5 Ways to Create a Kid-Friendly Garden

If you love the outdoors, working in dirt and growing plants, you want to share that love with your kids.

But, what if your kids just want to sit inside and play video games? If the TV and electronic devices are more interesting to them than nature, it’s time to spark some wonder and curiosity outside.

Learn how to create a kid-friendly garden that will have them playing outside for hours. You may even want to join them!

5 Ideas for a Fun, Playful, Kid-Friendly Garden

If you already have some flower beds, you’re off to a good start. Here’s how to take it to the next level.

1. Add Hidden Areas and Hideouts

What’s better for playing hide-and-seek: a flat, open, grassy lawn with few plants, or a garden with lots of trees, shrubs, and hidden nooks?

As you can see, you’ll more easily spark your kids’ imagination if you give them something to work with. If your yard is a blank slate, start with planting some small trees. If you have a patio area, add some bushes or tall grasses to create a natural fence as well as areas hidden from view.

In short, make your yard worthy of exploration, and let your kids run wild.

2. Give Them Their Own Garden Bed

Kids might be more invested in the outdoors if you give them a garden bed where they can tend their own plants. Choose easy-care specimens and help kids plant and water them. Once they’re comfortable, leave the plot in their care and see what happens.

3. Add Swings or Hammocks

A swing hanging from a choice tree branch is a magnet for kids of all ages. Put one up and your children will spend hours in the fresh air. You can also put up a hammock for lazy days in the sun with a good book.

4. Start a Vegetable or Fruit Patch – or Both

A project you can complete together is growing veggies or fruit in your backyard. Try tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, or lettuce. Kids will enjoy getting dirty, and they’ll be excited when they get to eat the result of their hard work.

5. Create a Natural Fort

A fort in your backyard is great for kids to play in and use their imaginations. You can create one for zero money with willow branches and twine. Willow has flexible limbs that root into the ground when stuck in soil, so it will stay standing for a while.

Arrange posts in a teepee configuration, driving the bottoms into the ground. Bend the branches toward the middle to create a dome, and tie the top with twine. Kids can lay leafy branches on the sides of the fort to create more privacy.

Make the Garden Kid-Friendly to Get Them Outside

If you want your kids to cultivate a love of nature, make your backyard garden tempting. Soon, you’ll find your little ones wandering outside of their own volition to play, explore, and create.