Gardens can be magical places that spark creativity, a sense of freedom and fun for children – think novels such as Alice in Wonderland and The Secret Garden.
“In a busy screen-filled world, it’s a wonderful idea to create a special kid-friendly garden space where they can relax, be creative, learn how plants grow and harvest some healthy home-grown food,” says Angie Thomas, horticulture consultant to Yates and mother of two.
To help more parents encourage their children to get active in the garden, Angie has put together her top tips for creating a magical garden:
Create the foundation: To give your magical garden the best start, my top tip is to improve the soil before planting. A soil improver such as Yates Dynamic Lifter enhances soil structure, water and nutrient holding capacity and encourages earthworms and beneficial soil microorganisms, which are all essential to a healthy garden.
Get planting: Starting in autumn, kids can help grow cool weather veggies like snow peas, tender baby leaf spinach, loose leaf lettuce and by using seed tapes, even baby carrots! Kids also love to plant vibrant and happy flowers such as calendula and snapdragon, or plant some mint so that they can add some flavour to their water and cordial.
Provide them with tools: Every little helper needs their own set of tools. There is plenty of kid sized gardening equipment such as mini wheelbarrows, spades and rakes that are available to show them there is so much more kids can do in the garden than just watering the flowers!
Get dirty: Kids loving digging in the dirt. They can help mix the soil improver. They might think it smells a bit funny, but it’s a fun activity to get gardening gloves on and dig around in the soil, all with their very own mini gardening tools of course!
Decoration is key: No magical garden is complete without some accessories. Add special magical elements into a kid’s garden space by using items such as twinkling fairy lights, wind chimes, colourful pinwheels, sandpits full of rainbow sand and for that extra touch you can even hide a gnome or two.
Think about colours: Colour is extremely important to creating a fairytale environment. Try and find flowers that complement each other and keep the colour combination the same throughout the whole garden. If you have a little princess at home why not mix soft purples, whites and pinks and coordinate the setting with their very own tea table.
