Our eco-friendly activities are sure to get your little ones engaged and interested in sustainable gardening!
Recycled Planters
A great activity to do with some old unwanted items is to create some very unique and stylish planters. Just like these shoes, you could use anything from old paint pots to a bath you no longer want to use. All of these are very simple to make and you can scale the difficulty to your gardening ability and resources. You could include an irrigation system, or some UV lights to stimulate growth or simply fill with compost or soil, and plant.
Pallets
If you can get your hands on some pallets that are going to waste, they can be a fantastic way to avoid filling up landfills and create some awesome garden ware. Pallets can provide a great standing to create many interesting features in your garden, and in the meantime can provide some fantastic family fun. One thing you could build is a bug hotel, similar to the one pictured and this can provide solace to some of the most important creepy crawlies in our garden.
A Sensory Path or Garden
If you have a young toddler or a child with a learning disability, then a sensory garden can be a fantastic aspect of your garden, not only for fun; but also for their brain development. With a few recycled items, such as an old washbasin, hollowed out items for noise and colourful art made by your child, you could create a space for them with unlimited potential for good.
1 Metre Meals
Using some old timber, perhaps some fallen fence panels, a few nails and a hammer, you could easily create a 1m square growing bed. Once filled with soil or compost, the bed can be used for growing anything, we recommend cucumber for kids, as it grows very quickly and this can be more engaging. Other fast-growing plants for your child are lettuce, radishes or spinach.
Collecting Rain Water
If you have an old dustbin, oil barrel or beer keg lying about, then a great thing to crate would be a rain collector. Saving water is a vital way that we can help save our environment. This is because heat and electricity are used to pump water to your home and to filter it, therefore if we can collect rainwater for our plants we can do our bit for the planet. try to arrange your water barrel underneath a key water runoff spot and use this water whenever your plants need watering.
Composting
Compost is one of the cheapest ways to save the environment. Using compost where you may have used peat or store-bought compost prevents crucial carbon from being released into the air and hence slows down global warming. Furthermore, it prevents the emissions of travel, and the food waste that would otherwise have been collected. When it comes to foodstuffs, you can compost almost anything and this will provide excellent nutrition for your plants. having a compost heap is a fun way for kids to get their hands dirty and get involved with saving the planet.
Bird Box
You may need to help your child with this one, but this is an excellent project for a nature-loving child to be a part of. If your child likes birds, then what could be more fulfilling than giving them a home? You can make them out of pretty much anything with a hole in, for example, a shoe or a teapot, but if you really want it to impress, then re-cycled wood, yoghurt pots and plastic containers can be combined to make an impressive bird box.
Vertical Gardening
Vertical vegetable gardening is an excellent way to make the most of a smaller space. if you don’t have the biggest garden, this is a fun and fulfilling way to exploit the space on your fences and walls by hanging baskets and interesting grilled planters to grow plants out of. This doesn’t have to be expensive and can easily be made with recycled boxes and pots, and a few screws to attach them. Make sure they are in a place that gets sunlight, and of course make sure your child can reach the pots.
Plant a Tree
It’s as simple as this; trees suck more CO2 out of the air than any other plant you can have in your garden. Planting a tree will massively help your carbon footprint, and also provides a fun element for your child to regularly check on and see the progress. Trees look fantastic and some can bear fruit which you can pick and use in your dishes. Sustainable.
Energy Saving Products
Decorate your garden with energy-saving products such as solar lamps and solar panels, or wind turbines. Buy ornaments and wall decorations that are powered by the wind such as fans and wind chimes, or even some pipes that resonate in the wind.
