My little boy has had a fun day planting out some plants that we grew from seed, into this scrappy area hidden at the back of some larger beds. He wants it to be his garden, so I’m trying to think of fun things to add, that he can either help make or help maintain. We’ve got some young shrubs planted behind the annuals and perennials, that will eventually get large, so whilst the land looks currently barren, we can’t really get too many more plants in there, but probably room for some smaller perennials. I did wonder about transferring our alpine strawberries to this area, as a fun groundcover, but not sure if that is a good idea. So far, he’s keen to put some stepping stones through, and make a little seating area. I’m planning to make a bug hotel with him and make some bird baths/feeders/house. I have wondered about raising the canopy of the very large hornbeams behind, maybe making room to do a treehouse. I’ve already made a kids’ bench out of random off cuts of old wood; it’s not pretty, but that doesn’t matter for this. Anyone have any suggestions, or have done something similar with young kids that worked well?
by trcocam29
4 Comments
Definitely a treehouse, or a shed/workshop of some sort with kids gardening tools, watering cans, etcetera. A mud kitchen would be cool too, kids love mud kitchens. Perhaps a tree swing and some gnomes…
Don’t tell them where it is.
Go to charity shops, an let him buy some cheap toy figures to hide in plants / play with!
Then it’s not a boring garden but a huge play zone with “small” (you don’t want big stuff) toy dumper trucks and little army men guarding the bird feeder, an spider-man stuck up in some random bush.
Get him to make small pathways between bushes out of stones so the cars can drive between. He will have to keep weeds down so cars can move 😉
You can get him to plant stuff so the toys have somewhere to hide and keep out of rain. Make crude little houses out of off cuts of wood / branches.
Make a zipline down from a sunflower for figures to slide down (a bit of string taped to toys hands will do the job). Then as the sunflower gets taller, you can move the string higher. Get him to care for it, so he gets reward of huge tall plant plus higher rope for toys to slide down.
Plus years later he will find some random toy he forgot about (most likely spider-man, expect the bush is now a tree!), an will get a huge wave of nostalgia lol
Basically find ways to link play and gardening. Plants take years to grow according to kids, so the play will keep him coming back to that spot
Little fairy doors needed. Could make them together during some quality time