Top tips for family gardens

Kids have a natural love of nature, but they’re easily lured back indoors by screen time. If you’d like to get your children out in the garden for fresh air, learning and fun, we’ve compiled some great tips courtesy of our favourite family and gardening bloggers. Here’s all the inspiration you need to encourage young people to embrace the outdoors, gardens, and gardening…

How to tempt kids outdoors

1. Make garden activities age-appropriate 

Lauren of Inspire, Create, Educate says: “Start by asking yourself what child-friendly means for your child. When my three were younger it would have meant keeping tools out of the way and being relaxed enough to let them dig and muck about wherever they liked. Now they’re all in junior and high school, we plant things together and they’re shown how to use the garden tools safely and appropriately.”

2. Let kids get dirty 

Kate of The Ladybird’s Adventures says: “My kids love mud so it’s never been hard to get them involved in the garden.”  With that in mind, she’s created a mud kitchen for her children to play in: “They have a little play house that grown ups can’t fit inside and a mud kitchen that they adore. We use all sorts in the mud kitchen such as shells, petals, mud, conkers and of course water.”

Vicky of Earth Based Fun is another big fan of the power of mud to get kids outdoors and says a good way to get children interested in spending time outside is to get them building dens: “Children love to make dens – use willow, sticks, mud, just anything you can find to make a den that they will spend days playing in. Use clay to play in and keep it simple making mud pies. The smallest most simple of activities can create the most magic, and those are the things that they will always remember.”

3. Create space to play 

Space to play unhindered by rules turns your garden into whatever your kids imagine it to be. Kev at An English Homestead says: “Giving them an area to play and just do their own thing is just as essential. Mine have a few different areas and love creating different games between their Wendy house and swings. It’s great for me as well, while they’re outside having fun, I can keep an eye on them while I work on the garden.”

4. Create a wildlife pond

Lucy who writes Kids of the Wild says: “Whether in a bowl or several metres wide, it’s a brilliant ongoing project for all the family. We started with a bog garden in an old dog bed and now have a fantastic metre-deep pond teeming with wildlife and native fish! The children find it mesmerising.”

How to get kids interested in gardening

1. Give kids their own patch 

One of the best ways to get kids to switch off their devices, pull on a pair of wellies and get out into the garden, is to give them a patch of their own. It’s important, says Lucy of Kids of the Wild, to let your children make decisions without your input: “In our last garden my daughter edged her patch with stones, planted daffodils, allowed celandines to grow and hung a sheep’s skull on her patch of fence! Whenever I was outside she’d potter over and weed or rearrange.”

This freedom has clearly encouraged Lucy’s daughter to make more sophisticated choices about her gardening: “In our current garden she’s made fairy paths in her special area – a bigger space than previously – using pottery we’ve dug up, she’s planted geraniums and fallen in love with dahlias! I’m not a dahlia fan but allowing her to have autonomy has allowed her to develop her own gardening loves.”

Are you short of outside space? Catherine creator of Growing Family says even a container can be enough to get a child interested in the garden: “Having a piece of earth to call their own really motivates them to look after it and stay interested.”

2. Ditch the toy tools 

Kev at An English Homestead writes: “Once they’ve over toddler size they know whether something is useful or not. My three children have proper “trenching” spades and shovels that are used by construction workers in deep and confined trenches. They can dig properly with these and actually feel useful. I think kids have a sixth sense when something is just “busy work” or real work, so give them proper jobs to make them feel helpful.”

3. Set an example 

The best way to get children interested in gardening, says Lauren at Inspire, Create, Educate, is to let them see you in the garden! She says: “Children take their cues from their parents – even babies will reach for your phone instead of the cute child-friendly toy phone. If you do all your gardening while they’re in school and they never see you doing it, they’ll never take an interest.”

Speaking of maintaining children’s interest, Catherine at Growing Family says: “Don’t expect kids to have a long attention span in the garden either; you can keep things interesting by giving them a series of little jobs, and letting them potter about at their own pace.”

4. Get kids growing

Kev at An English Homestead says the best way to get kids to engage with gardening is to let them grow from seed and harvest and eat the resulting crop – as he says “my three always think of their bellies and look forward to a tasty harvest.”

Catherine of Growing Family agrees. She says: “Growing plants from seed is my kids’ number one favourite gardening job. I can see why: it’s just such a magical process, and hugely rewarding when those little seedlings thrive.”

Don’t have your own garden? That’s not a problem says Sabina who writes Deep in Mummy Matters. She says: “My mother-in-law has an allotment where she grows fruit and vegetables. The children really enjoy going over to the allotment with her to help out, and of course to eat the fruits of their labour. If you don’t have space in your garden for a vegetable patch then speak to your council about an allotment as they are really cheap to rent and it’s a good family activity to do on evenings and weekends.”

And do let kids take charge, reminds Kev who allows his kids to harvest veg for tea: “They love coming back up with all the goodies and knowing that they had to decide what was ready and what wasn’t. It gives them a sense of responsibility and pride that they’re helping to feed the family.”

Karen at Pumpkins and Bunting has a great idea for combining growing and building dens. She says: “Children of all ages love dens and sweet treats, so try growing your own pea teepee! It’s a simple way to encourage children to get involved with gardening on the allotment and pick and eat fresh veg too. Make a simple tepee leaving a gap between two of the canes big enough for a child to crawl into, tie together at the top securely with twine.”

What’s best to sow and grow with kids?

• • Easy-to-grow favourites:

“Radishes, lettuce, carrots and beans are all easy and quick to grow,” says Vicky at Earth Based Fun. “Edible flowers seem to always fascinate them. My daughter loves wild flowers. All you need is a bit of dirt and a small pot to watch them grow.”

• • Things they can pick and eat on the spot:

Kev at An English Homestead writes: “My children love running down the garden after school to find enough to snack on. They love all the berries but also go mad for cucamelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, New Zealand yam leaves and a weird favourite is electric daisies [they taste of citrus crossed with an electric shock] which they love tricking their friends with!”

• • Sunflowers:

“Sunflowers are one of the best things to grow with children because they’re fast-growing and fun to race,” says Lauren at Inspire, Create, Educate. She and her children also grow tomatoes during the summer and adds: “My youngest loves to grow colourful rainbow chard (as well as his very own apple tree), and we love to see nasturtiums too. The answer really is, grow whatever your children want to grow!”

• • Peas:

Over at An English Homestead, Kev’s kids adore peas. He writes: “I love growing tall heritage peas just so I know there will be some they can’t reach! I remember looking out the window a couple of years ago and between them they had harvested a bowl full of peas and raspberries and they sat sharing them out between each other, eating both at the same time!”

• • Strawberries:

Try growing strawberries in hanging baskets, says Claire at The Ladybird’s Adventures – it’s very simple and takes little space.

• • Create a container garden:

Create a bit of magic with acontainer fairy garden, suggests Karen at Pumpkins and Bunting. “Use a container with a wide surface area and fill with compost. Add small plants such as heather, succulents, cyclamen or house plants. Make or buy a fairy door and use gravel and small stones to create a winding path. Include small furniture from a doll’s house or make your own. Add solar or battery operated fairy lights for extra magic sparkle!”

With our bloggers’ tips, you now have plenty of strategies you can use to get your little ones hooked on gardening and the fascinating natural world that lies just outside the kitchen door.