Tell Homebase how you will get your kids in the garden over the summer - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

It’s a common worry that our DC don’t spend enough time outside, especially with teens glued to their phones and toddlers insisting on watching their favourite movie for the 1000th time. Homebase would like to find out how you will encourage your DC to get out in the garden this summer.

Here’s what Homebase has to say: "No matter how big or small your garden is, you want to create a haven that can be enjoyed by your family all year round, especially in the summer months. You don't have to be a professional gardener to plan your own landscape, which is why we have put together useful advice guides and top tips containing plenty of garden ideas to give you the inspiration you need to begin.”

So how will you get your DC in the garden this summer? Will you get them to help you plant fruit and veg so they can get excited watching them grow? Perhaps you’d like to recreate activities you did in the garden when you were a child? If it rains will you be determined to stay outside and play games in a shelter or craft decorations that can be put in the garden when it’s dry again?

Whether you want to create a play haven by building a mini playground or make the perfect space for eating alfresco please post your ideas and plans below and you will be entered into the prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £300 Homebase voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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We put up a gazebo and play lots of garden games!

We have invested in a new climbing frame and baby swing (for the youngest)
We've been out planting all our flowers for the summer.

My children are older now. When they were young we used to have fun in sunny weather by making water slides on the grass with polythene.

Our garden is pretty small but I love gardening in it all the same and I have always encouraged the kids to as well. They trim the grass with scissors, plant seeds and re-pot seedlings, weed paving cracks and deadhead flowers. Finding good quality mini gardening sets post toddler has been a challenge, the plastic ones bend and the metal ones vary in size and feel. A safe but functional pair of junior secateurs (snippers!) would also save my scissors from destruction. 😂

Suggest a picnic in the garden - weather permitting this usually means we are out enjoying the sunshine and fresh air all afternoon.

No problem getting mine in the garden. From early years with sandpit, paddling pool and ride-on toys and on to bikes and climbing apparatus then tents and bonfires and rockets, their favourite toys and games have always been outside. We did 'growing things' and 'rotting things' and seasonal changing activities eg harvesting, conkers, leaf burning. They picked up an acceptance of dirt, bugs and creepy crawlies and an appreciation of nature. Now they are adult they are still very outdoorsy.

Our garden is really tiny and more like a courtyard area with a little patch of soil at the top. Still, we make the most of it with fairylights everywhere, lots of pretty flowers, pots and a little table and chairs. When the weather's nice we like to have dinner out there together and my dd loves planting seeds. She's currently growing beans and she's really enjoying seeing how fast they grow.

I don't have problems getting kids into garden,they love to be outdoors and probably would live in our garden too especially at summer.

I filled the garden with toys last week and was still told that my DC (4 & 6) were bored.

I can make the garden as entertaining as I like but they really want me to sit out there with them. I've now invested in a big hat and am making a cushion for the garden bench. I figure I might as well make my time as their captive audience for their song and dance shows as comfortable as possible

We are now growing beans and they are enthusiastic waterers of all and any plants. I've also fastened two bubble wands to the fence so that they can blow their own bubbles without the containers being spilt, I just have to remember to top these up every evening.

we have a new giant play games set to play so no doubt we will be out a lot with that

My DS is always keen to go outside and have a Nerf gun battle. I'm less keen on picking up the bloomin darts after, but you can't beat it for preteen running round in the garden

We make obstacle courses using hula hoops, skipping ropes, bean bags etc. A paddling pool is a bonus!

This year we have also started a mini veg patch - we are loving picking our salad and strawberries for lunch.

We have a sandpit, patio chalk, slide and paddling pool. They also like the hammock. They also quite like digging in the soil patch but it's all taken up with vegetables at the moment.

With my 5 kids we play out rain or shine as you won't melt just because its raining, we play treasure hunts with plastic coins I hide in the mud or tied to the tree branches, play in bowls of water or even just get buckets full of toys out and play on the grass together. Our veg patch was a disaster last year so I'd love to try again this year

As a family, we are really enjoying getting outside when the sun is out! We've started a wildlife garden which we have been working on together - it's certainly looking wild at the moment, but hopefully we see a few blooms when Summer arrives!
We try to play outdoors as much as possible - even it's just a game of catch or chase - my son is really into trains so we bring his train set out into the garden & build a huge track together - this will keep him entertained for hours!
It would be great to get a table & chairs out there so we can have meals outside too!

water fights!!a slide,fairy liquid.hose and a piece of tarpaulin.endless fun.
they love to pick there own flower to grow.
salad garden or veg garden.
putting the tent up in the garden
picnics in the garden
using bamboo stick and the table chair as hurdles and creating an obstacle course.
bbq

Water. Anything that involves them getting wet. Water pistols, paddling pool, water baloons or a hose pipe battle.

Swingball type games, water, a netball hoop and the trampoline always got my DC outside when they were younger. Now they are a bit older I need to invest in better garden furniture so they can lounge about with their mates plugged into iPhones, iPods etc.

Water balloons. Can't get them inside when water balloons are involved!

We're getting a climbing frame.

Once ban the iPad she loves it outside. She loves her trampoline. This year I want to get her involved in planting some tubs up.

The failsafe way to get me son into the garden is to say that he can use the hose and sprinkler! My garden gets watered, he has a great time - win win :-)

We've made and planted a veg raised bed. And we make dens, have water fights and play in the sandpit.

My children had been after fidget spinners but I wasn't too keen. I'd been trying to teach them to ride a bike without stabilisers for over a year but they weren't interested. Anyhow, after another afternoon of nagging for the spinners, I told them if they can ride their bicycles without stabilisers, I'll get them. Within a few days, they'd finally mastered them and it's all they seem to want to do. The much longed for fidget spinners are lying around neglected somewhere.

And the kids have their own veggy plant pots to look after