With Spring on the way, it’s that time of year when everyone is itching to get out in the garden, and it may be time to give your garden a bit of love after the Winter season. I’m desperate to get my garden tidied up and looking more presentable, whereas my boys are mostly keen to get outside for football and riding their scooters and bikes!
If you’re wanting to get the kids involved in gardening, then here are a few simple ideas and tips to try.
Visit garden centres
Many garden centres are fun to visit these days, with cafes and soft play as well as all of the gardening tools and flowers. Sometimes they’re combined with pet shops too, and do special seasonal events like for Easter coming up. Taking the kids along and browsing the plants and garden designs together can be a simple way of getting them interested. I remember visiting a big garden centre as a kid, which had loads of water features and pond displays – we used to love it!
Keep on top of garden maintenance
Keeping the basic garden maintenance under control means that it doesn’t become an overwhelming job. Older kids can help with things like mowing the lawn. My boys all like using the push lawn mower! During summer, it may need mowing every week or at least every fortnight – depending on the weather. For any others tools you need to keep the garden neat for the family, check out SGS Engineering.
Grow something they can eat
Kids always enjoy eating their own produce! So growing tomatoes, lettuce or any other vegetable that they’d like is always a good way to foster enthusiasm in the gardening. My boys love to water the lettuces in my parents garden, and it encourages them to eat more of those vegetables too so it’s a win – win situation!
They also enjoy picking fruit that grows in the garden like blackberries and apples. Baking with these picked fruits is something fun to do together once you’ve all come inside.
Learn about the plants and wildlife of the garden
It’s fun to learn the names of each flower and plant, and find out which ones attract butterflies or which ones attract bees and so on. You can also get the kids to look out for ladybirds, worms, woodlice and other creepy crawlies – perhaps using a magnifying glass to sneak a peek in more details.
There are also good books available that will help kids identify the birds in the garden. We recently got one of these, which will be interesting to study out in the garden.
Make garden art
I sometimes let my kids pick some of the grass or flowers from the garden to make collages. Sticky back plastic is great for this! You can see some of our garden collages here
Play finding games
Challenge the kids to hunt around the garden and find something soft, something spiky, something red, something tiny and so on.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
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