So maybe it’s your first summer in your new home, or maybe you’ve ignored your little patch of grass for years, but there comes a time for many families when they have to tackle the garden.
Whether you don’t know what you’re doing, or simply don’t know where to begin, we’ve outlined four easy ways to make the garden a fun, magical place for your whole family to hang out in over the summer.
Make a ‘Treeless’ Tree House
Sort of like a Wendy House on stilts – a treeless tree house gives kids the exact same feeling of security and privacy that a regular treehouse provides, only you won’t have to go hacking up your garden to achieve it. For ease, you can buy one ready made from your local garden store and pop it on a small platform of bricks, it should provide hours of entertainment for your kids, and lasting memories for your little ones.
Get to Know about Compost
Composting isn’t just something that environmentalists do – it’s accessible for everyone, super great for the planet, and teaches your kids a lot more about the ecosystem than an average biology lesson. To start composting, just fill a compost bin with about 3 foot of soil, and then add brown and green matter (think vegetable waste, tea bags, coffee, dead leaves and shredded newspaper). Avoid putting meat, dairy, bones and fats in there, and it’s hard to go wrong! Stir every week until you have a black, crumbly mass, and then get the kids to use it to nourish your existing plants. They will also be FASCINATED by the worms and the creepy crawlies it will attract.
Make a ‘pond’ in a Bin
Either buy a small metal bin or find an old one gathering dust in the shed, Take the lid off and fill the bin with water. Encourage your children to decorate the water’s surface with tea lights, lily pads and paper flowers, mimicking a “real” pond. Water always makes a garden feel more tranquil, and if you receive a few feathered visitors? All the better. Nothing cheers a garden up like a bird coming to bathe or drink.
Create “Ladybird” Rocks
Those smooth, oval stones that seem to be so abundant in English soil are perfect for painting, and an easy way to entertain your kids for an afternoon. Decorating them with different colours and adding the distinctive black spots of ladybugs makes for attractive additions to any garden, and your kids will smile every time they play outside and see their art.
