National Children’s Gardening Week

It’s National Children’s Gardening Week

This week celebrates the fun that gardens hold for children, and we have curated a list of fun activities for all the family to enjoy this gardening week and throughout the summer. These can be done both inside and outside, so no matter the weather you and your children can be close to nature.

It is so important for children to spend time outside, as being amongst nature can significantly improve mental and physical wellbeing in both children and adults. It has endless benefits.

All activity items are likely already within your garden and home, but if not, our garden centres offer wide ranges of products to assist and entertain you this week and all summer long!

Grow your own

Children love to be outside getting dirty and growing their own plants, fruit and vegetables at home, it is a fun and educational activity. Mr Men and Little Miss have a fantastic range of children’s super seeds, that grow a wide range of plants and vegetables. This provides a great introduction into food production and how food they love is made, and once fully grown can be made into a tasty snack, treat or meal for everyone to enjoy.

These can be grown inside and out, in a large planter or a small pot. You don’t need to be an expert, plant the seeds in a shallow hole in a pot of compost and water regularly and watch them grow.

Creative Snack Time

Make snack time fun with themed snacks. This is a great way for children to be creative and healthy. Some great ideas are cheese and tomato ladybird cracker, grape caterpillars, peanut butter and pretzel celery butterfly. Another great one is the strawberry and banana car; all you need for this is cocktail sticks to create the structure.

You can get as creative as you want with this and what is great it doesn’t require anything more than what you likely have in your fridge or cupboard.

Create your own fairy or dinosaur garden.

A great way to get your children outside this week, is creating a fairy or dinosaur gardens. These can be made from any items around the house and garden using a pot, tub, or container as the main garden structure. You can even paint and decorate the pots to customise and make a unique magical garden.

We have lots of great little extras you can order online or buy in-store to finish off your magical wonderland with!

Chalk Gallery.

Your driveway, garden and local pavements are all great fresh canvases for children to create their very own chalk masterpieces, keeping children of all ages entertained. Challenge your children and see what they can create. This is a great way for children to express themselves freely.

Chalk washes away in the rain, so don’t worry about any garden stones or tiles.

Rock painting.

Rock painting is a great activity no matter the weather, customising your garden. All you need are a few rocks and some paint. The rest is up to you. This is a great way to let your children express their creative side and give them free range to do and create whatever they like.

You can even include your neighbours, friends, and community. Exchanging and hiding the rocks for each other to find.

Find out more about 'vegetable patch label' rock painting here.

Animal Portraits

Children love to express themselves and be creative, especially with paint. Collect old egg cartons and cereal boxes to use them to create and paint amazing animal 3D portraits. Why not ask your children to try and make a portrait of your pet (If you have one) or their favourite animal?

This activity can be done no matter the weather and is a lot of fun. Parents can even get involved and see who can make the best portrait.