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

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

My Children love to play in the tent and the paddling pool also potter in the garden and digging in the sand pit

Mine don't need any encouragement, they much prefer to be outside than in.

My dd loves playing with water in and out of the paddling pool. She also enjoys building sandcastles in her sandpit. But I have also encouraged her to help my water the plants, planted strawberries and sunflowers with her which we check on. Finally we also replace the bird food together.

We also eat outside a lot either on picnic mat or table under our umbrella.

My great niece Olivia doesn't have to be coaxed into the garden, she loves it & at 4 she is already a budding gardener. She follows my parents' gardeners around to check what they're doing then when they've gone she copies what they've done. She loves to water the garden & do the weeding & even has her own little bag of gardening tools. She has her own troughs & tubs with bulbs that she planted herself & loves to tend to them & was very excited this week when they flowered. Here's a picture of her with her little bag of gardening tools.

Getting my little ones to help look after our vegetables and fruit plants in our green house

We play all sorts of outdoor sports in our garden, we have goal posts, rounders posts and a badminton net, we have a table tennis table and we play making dens and jungles and james bond.

My son loves growing things so we buy him some grobags and lay them in the corner of the garden and let him plant in them a range of vegetables, he loves tending to them and even if he doesn't always eat the end product at least he's doing something positive and learning at the same time

I am having a pond built this year. There will be plants to plant, fish to feed, all sorts of wonderful mini-beasts which the kids will no doubt want to rehome in their bedroom. I grew up in a concrete jungle and never had the chance to do anything like this so am looking forward to seeing the kids out there, covered in dirt and having fun. That's if there is room for them, I think I might beat them to it and get there first!😳

They love being outdoors (3 and 5) so the only hard part is getting them in again.
We're growing carrots, strawberries and pumpkins this year and they love to go and water them and inspect the plants.
We want to build a mud kitchen, I'm getting a couple of wooden crates, putting them on their sides and attaching a basin on top. Add a couple of pans and utensils and we're good to go.
I've given the kids a section of the flower bed where nothing seems to ever grow, so they can dig it over/look for worms or whatever.

I'll be putting a paddling pool out

I have no issues getting them out as we have a swing set and I've got a paddling pool out there as well. I am looking at digging some of the garden up to plant some flowers so I'm sure they'll love to help

DS loves being in the garden in his paddling pool, we are also growing tomatoes and cucumbers which he helps water.
We are hoping to build a decking and barbecue area this summer.

My children are older now, but their favourite garden game was a nature hunt. I put a strip of parcel tape on their wrist with the sticky part facing outwards and they had to collect as many different leaves, flowers, stones etc and stick to their bracelets. We then pulled out identification books and tried to work out what birds the feathers came from, what trees the leaves were from etc.

If there is anything to do with water in the garden then my DC will gladly be out there. So it's paddling pool, blow up boat filled with water, water pistols, monkey squirter that rotates when attached to the hose and squirts children with water, water balloons and watering cans. To top everything if the tent is up as well and a camp can be made to dry off in and eat snacks in then DC will be happy to stay out all day in the garden.

It is great for children to be involved in nature! Planting things, watching them grow and learning about the bees and butterflys and birds! But for a really fun activity setting up different obstacle courses around the garden is pretty hard to beat!

For something different this year, we are getting them to build their own crazy golf course around the garden by sinking flower pots into the ground.

We've done some planting, put some strawberry plants in so they're looking forward to seeing those grow
Also like playing pirates and looking for buried treasure

We're expecting baby 2 in mid-July and DD might be a bit put out after being an only child for a decade! Sorting the garden out- improving lawn, lots of weeding, planting and general tidying- is our project together when the baby is sleeping

the kids love being outdfoors we have an allotment they love to help out, we make forts in the summer for the kids to play in we also have a small paddle pool

We do lots of things in the garden so the kids love going outside. We grow sunflowers every year, have a small veggie patch with things like strawberries and tomatoes, have a paddling pool in the summer and we play lots of games with the family labrador.

Mine are mad on football, I'm hoping to get artificial grass in this year and sell or giveaway old climbing frame so more space for their running around and football

Anything to do with animals or birds will get my daughter in the garden. We have bird boxes, hedgehog houses, insect havens...

they will help me with the planting

I have put bamboo screening all around the base of the trampoline. The kids keep all of their garden toys under there and use it as a den, for picnics and as a hide out. No adults allowed!

We have a small garden which we finally sorted out in the Spring by leveling off and laying turf so that it became a blank canvas. I am going to plant seeds with my kids as they love to watch how things grow and we want to attract birds, bees and butterflies. We also invested in a netball post and a little badminton set. Just to get outdoors is wonderful, so we will have days where we make a den with sheets and the back of chairs, have little picnics with their toys, do some arty craft things and some reading.