pot a small green plant. You can add as few or as many pieces to your garden as you want – branches, pebbles, shells, and other natural materials make lovely garden decor!
Create your leprechaun garden accessories.
You can use our free printable leprechaun garden accessories PDF. Print onto heavy cardstock and cut out, or draw your very own set of accessories.
Prepare your accessories for the garden.
We taped toothpicks to the back of our garden accessories to keep them in place in the dirt. For the little Leprechaun house, fold along all dotted lines, glue on the tabs where indicated, and paste them together!
If you’d like to make a rainbow ladder, you can cut out the rainbow-colored rungs and glue them to sticks, straws, or popsicle sticks. To create a garland, cut the mini pennant pieces from the template, fold over a piece of twine, then tie both ends around sticks or straws.
If you think you’ll use these repeatedly, you can even laminate your garden accessories for protection from watering and dirt.
Arrange your garden and wait for a lucky leprechaun!
Set up a cozy little space for one extremely lucky little leprechaun using the garden accessories you’ve made.
Brimming with opportunities for imaginative thought & play, this St. Patrick’s Day small-world play setup is a festive and earth-friendly way to celebrate the holiday.
These green mini gardens also make an adorable gift for family members or friends and work well in a classroom setting. Weekly watering is an excellent nature-based task for kids, and you can move or add things to your garden for an element of surprise!
More Ways to Play with Your Leprechaun Gardens
Love this idea but not into flexing your green thumb? Try these ideas instead…
- Make a St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin. A few of our clever followers have tagged us in photos of their leprechaun garden sensory bins – a brilliant spin on our little St. Patrick’s Day gardens that substitute dry Pinto beans for dirt. You could also make your own rainbow rice, or use playdough instead.
- Create a St. Patrick’s Day felt storyboard. You can use the mushroom and rainbow shapes as templates to cut your own felt shapes for a bright spring felt board.
- Send St. Patrick’s Day notes. Use the template pieces to create a fun, collaged St. Patrick’s Day greeting card.
Can’t get enough green? Try making this St. Patrick’s Day smoothie – it takes like a tropical vacation, is packed with healthy green goodness, and even has a little rainbow surprise at the bottom! Or curate monochromatic mini collections and put together green collages.
If magic gardens are more your style, you’ll definitely want to add a unicorn garden to your collection. For a different kind of miniature garden experience, try making our mini peace gardens – a calming art activity for kids that helps them learn five simple relaxation techniques. Or, for some hands-on play with live plants, visit our collection of over 50 spring gardening activities for kids.
If your kids love the imaginative play opportunities this tiny garden home holds, our toadstool gnome home is a great project to check out next. And plan ahead for Easter and spring activities with a visit to our free printable travel tin Peter Rabbit garden!
