At this time of year the garden is in great need of some TLC after the winter has taken its toll, and the kids want to be entertained outside, so why not combine the two and involve the children in your gardening tasks?

By showing them a few simple techniques, and perhaps giving them the slight incentive of a little pocket money, they will be eager to help and learn all about the garden.

To make the task of readying the whole garden for summer, section a piece off for the children to maintain themselves, and show them how to dig up the weeds. We all know kids love to dig so you should have no problem encouraging them to do this. The only thing you need to stress for this task is just what constitutes a weed; you don’t want your favourite plants being ripped up by small hands! Having them look after a piece of the garden will give them responsibility and teach them how plants grow and how to look after them.

If the weather is bad and you can’t work outside, this is a great chance to sort out the garden shed and maybe re-pot any seedlings you have growing in there or a greenhouse, and this is definitely something the children can help with.

Watering the garden is an easy yet time consuming task, so get the kids to do it. You could even incorporate it into their weekly chores. When hosepipe bans are in place a water butt is great for collecting rain water, but if you don’t have one of these you can recycle your old bath or sink water, which is very environmentally friendly too.

Kids love a competition and a great way to have one in the garden is to plant sunflower seeds and see whose grows the tallest. As they grow relatively quickly and can grow in a pot, they are also great to add colour to even the smallest of outdoor spaces. You could have a whole family competing as a bit of fun!

Once the gardening is finished, make sure you enjoy your efforts as a family and take some time to relax and play games together. A great way to keep the kids busy is to create your own treasure hunt with cryptic clues placed around the garden that will eventually lead to the treasure (or a small bag of sweets)!

The most important thing to remember to keep kids interested in gardening is to mix the chores with the fun parts and you will grow your very own brood of horticulturists!

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