Why you should get your kids into the garden
Finding things to keep the kids occupied during the summer holidays can be a headache but there’s a great playground right on your doorstep – your garden. Kids love gardening in short bursts and letting them help you, or even develop their own plot, is a great way to get them off the sofa and out of the house. They’ll learn a lot about plants, sharing and working together and you’ll have the chance to spend meaningful family time with them.
These seven ideas will help you get your kids into the garden:
1. A caterpillar hunt
Kids seem to love creepy crawlies, so if you suggest a caterpillar hunt you are sure to attract interest. Give the children a container and send them out into the garden to collect as many caterpillars as they can. This way you’ll be getting rid of a pest while keeping the kids happily occupied. You could also see who gets the most varieties and see who knows what they will develop into. You can vary the theme by having a general insect hunt to see who can collect and identify the greatest number of different species.
2. Weeding
It might be a wearisome task for you, but your kids will love helping you do the weeding – for a while, at least. Give each of them their own area and see who can clear the most weeds. All they’ll need is a small garden fork and a bucket. They’ll have fun with the dirt and will quickly be able to see how well they’ve done. First, though, you’ll need to teach them which of the plants are weeds. You could also challenge the older ones to identify the weeds they’ve collected.
3. Garden picnic
Everyone loves a picnic but you don’t need to take a drive into the country or trek to the park to have one. Simply spread a blanket on the lawn and grab some goodies from the kitchen and you have the ingredients for a picnic in your own back yard. You can add interest by getting the kids to make daisy chains or collect petals to turn into ‘perfume’. Or you could get them to collect petals and leaves to create a potpourri or for making pressed flower decorations indoors later.
4. Garden accessories
Probably one for slightly older kids, making garden accessories is a great way to get your kids to take an interest in the garden. There are loads of projects you can consider and you’ll probably have what you need for most of them lying around in your garden shed. Bird frighteners are easily made using twine or old fishing line and old CDs or silver paper (even from sweet wrappers); just tie the line between a couple of stakes and dangle the CDs or silver paper from it. More ambitious projects might include making a planting box, cold frame or pinwheels.
5. Their own patch
If you have the space, you can set aside a small space for the kids to use as their own. You can let them play there – small boys still like to play with toy cars and soldiers - or you can encourage them to grow flowers and vegetables. The summer holiday period is not too late to plant radishes, pak choi, lettuce and French beans and imagine the thrill the kids will get when they can harvest and eat their own crops. Older children, who understand that growing takes time, might like to help you plant out cauliflower or cabbages for harvesting in autumn and winter.
6. Picking dinner
Sending the kids out into the garden to choose the vegetables for dinner is a great way to get them involved with the garden, especially if they’ve had a hand in growing them. Get them to select some ripe fruit and vegetables and let them help you decide how to prepare them. This way they’ll learn how to choose what is ripe and how to combine and prepare ingredients for a meal; and those who hate greens might be more inclined to try them.
7. Monitoring the garden
Gardens are living spaces and are always changing. Kids will find it fascinating to measure how plants and vegetables grow over time, so you could get them to go outside on certain days of the week to measure how tall your plants or vegetables have grown or to count the fruit on trees or bushes. Some of the more ambitious ones might also find it interesting to see how the insect and bird population changes over the summer. The possibilities are endless.
A note of caution
You want your kids to enjoy their time in the garden but you should remember that there are some risks. You’ll need to make sure that they stay away from any garden chemicals that you may have in your shed and remember that some tools cause quite nasty injuries if not handled properly. Weeds like stinging nettles can also be harmful and you must beware of poisonous plants. But if you use your common sense, everyone will have fun and, you never know, you may discover the next Alan Titchmarsh or Carol Klein.