Ways to get kids gardening

As the weather warms up, it’s time to don coats and wellies and fire up the imagination to encourage your kids to get into the garden, with fun projects to stimulate their interest, by Hannah Stephenson.
By The Newsroom
Published 28th Feb 2019, 14:47 BST
Updated 28th Feb 2019, 15:50 BST
Picture credit: Thinkstock/PA.Picture credit: Thinkstock/PA.
Picture credit: Thinkstock/PA.

Podcaster, former Blue Peter gardener and RHS social media host Lee Connelly, known as the ‘Skinny Jean Gardener’, is creating a children’s garden at this year’s Ideal Home Show (idealhomeshow.co.uk). Fancy getting your youngsters outside for some green-fingered fun? Connelly offers five tips on how to encourage kids to get off their screens and into the great outdoors...

Give them their own space

Let them have their own patch in your vegetable bed or allotment. If you have limited space, use an old washing-up bowl, putting holes in the base for drainage and then creating a mini-allotment for them. Good crops to plant include salad leaves and other fast-growing vegetables, so they can see the results quickly.

Encourage them to grow their own

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“My daughter didn’t used to like eating vegetables much, until she started growing them,” says Connelly. “But start them off growing something they like eating, or they won’t care about it as much. Tomatoes, lettuce and peppers are a good bet.”

Encourage wildlife

Children will be engaged when they see butterflies, beetles and other bugs. “Make your own hedgehog home - it’s cheap and easy and you can use things you have around the house. Use a plastic box that you can cut holes out of and put up against a fence line. Cover the box with natural materials such as wood. Everything needs to be accessible and easy.”

Make wildflower seedballs

Connelly says: “If your kids like getting messy, this is a lot of fun. You get clay, compost, water and wildflower seeds, mix them all together and you make these small wildflower seedballs. Dry them on the windowsill and then find a spare area of the garden, throw the seedballs on there and lots of wildflowers will pop up in the summer, attracting bees and butterflies.”

Make a runner bean teepee

Children love to make dens in the garden, but this one could have added interest. Create a wigwam out of bamboo, leaving a space for the entrance. You can then dig a trench around where it needs to be placed, ready to plant runner beans at the end of May or in June. The beans will grow around the wigwam and provide shelter for the children, as well as delicious beans.

(Pic:Thinkstock/PA)