Garden Fun

[Ems]

Now that we have some sunshine, gosh almost 2 days in a row, I'd be interested as to what people have for their tiddlers in the garden.

Anyone bought anything fun, new, or discovered something really simple that has become a great hit with the children.

We recently bought a BIG ball from ELC that both children are enjoying at the mo.

Ems, all the old ones are always popular; a swing, a slide,space hopper, etc... my daughter always loved a wigwam made out of garden canes and brightly painted sheets. This year I am planning a totem pole made out of an old railway sleeper and painted extravegantly!! If you are feeling adventurous (although its a bit late for this year)fashion a tunnel out of willow sticks and encourage trailing plants to grow round it. Children love this and it can be an ongoing feature of the garden as children get older. Which brings me on to my final suggestion which children of all ages love painting and creating; garden sculptures, pictures, murals, (permanent or temporary), painting large pebbles from the beach to use as garden features or door stops, the list is endless...maybe this is just as much about being fun for the parents as well as the children!!!

Before we can have any garden fun, we need our garden levelled, prepared and turfed out. For various reasons (mostly time-related) we cannot easily do this ourselves and we are prepared to pay someone to do the basic spade work. So far I have tried to get 4 gardeners from yellow pages to come round to do an estimate. Only 1 turned up for a meeting. Any ideas where I can find a cheapish reliable gardener in South East London?

Non-garden fun:We have a small wood at the back of our garden and my son and his friends have been busy building dens. Remember doing exactly the same. Feel very tempted to join them and leave the toddler to his own devices inside our house.

Mini watering cans were a big hit last year for my two. It was also great to have two little helpers when we hit the daily routine of watering all the pots and plants!

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Mine like to play with chunky chalks in the garden, they decorate the patio, house and garage.

Today they've had the old baby bath out (bit of a squeeze for a 6 year old and 2.6!) But they enjoyed it for an hour or so (took two fill ups though as they kept losing the water).

I'd recommend a table and an old sheet draped over it to make a den, an old favourite of mine.

Someone elsewhere on the site recommended 'painting' with water on outside walls, fences, patio etc, we had fun doing it yesterday.

Oh and how about teddy bears picnic

We've got the sandpit out again (and we're already on our second bag of sand!) - our son takes his bulldozers out and plays with them in it, but his favourite game is just pouring it all over the patio - hence we're on the second bag!

Mind you, he also likes to push the brush around and help Daddy push the lawnmower.

Skittles is a good one for outdoors - I suppose plastic bottles filled with water would work the same.

We were planting sunflower seeds and watering pot plants last weekend. This weekend we are going back to B & Q to get pepper dust and netting, and then daddy is going to fish all the cat poo out of our brand new patio tubs while we sit down with a glass of lemonade. As a flat dweller I used to dote on cats, now I see at close hand how they can completely wreck a garden. I know they can't help it etc but at the moment my idea of garden fun is to buy a high velocity water pistol (did I say I wouldn't have guns in the house...) and lie in wait. Grrr. Anyone got any tips for humanely and effectively deterring visiting moggies?

Marina, I know this is only passing the problem on....but can you suggest to a neighbour that their garden would look really good with stone chippings down (you know the sort of thing that people have now instead of bare earth?). Our next door neighbours put this down and ever since we get no cats doing anything in our garden - they all go next door now to the megga litter tray (including our own!) Or maybe, if your neighbours don't take up the suggestion, you could devote a hidden part of your garden (i.e hidden from the kids)to your own stone chippingy bit.

There is a great catalogue called "Golden Days" it is a catalogue of traditional garden games, family sports and garden products. It has got lots of great things in it, croquet sets, traditional quoits, giant snakes and ladders and chess etc etc. THey are not on-line but their details are Golden Days (Mail Order) Ltd, Valleybridge Road, Clacton-on-Sea CO15 4AE, phone is 01255 424247.

Marina - We have cats who used to be 'flat' cats with a litter tray and are now shit-all-over-our-new-garden cats! When we first moved they apparently used to go in our new neighbours garden but they got coco-shell mulch and say it has completely solved the problem...for them, now they're back in our garden with a vengence! I sowed lots of seeds lovingly one evening to find all pots had been dug up, so I made 'hats' for the pots out of chicken wire - they look quite 'urban chic' (ha ha) and can come off once the plants are really established, all other new plants get a fine grit mulch, much to the cats' disapproval!

Marina,
I bought an electronic cat deterrent (available all big garden centres). It was expensive - £60 - but it does work.

Digging for worms seems to be a favourite at around 5 years old............ digging up flowers instead of weeds at nearly 3, big sigh, "can I help Mummy?" "NO, Ive just planted them!!!" Baby of 11 months really loves eldest boy's go-cart, very VERY funny to see her with her little fat legs pootling along!

Thanks for all the anti-cat deterrent ideas. Love the idea of urban chic chicken-wire hats for the pots, we are hoping to get some mesh next weekend. A friend also suggested something called pepper dust for particular "hot spots" (poor kitty....). Interestingly, the pot most shat in now has burgeoning sunflowers in every corner while the untouched one's seeds are only just breaking the surface. Maybe we should be inviting them all back.

Treasure hunt!
Hide a trail of clues all around the garden taking you from one place to another - with a fave toy or some kind of treat as the prize at the end. You can put clues around that help the kids to understand what the plants are in the garden as well.
Incidently, this and other ideas are in our Playzone on Fathers Direct - it's an online dbase of games that you can add to - and we're running a competition at the moment with a prize of £50 worth of toys - you enter by adding a game to the site.

For the playzone, go to : www.fathersdirect.com/playzone
For the competition details, go to: www.fathersdirect.com/competition

A friend of mine got fed up with her neighbours cats doing their biz in her pots so she stuck bbq sticks in them (the pots, not the cats!). They have returned home to leave their little presents in the owners pots instead! Perhaps not recommended if you have toddlers pottering about.

Tom, thanks for the link, it's got a lot of good ideas (I like the Olympics one) and I've added mine.

On the subject of deterents does anyone know of a child and dog safe way to stop slugs from eating all the newly potted out plants???

Thanks

Hmonty, you could try salt but it's not a nice way for a slug to die otherwise put gravel around the plants to keep them away.

Hmonty, slugs like beer. My mum puts egg shells around, or vaseline around pots.

Cats, I've heard that if you put cayenne pepper (I think it's that) around the area the cats then get diarrhoea and they remember where they 'got it from' and don't come back (for a while!) You could also try planting catmint they absolutely love it.

I bought a slug trap at the weekend, filled it with beer and the next day found 21 dead slugs in it. Very satisfying.

Citrus oil works a treat as a cat deterrent, and it smells nice too.

My daughter has a little muddy patch in the garden that she is allowed to 'dig' in - very popular.

We've just had our garden turfed out so I have been re-reading all these messages.

I am now feelng very inspired, especially after reading Winnies suggestions. I would love to end up with a garden that looks interesting and is child-friendly at the same time - we'll definitely be painting pebbles soon.

I'm also thinking about finding an old mirror to hang on one of our shady walls. We've got a pile of old slate tiles and I'm trying to think what to do with them - any ideas anyone?

I know this is mumsnet, not 'Gardeners Question Time', but I wonder if anyone can suggest how I can fill a freshly dug, shady-for-half-the-day flower bed with shrubs and large flowering plants? Plus the odd shrub for the sunnier side of the garden. Possibly a tree. Things that stay in the soil all year round and don't require too much tender loving care or watering.

Our prevous garden was a tiny patio, so I'm good at plants in pots, its the bigger stuff that worries me. I also know how easy it is to make expensive mistakes, so would really welcome any advice about plants, garden sculptures, garden toys with real staying power, garden furniture etc - child-friendly, purse-friendly, and cat-hostile.

My current drive in our garden is to try and get some food producing plants in there, so that my children can get the idea that food doesn't originate from Safeway. To this end, I have 2 growbags with tomatoes and courgettes in, a few herbs and some runner beans. It's not a significant contribution to our larder, but as I said, hopefully they will learn something. The rest of our garden is, as described by the estate agent who sold us the house, "mainly laid to lawn". Especially now that I've had a big drive on pulling out nettles. If we had more space, the first thing I'd plant would be an orchard.

Sorry I don't know any plants for shady places! If it's only shady half the day, surely you could get away with most things? As for garden toys with staying power, regret to report that the most staying power of any garden toy is demonstrated by the various items of junk stored in our back garden.

Tigermoth for Spring flowering you could have some bulbs (plant in the autumn) to kick off. Daffs and tulips and perhaps an azalea or camelia shrub (spring flowering again). Rhodedendrons are ever green and flower about May time. Phlox are lovely for Summer flowering. Roses too.

Buddlia (probably spelt wrong) attract butterflies so that could be nice. You could plant a few different ones that flower separately.

If you go to the garden centre just after the shrubs have flowered they're usually reduced in price!

Don't be too surprised at how expensive a shrub is. I just paid £8.99 for a clematis that's now dead due to my underwatering.