Fun in the Garden

Love being outside? Love exploring the garden?

Being in the garden is really good for our mental health. It gives us chance to appreciate nature and to get some fresh air. It also helps us to relax. It's also good for the environment as it helps support insects that encourage birds into the garden and help pollinate the flowers but also small animals such as hedgehogs and frogs.

Activity 1 - Build a Bug Hotel

Activity 2 - Grow your own vegetables

Create a multi storey hotel for all the bugs and creepy crawlies that live in your garden. It will create something that you can keep an eye on when the boredom becomes to much. How many creatures will you be able to spot?

If you do it through the RSPB website you can also gain badges with them.

Did you know that you can grow your own vegetables from the tops of the vegetables we eat. Before you throw out that carrot top, stop, you can grow another carrot. May take a while but who knows you might be really grateful for home grown vegetables at the end of all this!

Instructions:

Instructions:

  1. Collect together old plant pots, broken flower pots, old bricks, pallets or scraps of wood, branches and twigs. (Maybe look for some of these on your daily walk)

  2. Choose a site in the garden. Some creatures prefer a damp environment, others like it to be warm and sunny .

  3. Make a stable structure for your hotel, no more than a metre high. (I would maybe start small.) Use old bricks, pallets, wood etc to create this.

  4. Fill in the centre with lots of crevices that creatures can crawl into. Use old pots, bamboo, moss, leaves etc

  5. Add a roof, make sure it is stable first.

More information about how to do this can be found here.

  1. Cut off the tops of vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, turnips, spring onions as you are making your dinner.

  2. Make sure that there is about 2cm left of the carrot.

  3. Place in a tray of water or glass and leave to grow. (make sure you put them somewhere that won't get knocked over otherwise you won't be popular!)

  4. They can then be transferred into the garden or plant pots once the roots and shoots develop after a few days.

More information about different vegetables you can grow can be found here.

What you will need:

How you can support your child:

For activity 2 you will need:

  1. Sharp knife

  2. chopping board

  3. Baking tray (with sides) or glasses

  4. Water

  5. Compost and a plant pot

You can help too! How?

  • Make sure you are supervising children when using sharp objects

  • Help them source the different materials to complete the activities

Tell us about it!

Take some pictures of your bug hotel and/or vegetables. If you're happy to share, you can submit your pictures using the form found in the navigation bar titled "Tell us about it." You can also tweet us and tag @OGATrust on twitter, don't forget tagging your academy twitter account as well!