Children’s activities in the garden
JOBURG - Here is a few ways how children can keep themselves busy during the holiday.
The end of Christmas sees the children on holiday for about two more weeks. Here is a selection of gardening-related activities to encourage their appreciation of our plant world. Everything needed for these projects can be sourced from a one-stop, accredited gardening centre.
We’ll soon be heading into the lean winter months when garden birds really appreciate a generously stocked bird table. Encourage the kids to select, place, and regularly maintain a bird table or hanging bird feeder in the garden with, perhaps, an all-important bird bath too.
Wormeries are available in many different, easy-to-care-for, shapes and sizes and worms make great pets too. It’s fascinating to watch veggie peelings disappear as the worm population fattens and multiplies.
A terrarium or miniature garden in a controlled environment can be created in any number of fully or partially enclosed and see-through containers, depending on whether your child prefers to recreate a small desert or mini-jungle. Plants, pebbles, sea-shell treasures and favourite plastic toys all help personalise the landscape of the tiny world.
Succulents come in such a wide variety of shapes and colours, and are so easy to grow, that they’re ideal for generating an interest in gardening. Try cute projects such as living fridge decorations made from a small magnets glued to corks that have been carefully hollowed and planted with teensy bits of epiphyte or ‘air plants’.
For a wigwam you’ll need a dozen of two meter long sticks and some sunny garden space. Children can help construct the wigwam from the sticks and to prepare the ground for planting. Buy a pack of pea seed for the kids to sow and care for through the winter as they watch the plants climb and twine up the frame and complete the covering of the outdoor play house.
Hairy spiders make a wonderful kids project. Grass seed and potting soil mixed together and stuffed into an old stocking or tied into a hessian bag, make up the basics. Imaginations and artistry will give the spiders legs, eyes, feelers, and body shape – maybe even craft them into a caterpillar or imaginary animal instead. Site the completed creature in a sunny spot and water it daily to get its grassy hair to grow.
You don’t have kids? No matter – these projects are all just as much fun for adults too!
