How to Have Healthy Family Fun in the Garden

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If you’re lucky enough to have a garden or yard, then you have everything you need to keep your family entertained all year round. Whether you’re based in an urban area or in a rural village, having your own outdoor space ensures you have somewhere to play, relax and have healthy family fun.

For inspiration, just take a look at these innovative ways to have healthy family fun in the garden…

Feed the birds

Installing a bird table or feeding station means you can enjoy watching various species of birds visit your garden every day. With a range of food from reputable vendors, like Little Peckers, it’s easy to attract robins, sparrows, Goldfinches, blackbirds, starlings, chaffinches, magpies, wood pigeons, collared doves, jays, wrens and much, much more. Create a chart and tick off which species of birds you see in your garden. The kids will love it and it’ll help bring you all closer to nature.

Host a sports day

If your family has a competitive spirit, then an informal sports day could be a day filled with fun. With age-appropriate activities, everyone can take part and enjoy the camaraderie as you battle it out to be crowned the winner. From egg and spoon races to long jump and ‘throw the beanbag in the flowerpot’, there are endless Olympic-style games you can make garden-friendly!

Grow your own veg

Growing your own vegetables is a great way to teach kids about where their food comes from. Radishes, peas, carrots, runner beans and even potatoes are relatively easy to grow in the UK, so there are lots of popular vegetables you can start experimenting with.

Section off an area of your garden and get everyone involved in preparing it for seeding. Alternatively, use a raised flowerbed or pots to cultivate your own veg-growing area. Younger children will love checking on them every day and watching their progress, so it really is a family-friendly activity.

Make a bee hotel

Bees are responsible for the vast majority of pollination in the world, which means they play a critical role in food production. Supporting the bee population is something we all need to do and how better to do it than with a bee hotel?

You can buy premade bee hotels to install in your garden or build your own. With plenty of online guides available, creating a bespoke bee hotel needn’t take long and doesn’t require much equipment at all.

Once installed, you and your family can enjoy watching the bees buzz around the garden. If your yard is filled with plants and flowers, you’ll be glad of the extra help too!

Watch a movie

When you’re exhausted from spending the day having fun in the garden, there’s nothing better than a family movie night, but why go inside? A small projector makes it easier than ever to watch films outside. Simply project your chosen movie on to the side of your house, garage or fence and enjoy an alfresco film night.

For even more excitement, dig out a tent and turn the evening into a family camping expedition. If 2020 is the year of the staycation, where better to go than your own backyard?

Create a nature trail

Nature trails are a great way for kids to learn more about their environment and have fun in the process. Get a step ahead by preparing your garden in advance and make sure that youngsters will have some interesting and unusual things to ‘find’.

Before you let them loose, give everyone a checklist with things to look out for. Tick off what you find from the list and compare your achievements at the end. Add a little competition into the mix by awarding a prize to whoever finds everything on the list first – but be wary of cheating!

Making Your Garden Full of Fun

The garden is the ideal place for family activities. However, even maintaining your garden can be turned into a family event. Keeping a backyard safe and well-maintained can take quite a bit of work, so get everyone involved if you want to keep things manageable.

Younger kids are excellent at raking leaves, while older teens can be tasked with mowing the lawn. Similarly, supervised weeding can be a great job for youngsters, providing they can tell the difference between a weed and your prized lilies!

No matter how you use your garden, there are ways to involve every member of the family. When you do, all the time you spend in your garden turns into healthy, family fun.

How are you having healthy family fun in the garden?