Green-fingered fun with the family this Easter

Easter’s here at last, and that means it's time to make some memories, spending happy times with family and friends. It might be precious time with the kids, without the pressures of homework, sports clubs and music lessons. Or it might be extra visits from gorgeous grandchildren – lovely to enjoy their company, but sometimes quite nice to send them back to Mum and Dad!

Whatever your plans for the school holidays, here are some ideas to keep the youngsters occupied in and around the garden this Easter – whatever the weather.

Make ladybird stones for the garden

Painting stones is a bit of a crafty craze at the moment. You might have seen them as you’re out and about in the countryside or in gardens – stones painted with a face, or a message, or an animal. The idea is to put the stone somewhere a little bit out of the way, with the aim of giving a smile to whoever comes across it – just to brighten their day a bit. We love the idea of painting a few of these with the children to decorate your garden. A ladybird or a bee design is both really cute, and super-easy for little hands to get to grips with. And of course, they match our colourful Buzz and Dotty children’s Kneelo® kneelers!

For the ladybird stones, all you need is enamel or acrylic paint - and some stones. It couldn’t ‘bee’ simpler! We love the 'how to' video by Red Ted & Pip. They’re just five and seven years old, but they present like professionals - and they make short work of producing these colourful insect garden decorations. Once you’ve made your ladybirds and they’ve taken up residence in your garden, you could move them around from time to time and make it game for the children to find them again.

Grow a cress initial

Growing cress is an absolutely brilliant way to introduce very little ones to the thrill of seeing green shoots sprout from tiny seeds. It’s very addictive, as we gardeners know! And because cress grows so quickly, it’s easy to do in a week’s holiday; the youngsters will see results long before they return to lessons. You can easily find lots of great ideas online for ways to grow cress to grab little ones’ attention. We really love the cute cress caterpillar by Life at No. 27, but we were also taken by The Imagination Tree’s idea of growing your child’s initial. It’s easy, fast-growing – and teaches the alphabet, too! Plus, of course, the end result can be harvested and eaten, for a first taste of plot-to-plate growing.  

Plant veggies

It looks like spring could be here at last, so it’s the perfect time to get children involved in planting. Carrots, broad beans, tomatoes, potatoes… the choice is yours. As spring has been put on ice - literally - by the Beast from the East this year, you might still find some inspiration on our ‘What to plant in March’ blog. We love the rainbow carrot mixes available. You never know, those quirky colours might tempt them to eat their veg, as well as grow it! And how about carving a home-grown jack o’ lantern at Hallowe’en? April’s the ideal time to plant pumpkins.

If these ideas have given you food for thought about getting the kids flexing their growing green fingers, why not head over to Life at No. 27, a brilliant gardening blogger who has lots of good ideas for Easter family fun? There’s also a lovely competition to enter, where you can win a bumper bundle of our gardening goodies for children.

Enjoy the most of the Easter break with the children – and happy gardening!