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

The best way to get my DC into the garden is for me to not want it. Even mentioning homework gets them running for the outside.

More seriously, having friends over to play with and plenty of water and mud seem to do the trick.

Mine live in the garden! Rain or shine they are out there!
I think it helps that they have a big climbing frame - play house, monkey bars, swings and slide and they use it in so many different ways. There are also enough features (shed, log store, large trees) to make a reasonable game of hide and seek. I make sure there are always footballs, hula hoops etc available and of course a paddling pool if it is hot. They love it out there! I feel really lucky, we chose a "less nice" area for a house with a bigger garden and I am certain it was the right choice

I feel clueless about actually "gardening" though. I would like to have a few plant pots/raised beds but have little spare money or time and don't know where to begin

Id like to get them more sporty with maybe a trampoline, pool, activities like swing ball or tennis.

My DF gives DD a tomato plant every year and they compete to see how many toms they can grow. This has grown into a wider love of gardening. This year she's growing sweet peas, herbs, peppers.

She's also nurturing a dairy garden filled with shiny pebbles, dolls, teeny flowers lanterns etc. I love to watch her doing imaginative play with her fairies.

We will have picnics and grow fruit

Anything with water works for my son. We bought him a tiny paddling pool which he thinks is the best thing ever.

We have an open gate policy (not literally or the little ones would escape). Every child in a 2 mile radius seems to end up in my garden when my 3dc are playing in it. I don't mind at all and actually encourage it. It's been known for me not to pack the last one off home until after 9pm in the summer holidays.

We all love spending time in our garden. The trampoline, bought years ago, has been a great purchase that has been used almost daily.

Also, a sprinkler attached to the hose pipe provides a lot of cool fun on a hot day.

Mine were easy to get out when they were tiny. They were happy to be out there with a Wendy house and a sand pit. Now they are 6&7 it is the recently purchased trampoline, pogo stick and roller skates that get them out.

The youngest will help DH planting, the eldest loves making nests for the birds.

We moved house just last year & the garden was a blank canvas.

Our son got involved in making the garden our sanctuary & we now have fruit & vegetables growing for the first time ever

We've just spent the weekend planting lots of flowers. My dd is so excited to watch them grow.

We also currently have two baby birds hopping around our garden, so we have been outside watching them whilst gardening. This has sparked interest with her as she has been researching birds and wants to set up a bird bath and feeder, so another trip to the shops is needed!

We just need to open up the sliding doors between lounge and garden, and the kids tend to just spill outside without much prompting.

Beyond that, they love being let loose with the hose pipe to water the garden. Best game ever!

Towels and changes of clothes are kept near the door. ;)

We intend to remove some flags from the middle of our lawn to make it more child friendly even thought she refuses to sit on the grass! A picnic blanket usually rectifies the situation though

In the summer time it's easy to keep the kids in the garden by sticking a pool out there :D
When it's not warm enough for swimming, a fun way of keeping the kids out is to set them challenges, for example the first one to find everything on the sheet wins, then have a sheet with a list of things such as a stone, orange leaf, ant etc

We dont have a big garden, its more like a front yard. My daughter loves being outside, making dens in the corner by the tall hedges and she loves planting seeds. Shes got her own gardening equipment - gloves, kneeling pad, trowel and fork and her own seed name sticks with fairies on the top so she can keep track of where shes planted what.

Even though I find it disgusting - both kids are bug-obsessed and love nothing more than looking for worms, woodlice and the like. I've cleared a small patch where they can explore and we've also made some bug hotels. So far they have been out there checking daily and it's even kept them away from digging up my veg so it's win-win! :O

We have a family gardening club called muckysnails its great fun and involves getting muddy and growing things from scratch in their little patch. At the moment we are just growing some garlic which they will pick to make garlic bread. Its a great way to introduce the kids to home grown veggies and gives them a keen interest away from the world of gadgets

We're building a kitchen extension and haven't been able to get into the garden for the last 7 weeks. Once we can use it again, I don't expect to have trouble getting them out there as they really miss it!

They both (8 and 5) like helping plant and grow fruit and veg. They also like hanging out in the hammock, playing football, skipping (I turn the rope for them), making dens etc. We have a lot of work to do to get the garden in shape and DS has especially asked if we can leave patch of bare soil for him to just dig in!

They always come home form outings with special pebbles / shells etc so we will have to think of a way for them to display them in the garden. I currently have a massive bag of stones in the hallway! We might paint some of them and use them to make a mini rockery or path around the vegetable beds.

DD is naturally less active, so we might get a trampoline to encourage her to move a bit more. And water is always a winner - paddling pool, water pistols, bucket etc.

And barbecues. We all love a bbq and eating outdoors. The DC like to create their own marinades for the meat.

To be honest, I don't really give them a choice. If it's dry then we go outside.

strawberry plants are my childs favourite and we check them every day to see how they are progressing

Helping plant and watch the summer fruit grow

Obstacle courses. We have a steep garden with a slide, so the kids take turns to whizz down the slide onto a beanbag, SpaceHopper across the lawn, kick a football into the goal, step through a hula hoop and climb back up the stairs. I give them a stopwatch to time each other!

Even with a small garden you can come up with some compact ideas - knock down a skittle, throw a bean bag in a bucket, etc... and the kids can come up with their own ideas too.

I just have to mention the word 'trampoline' and my kids rush into the garden. If they were old enough to let them do so unsupervised it would be heaven!

I get wallpaper roll out the full length of the garden with lots of paints and crayons...then lots of hand (and feet) painting and chop up vegetables from the garden and make a fabulous mural

Our garden is quite small but we've squeezed in a trampoline, small playhouse and few other toys which tempt the kids out.

we have finally purchased a massive trampoline so the kids are really looking forward to getting out in the garden.
We tried to grow some fruit and veg last year but it wasn't successful! I want to try again this year but in raised beds with some insect protection.
The garden is really a like another room for us when its not raining, the kids kept a tent up all of last summer but it did wreck the grass which needs some attention now.
They do help with the cutting or grass and hedge now they are older as well.