Gardening Activities for Kids

Encouraging a love of gardening is one way to get kids to spend time outside. It also releases their imagination and gives them a sense of environmental responsibility. A children’s garden can be built into the corner of the yard, and you can keep kids interested by involving them in each step.

Making Plans
Draw a detailed plan of your yard, including the buildings, existing vegetation, drainage and soil types. Build the design around this, taking into account water restrictions and family needs. Aim to enhance attractive and exciting parts of the garden to appeal to kids and include them in the planning process. Ask if they would like to turn existing mature trees into a shady rainforest garden or a treehouse. Teach them the importance of sun movement and get them to identify hot, dry, moist and shady parts of the garden. Click here to view a sample Garden Set-out diagram

Designing the Garden
Ask the kids to draw some pictures or find images from magazines and books. Do they want to feature a favourite colour, edible plants, water features, a pond or create a home for visiting wildlife? To make sure the resulting design is practical, environmentally sensitive and sustainable, take a trip to the local library. Check out what sort of vegetation grew in the area before development, what types of bush tucker can be grown and which plants suit the soil type. Local parks or nearby gardens can also provide ideas and check out specially designed gardens such as the Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens or the therapeutic fairy garden at the Sydney Children’s Hospital. They motivate kids to explore, imagine, wander and play.

Location, Location
Decide on key features, such as lawn, cubby house, vegie patch, garden beds, compost heap, frog hideout and paths. Mark them to scale on the original plan, taking sight lines and views to and from each area into account.
TIP: Use tracing paper laid over the plan for multiple revisions.

Space Saving
Consider ways to double up on space and add grown-up appeal. The outdoor bench project on page 40 shows how to build storage for children’s toys that can also double as adult seating. A sunken sandpit with a sturdy lid on hinges could also be an informal deck area for entertaining, while a stylish gazebo by night can become a cubby by day with the addition of bamboo blinds.

Kid's Requirements
A safe, well-designed, stimulating garden fires young imaginations and creates deep affinities with the environment while still retaining adult appeal.

Proportion
Smaller spaces encourage a sense of ownership and safety in children. Consider plant height, bloom size and the texture and scale of details such as garden edging and steps. A child’s imagination can turn a small stand of bamboo or tall grass into a jungle or large stones into mountain ranges, so there’s no need to overdo the props.

Style
Natural, minimal, formal? Choose a theme and fit the style to it. Make a series of formally structured small and large grassed spaces for a sporty garden, or a cottage-style layout for a fairy garden. Colourful finishes, sloping or raised surfaces for playing on and dramatic, hardy plants suit small yards.

Focal Point
Bubble fountains are safe and let kids indulge in water play, while wildlife-attracting plants are educational and keep the garden dynamic. Install sandpits, open play areas, slopes, swings and paths leading to secret corners to keep the kids active and engaged.