10 Fun things to do in your garden

1. Go on a nature trail

Start at one end of the garden and make your way to the other end, Echo reports.  While you walk, write down or draw on a piece of paper anything you see on your way.

Maybe you can count how many butterflies, ladybirds or beetles you can see.  You could even collect your findings in an empty jam jar, like feathers, leaves or pine cones.

2. Make some rubbings

You can create some amazing rubbing patterns with a crayon and a piece of paper

This is one of the easiest activities to do with kids and it’s fun too. You can make rubbings of tree trunks, bark, logs or even stone walls.

All you need is a piece of paper and a crayon. Place the paper on the trunk of a tree and use the crayon to rub over the bark.

You will see that the impression of the tree appears. You can use different coloured paper and crayons to create beautiful patterns.

3. Make a fairy or dinosaur garden

Another great idea that is easy to do is to create your own fairy or dinosaur garden within your own garden.

You could use an empty plant pot to create a fairy house or dinosaur cave with a grown-up cutting in windows or a door. Place this in an empty planter tray or box and use soil and stones to create hills and mounds.

Then you can “plant” flowers around the front of the plant pot house or cave and use painted pebbles to create a garden for your fairy or dinosaur toy figures to play in.

4. Make bird feeders

You can make a simple bird feeder with a clean empty yoghurt pot, string, scissors, a mixing bowl, lard, grated cheese, peanuts, raisins and bird seed.

Simply cut a hole in the bottom of the yoghurt pot, thread through the string and tie a knot in it so the yoghurt pot hangs upside down from the string.

Next, warm the lard to room temperature but don’t melt it and cut it into cubes and add to a mixing bowl with the grated cheese, peanuts, raisins and bird seed, mixing it together with your fingertips until the fat holds it all together.

Then fill the pots with the bird cake mixture and put them in the fridge to set for an hour or so. When they are set hang them from a bird table or tree branch.

5. Do some bird watching

Once you’ve made your bird feeders, you can then watch from the window as the birds have a feast.  Try and spot as many different birds as you can, or try drawing a picture of your favourite bird visiting your garden.

You could even have a look online or in a reference book to identify which birds you can see.  The RSPB have a great guide to the most popular birds to look out for in your garden including blue tits, great tits and dunnocks.

6. Plant some flowers

If you’ve been putting off planting up your borders or plant pots, then now’s the time to do it.  Let the kids have a go digging a hole with a trowel to place the plant in.

Then teach them how to press the plant down and cover with soil or compost.  Water your plant and you’re all done – now you just have watch them grow.

7. Leaf drawing

This is another simple activity that just requires paper and pencils or pens.

Find a leaf and sketch it on to your paper, you can colour it in or you can even do a rubbing of it to capture all the fine veins and details of it.  The kids can even see how many different shaped leaves they can find and see if they can identify which tree they are from.

8. Grow your own

We all remember growing cress or mustard from seeds as a child in school and you can do the same at home or in the garden.

You can sow fruit or vegetable seeds into small pots or even plant up a little herb garden.

9. Paint pebbles

If you don’t have paint you can use chalk to colour in your pebbles.  

You may have already seen the gorgeous pictures on social media of pebbles painted in bright rainbow colours.

It’s such an easy activity to do and because you can do it the garden you can keep all the mess contained.  All you need are some different coloured poster paints and some rocks – it couldn’t be simpler.

10. Colour a rainbow on your garden flags

You can chalk a rainbow on the flags in the garden 

While you’ve got the chalk out, why not draw a rainbow on your garden path.

The patio can provide a huge canvas for the kids to colour on and the great thing about using chalk is that it will easily wash off.  So let them create until their heart’s content, you could even play noughts and crosses or draw a giant chalk hopscotch.

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