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

My grandson just loves pottering around the garden, we pick up fallen leaves and look for any signs of wildlife. He loves digging holes too and raking the grass.

My grandson would adore this. He calls our garden his secret garden

I went shopping with mine & got vegetable seeds, planters, compost, small watering can, little trowel & we got planting together. Their favourite thing is watering.! They love wild strawberries, the little ones, so we are looking for them in the woods.

I've set aside an area of the garden for the grandchildren to cultivate and have started them off with some strawberries. However when digging with eldest GD she was scared by the appearance of a worm, any suggestions to get help her get over this fear?

Collecting natural things when the children are out (leaves, little interesting stones, feathers, etc) and then making things with them once they get home. We make pictures, cards, decorate jars, etc, etc. It keeps them on a mission when they are out and gives them something to do at home later :-)

When we moved to this house last year there were lots of plants for bees. The trouble is my 3-year old GD wants to play with them. We have lots of problems trying to keep her away, but still try to encourage the love the garden at the same time. Perhaps this summer she will be better, and we can relax a bit!

Nothing entertains my grandchildren more than rootling around in the garden with a jam jars, collecting 'bugs'. They find the most amazing wildlife, that I didn't even know were there!

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.

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.

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!)

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

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) ?

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.