Summer holiday gardening activities for little green fingers
The school holidays are the perfect time to spend quality time with your family and create lasting memories in your garden. Take advantage of this time by involving your children in fun and educational garden projects. This will give you extra hands to spruce up your garden for summer and keep your children entertained while teaching them about the environment and nature.
Wondering what kind of projects to do? Check out our guide to keep little green fingers entertained.
Activity One: Barbie Planter
Pink is the colour of the moment, all due to the Barbie being released this summer. The Barbiecore aesthetic has hit a new high so why not get planting with your kids to create a Barbie-inspired container?
What you will need:
- Pink planter
- Pink seasonal flowers like Echinacea, Achillea, Begonia
- Compost
Add the potting compost to your Barbie pink planter. Place the plants in the container and add additional soil to fill in any gaps. Water well and place it on your patio to admire.
Activity Two: Make your own pot birdhouse
If you’re looking for something to keep the kids busy during lockdown, or perhaps you’re a wildlife lover yourself, our handy guide on how to make your own birdhouse will bring birds flocking to your garden.
What you’ll need
- Terracotta pot – we recommend an 8in diameter minimum for the garden birds.
- Plywood
- Wood saw
- Sandpaper
- Outdoor screws and washer
- Outdoor paint
- Wood preserve
- Drill with a 1- 1 ½ inch hole-boring drill bit to make an opening for the birds.
Instructions
Make a birdhouse by tracing the top of your pot onto wood, cutting it along the circle with a saw, sanding the edges, drilling a 1 ½ inch hole, painting the pot, preserving the wooden entrance, hanging it in your garden, placing a circle inside, and watching the bird’s nest.
Activity Three: Make your own bottle garden
What you will need:
- Sealable glass jar
- A small plant
- Skewers, chopsticks or tweezers
- Potting compost
- Pebbles
Add a 2cm deep layer of pebbles to the jar. Compact the soil and make a deep well for the plant roots. Cover the plant with soil and add moss or small toys for decoration. Water well and put the lid on.
Activity Four: Homemade fruit lollies
Looking for a way to beat the heat this summer? Try making homemade fruit lollies with fresh seasonal fruits! Our easy recipes are perfect for families and a great way to get your kids to eat their daily dose of fruit.
For the ice cream, you will need:
- 400g tin of condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon each of sugar, honey and lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 cup of seasonal berries or fruit
Chop your fruit into small pieces and mix it with sugar, honey, and lemon juice, and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Add the condensed milk to a bowl and add the fruit and puree before freezing in lolly moulds.
Activity Five: Building a bug hotel
What you will need:
- Wooden pallets
- Old roof tiles
- Bricks
- Bamboo canes
- Leaves
- Straw
- Bark chippings
- Stones, rubble.
Start building your insect hotel on a flat, even surface using bricks for a sturdy base. Layer wooden pallets on top, not too high for stability. Fill in the gaps with bamboo canes for bees, leaves and straw for beetles and ladybirds, rotten wood and bark for centipedes, spiders, and woodlice, and stones and broken plant pots for newts, frogs, and toads. Finally, construct a roof using old roof tiles to keep it dry and warm.
Activity Six: Shoebox Seed Case
Have lots of seed packets but nowhere to keep them? Then why not upcycle a shoe box to make your very own seed case?
What you will need:
- 2 cardboard shoeboxes
- Scissors
- Glue
Cut one shoebox to make a lengthwise divider with extra tabs. Glue in the middle of your seedbox then cut notches at equal intervals. Use the remaining cardboard to create cross tabs with notches to interlock and insert into the seed box. Once all tabs are fitted together and glued at the ends, use width dividers for your labels and add seed packets.
