NOW CLOSED: Win a Nature Art book and get your grandkids in the garden

Children love making wormeries. You can buy a cheap kit or make your own.

Our little grandson (he is nearly 2) loves putting on Grandad's oversized (for his little hands) gardening gloves, and Granny's gardening clogs (also way too big of course), and "helping" in the garden.

My DGDs both have garden canes with a peg on the top, kept at our house. They ( the canes) are Mr.and Mrs Heron. The girls poke about the garden with them, make soup of flower petals in the bird bath for them, make nests, and talk nonstop about the things they find.

I planted peas in a big pot, covering with cling film until they got going.

When the peas were ready, my grandchildren were invited to pick the pods, get the peas out and eat them raw.

It kept them busy and happy for ages.

We have an allotment and if the children pick things themselves, they seem to enjoy them more.

They picked their own sweetcorn last year and we came straight home and lightly cooked it. It was so fresh it was delicious and they loved it.

My GC have both enjoyed freshly picked asparagus since they were tiny. They eat it as though it is sweets.

I plant strawberries, tomatoes etc. in pots and take it to their garden for them to look after and then eat. The looking after part of that is a bit hit and miss though.

DGD aged 3, was given some sunflower seeds. We planted some in pots in the greenhouse, some in the garden beds and the rest in pots outside. We look at them weekly and see which are doing best, and which are growing tallest.
(No surprise as to which ones are being nibbled by slugs!)

The two grandaughters who live nearest to us love garden pottering when they visit and the more insect life they spot along the way the better they enjoy it! It makes me smile as their mum and her twin sister were just the same at that age.

We have a small pond which is something our DGC don't have at their own houses. (It is covered so they can't fall in). They like nothing better than helping DH pull out surplus weed and investigate its contents. It constantly changes all year and there's usually something fresh to see - frogspawn, tadpoles, newts, dragonfly and mayfly nymphs and their empty cases as they hatch. It also gives an opportunity to discuss water safety of course!

Ours have made a secret passage at the end of the garden and have great fun there building camps and exploring. We are sometimes invited to join them.

Show a very young child how many "creepy-crawlies" can be living underneath one large garden stone, and they will probably be hooked on nature for life. Let them pick them up if they want (teaching them from the start of the need to be gentle, of course), and for goodness sake don't make any fuss if they get dirty while playing outside as getting dirty seems to be half the fun as they get a bit older - or maybe it's just my two DGCs (3.3yrs & 4.9yrs) who love being covered from head to toe in mud . Recently, they had a fantastic time sliding down a muddy bank on their tummies, though on that occasion suitably dressed in waterproofs, thanks to DiL's forethought.

We have a blackbird nesting quite low down in our car port....little grandaughter loves to creep along quietly and look for the beaks peeking out of the nest. The greenhouse, veg patch and flower beds are great for little helper time. We love watching the bees on my lavender border...she is fascinated watching them visit the flowers.

We plant sunflowers and runner beans with our grandson, and the added plus of seeing how tall the flowers will reach, and the fact that the beans grow quickly and he can eat them ( he eats them raw as a snack!) is all it needs to get him into the garden to check on their progress.

I have Jenny's earlier book, bought because I couldn't resist the illustrations. I've done art with leaves, building dens for tiny creatures, growing peas and potatoes (above and below ground for contrast), using pebbles to make patterns and outline shapes, and dome of the ideas above.

Last year my DGS grew a trough of mixed salad leaves. He enjoyed selecting which colours he wanted to go in his sandwiches and would then eat them, though he's not fond of lettuce. This Summer more of the same, plus an outdoor cucumber plant, which will be something I've never tried growing before so old and young will be learning together.

One of the best art ideas is to find leaves and feathers and invest in some light-sensitive paper - you can make very beautiful pictures this way.

Definitely growing your own food, not only do they love planting and watching things grow its a chance to see birds, particularly the robin in our garden, snails, slugs and all sorts of fun creepy crawlies.

Our grandchildren love our rockery and as it it towards the rear of the garden it offers a nice shady area to keep them out of the harsh direct rays of the sun.

We also encourage them to plant in a raised bed of their own and we have started growing veg (alright, badly and slowly growing veg)..

They love adding garden accessories, statues, ornaments, light catchers etc but anything to encourage them to go out with us helps.

Lastly I had it for my daughters.. A boule kit with a jack and we played such fun games of being the closest ball to the jack at the end of the game.

Val

Grandchildren love being outdoors, so outside activities will take their learning so much further.

Sow Sunflower seeds -Grow cress on saucer indoors- Create flower gardens and woodland scenes on plates- Just get outside and make a muddy mess.Enjoy ,Enjoy.

Ive bought my granddaughter a lovely bee watering can and created her own little space for her flowers. I also pretend they are smiling when they see her and make her listen out for their squeals of joy ? (well she is only 3) ?

My darling daughter when young decided to bonsai an oak grown from an acorn.
It was doing fine until one year we went away for the summer and left it plunged in soil in the garden.
We forgot about it.
Now, over 30years later I have a large sturdy oak tree at the bottom of the garden. The jays love it

Love gardening and looking for creepy crawlers. I made a fairy garden with my GD and she loves tidying it and arranging all the fairy things.
We made a table using acorns as legs and she was a bit worried that the squirrel might steal it.( I had a little chuckle at the vision of a squirrel with a table tucked under it's arm!)

GC just love using bug boxes with magnifying lids to look closely at small garden creatures. After looking they carefully release them back to the place where they were found.

When I was a small child with no access to a garden, I used to love making miniature gardens, usually in old biscuit tins. My parents helped me choose tiny plants and I used to transplant moss from walls to make a lawn. Later I did this with my own children - we made a garden of little alpines and ground cover plants in an old washing up bowl. This is great for children living in flats who don't get a chance to grow things otherwise.