Gardening for Kids

Getting children involved with different activities involving plants, wildlife and nature, not only offer educational benefits, but also a sense of accomplishment. On top of this, the benefits to both physical and mental wellbeing know no bounds for all the family involved!

With the importance of pollinators so apparent now, the first activity below offers a chance for your budding little David Bellamy to learn all about bees. 

 

Make your bees at home in your garden

Get sowing!

Start by selecting the best wildflower seeds to attract bees into your garden.  The RHS has a list of perfect pollinator varieties, which these buzzing little beauties just love, as well as butterflies too!  Although you may have to wait until next year now to sow these, there are many herbs which bees love and you will too, which can be sown now!  Herbs such as chervil, coriander and dill, can all be sown direct outside.

Make a bee hotel!

Bee hotels can be as easy or hard to make as you wish.  For children the way below is probably the easiest and most fun!

You will need :

 

• Pieces of bamboo

 

• Large plastic bottle

 

• Brown parcel tape

 

• Scissor

 

Grab your self an empty plastic large bottle and get an adult to cut it just below the neck.  

Ask an adult to cut the bamboo to roughly the same length of the remaining bottle

Fill the bottle with the bamboo enough so that it does not fall out

Use tape to bind them together if they’re a bit loose

Hang in a dry green area

 

Know your bees!

Did you know that there are around 270 species of bees in Britain? But do you know your honey bee from your bumble bee?

The Woodland Trust has a super website where it explains what to look for when identifying each kind of bee. See how many bees you can name!