7 Ways to make gardening fun for kids

*This post contains affiliate links Not only is gardening educational for children but it's also a lot of fun and as many know, being outdoors has lots of health benefits. I feel very grateful that I have an outdoor space and while it may be fairly small, every summer my kids and I like to create a space that is fun, inviting and somewhere we enjoy spending time in. We always try to grow some veggies, undertake essential maintenance, and make our garden a safe and happy place. I know parenting, work, life, travel etc can make life very hectic but there are simple ways to get kids interested in gardening and having fun outdoors even when time is limited. So I thought I'd share a few tips on how I encourage and promote a love of gardening with my own kids and hopefully it will help you get outdoors more with your family as we head into spring.  1. Involve them in the planning  Involving kids in decisions really helps to pique their interest. We have already made a list of the ve......

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Sunflower Fields at Rhossili Bay

One of the highlights of the summer for the boys and I was spending an evening watching the sunset over the fields of beautiful sunflowers in Rhossili Bay, planted there by The National Trust. It's really fantastic to see nature in it's full force and in one of the most beautiful locations in South Wales. Rhossili Bay is one of our favourite places with it's award-winning beach and stunning headland walks along rugged clifftop which eventually leads you to Worms head. The sunflower fields this year were magical, it was great to see so many families and children running free through the head hight sunflowers, as well as all the wildlife it was attracting too. Getting there just before sunset only added to the atmosphere. The sunflower fields on The Vile in Rhossili wouldn't have been possible had it not been down to the four rangers and eighty volunteers from The National Trust who have spent the past 2yrs recreating traditional 12th-century patchwork ......

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Flowers in the Home and Bouquet Giveaway

For those who follow the blog you will know I love having fresh flowers in the house, I love everything about them, the colours, the scent and just the fact that it brings a little bit of nature into the home. Sometimes we pick our own mini bouquets from the garden or when we are out on our adventures, other times we pick some up while shopping or John surprises me with some on special occasions like Mothers Day so I was over the moon when Serenata Flowers sent me this beautiful bouquets. It has to be one of the most beautiful we have ever had in the house, the sunflowers scream summer and it lightens my heart every morning when I come down the stairs for breakfast. Best of all I am really happy to be able to give one of my readers the chance to win a £35 voucher to use at Serenata flowers - wether on yourself or as a gift to someone special flowers are always a welcome sight in any home or you could also use the voucher on wine, chocolate or hampers which are also of......

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Garden Tales

We love to garden - fact. Mr A and I refer to our garden as the farm. I find it very therapeutic and Mr A loves tasks and enjoys raking leaves, planting seeds and putting weeds into bags. We spend time in the garden everyday, just pottering about. With all the sun this week our sunflowers had really started to head towards the sun, they still have a long way to go but it's great to see them grow stronger everyday. Our Onions are also starting to pop through the soil with green shoots - we cannot wait to see how they turn out. Mr A with his rake to the ready Our sunflowers are really starting to grow One of our onion shoots Another thing we love to do in the garden lately is have a bite to eat and read a book, it's so relaxing to sit in the sun and read a story to the little man. Mr A loves stories - especially ones full of colourful animals and characters so when the lovely people at My Little Big Town asked us to review three new books they have just r......

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Growing vegetables and chasing chickens

So even though it's been overcast most of the week we have had some great outdoors fun. We have spent a lot of time in the garden this week, de-weeding, attacking brambles which have seems to have just popped out of nowhere and getting our little borders ready for planting potatoes and onions. We have a lot of lovely mint in the garden, which I has grown so well and smells lovely and doesn't seem to get rated by slugs which is good - they too have started to take over our garden and the little man and I are on a mission to make it as naturally free from slugs as possible, we will be making and trying out some slug beer traps next week - will let you know how that goes. Planting our onion seeds Me and Mr A are a real team in the garden and he takes directions really well, I would dig the hole and he would pop in the onion seed - we must of planted about 50 seeds plus a bag of maris piper potato seeds, let's hope we have at least some kind of harvest. Our sunflower......

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