I’m Blue Peter’s gardening expert – 6 easy ways to get kids off screens & outside for half term without spending a penny

A RECENT government survey found 85 per cent of children and young people agree that being in nature makes them ‘very happy.’ 

While a King’s Fund report on the health benefits of gardening has uncovered a string of other positives, like reductions in depression and anxiety and improved social functioning.

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There’s even an antidepressant in the microbes in soil, which stimulates serotonin, boosting relaxation.

Today marks the start of National Children’s Gardening Week - running until June 1. 

Children’s Gardening Ambassador Skinny Jeans Gardener, AKA, Lee Connelly, who was a CBBC Blue Peter Garden presenter, said: “If you think back to your childhood, what do you remember most? Climbing trees, making dens, playing hide and seek. 

“Very rarely do I sit down and talk about that great episode of Chucklevision that I watched in 1998.

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“Getting kids gardening is great for them mentally and physically, and is vital for the future of our planet.”

Here’s Lee’s Five Top Tasks to get your kids outside, taken from his book How To Get Kids Gardening.

MINI ALLOTMENT BOWL

Drill drainage holes in the bottom of a washing up bowl.

Add compost to the bowl just a few cm off the top.

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Plant tomato and pepper plant to one side of bowl.

Sow salad seeds in a line the other side and water carefully.

Leave your new allotment outside in and easy to get to place and look after  by keeping watered and caring for plants. 

FROG POND

Get a washing up bowl and dig it in so its level with the ground.

Place a brick in the bowl - easy for frogs to get in and out and means hedgehogs won’t get trapped. 

Use a roof tile or slate to put over the top - leaving gaps from the frogs to enter and exit.

Fill with water.

Add plants around it to make the frog feel more secure. 

WILDFLOWER SEED BALLS

Put a handful of compost, a pinch of red clay,  a sprinkle of chilli powder (to stop other animals taking them) and your wildflower seeds in a bowl and mix together. 

Slowly add water to the mix, turning it into a  doughy mixture. 

Roll the mixture into little balls on a tray and place on a window sill to dry out. 

Weed the area you want the flowers to grow so the seed balls don’t have too much growing  competition. 

Then simply throw your seed balls onto the soil, sit back and watch them grow.

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BUG HOTEL

Get a small cardboard box and decorate it by colouring in.

Find an area you’re happy to have insects - away from seedlings etc.

Fill it with leaves and twigs from your garden or local park.

Leave for a couple of weeks to see who moves in and then write a list. 

BUTTERFLY BOTTLE

Attach string to the bottom of a plastic bottle with sticky tape.

Quarter-fill the bottle with water and a teaspoonful  of sugar and give it a good shake.

Cut the corner off a piece of sponge.

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Push the piece of sponge into the spout of the  bottle and hang in the garden so that the sponge is damp with the butterfly fizzy pop.

HEDGEHOG HOME AND SUPER HIGHWAY

Always make sure hedgehogs can roam around your garden with a hole at the bottom of your fence so they can go from one to another.