Gardening activities for children

May 28 to June 5, 2022 is National Children’s Gardening Week. Enjoy special discounts on CoirProducts.co.uk kids’ bundles throughout the week. 

With May half-term just around the corner, it’s not too late to start planning some fun gardening and outdoor activities to do with your children over the week. This year’s May half-term also falls during National Children’s Gardening Week – a week celebrating the fun that gardens hold for children. Spending time outdoors helps children in so many ways, including in improving their physical and psychological well-being. 

Here are some fun gardening activities you can try out with your children that’s bound to be fun for the whole family!

Gardening/planting: 

It is well known that gardening helps children develop new skills, stay healthy, have fun, and build self confidence. It is a great way to get children eating healthy and learning more about where food comes from. Getting children to plant their own seeds and looking after their plants gives them a sense of competence. 

CoirProducts kids’ bundles are specially designed to nurture the curious grower! Consisting of a selection of some of our signature products, including coir pots, coircoins, and coir discs, they are bound to have your children busy and enjoying their time in the garden. Our kids’ bundles also come with a fun activities book, where your children can draw a picture of their garden or tell us about the creatures they find outside. What’s more is that our coir products are completely natural, biodegradable, and peat-free… perfect for introducing children to organic and eco-friendly growing.

Making a mini garden

If you’re worried about space, what about creating a mini garden? You can use a large pot, a hanging basket, or even an old bucket, add some potting mix, and some natural material to decorate, whether it’s twigs, flowers, leaves, stones, or tiny plants. You can add some seeds too! With CoirProducts kids’ bundles, we’ve got just the bits for you to get started on your mini garden. CoirProducts coircoins are ideal for sowing a variety of seeds and can be placed in CoirProducts coir pots. Just add adequate water to allow the coircoins to expand, so you are ready to plant! Our coir products are perfect for using both indoors or outdoors. 

Make a mini pond

Have you ever tried making a mini pond? Building a mini-pond is also a great way to help children learn how wildlife and creatures in their own backyard would depend on water. A wildlife pond is an important breeding habitat for creatures like toads and dragonflies, as well as being a vital source of hydration for pollinators, insects, and hedgehogs. 

It’s easy to make a mini pond. You’ll need a big enough container to hold the water, some rocks and gravel, and some small pond plants. Remember that your container needs to be sturdy as it is outside, something like a washing-up bowl or an old planter pot might be useful, and make sure it has no holes. Place the container outside and fill it up with water. Where possible, use rainwater, as opposed to tap water. Plant your pond plants as you like, which help oxygenise the water. Try to use native plants in ponds, and plant them on the edges to help provide cover to wildlife. Be aware of the space, and don’t use plants that grow too big. You can add some rocks and gravel. Place material like branches or logs to help wildlife climb out of the mini pond. 

Bug hotel… anyone? 

If your kids don’t mind those creepy crawlies, then it’s time to get started on their very own bug hotel! To make the structure, you can layer up some bricks. You can also use other natural material like logs, branches, twigs, and dry leaves… the idea is to be creative as much as you can so you provide all sorts of nooks and corners and tunnels for those bugs. Dead wood and loose bark are useful for beetles, spiders, and woodlife, while dry leaves, sticks, and straws attract ladybirds as well as other beetles and bugs. Frogs and toads might prefer damp conditions so adding stones might be helpful. Dry leaves can help mimic a natural forest floor that attracts bugs. Take a peak every now and then to see who comes to visit, and don’t forget to write them down in our fun activities book! 

Nature-based art

Why not send your children out on a scavenger hunt in your backyard, asking them to collect as many things as they like to make art? This can be branches, stones, grass, leaves, and much more. Before they head out, however, let your children know to stay away from flower beds and vegetable beds or any other place in your garden you wouldn’t want messed up! There is plenty to do with the material they collect. Whether it’s making collages out of leaves and branches, painting rocks, pressing flowers, or making paintbrushes out of twigs and grass… it will be a whole load of fun! 

And there are still plenty more fun activities to do in your gardens! Whether it’s making a fairy or dinosaur garden, hunting for treasure, or making bird feeders out of pinecone or orange peelers, spending time in nature is indeed magical and enriching.