Fun in the dump (that is our garden)

The better the weather seems to be getting the more posts I read of kids out in the garden, having endless hours of fun in beautiful gardens catered to them and very family friendly. I love these posts as it makes me dream of how I one day hope for a garden like that. I hope one day to make a mud kitchen for them and a sandpit too. Perhaps have an expert take care of the lawn – for example https://www.lawncare.net/service-areas/california/ and then get a trampoline maybe? A swing set? A play house? BBQ? Who knows!

I do love the low maintenance greenery that secludes our garden, and I love the sun we get with it being south facing but the loves stop there, because honestly – Our garden is a dump! Its more like the local tip than a child friendly haven and despite each summer when we make a point of sprucing things up (We’re not gardeners but trim the hedges, plant some pretty flowers, mow the grass and clear space for them to play) it rarely lasts long.  Yes one day I hope to look out and see a BBQ area, veggie boxes, flower beds and more play equipment. But, for now we see this… a tacky rotten table, swinging chair (left by the previous owner) and a rusty toddler trampoline! As I said more dump…less haven!

Like most children my kids LOVE to be outdoors and can make the most of any situation they find themselves in, I guess when a child has imagination equipment is irrelevant and so whilst we don’t realistically have the money to revamp the garden and make it a haven of fun, it still holds many exciting things for the kids to create adventure.

1. Home made “digger land”
Both kids love to play with diggers, trains, cars etc and saw my (fave) flower pot full of mud sat there doing nothing (waiting for spring) as the perfect source to create a mini “digger land” – they now spend AGES sat there in filth playing with their diggers and loving their life.

2. Scootering 
Again something they’re both into – Ethan had his for his birthday and Megs earned hers through her sticker chart – and yes in keeping with the garden theme they are dumped in a designated area of the garden (along with some outgrown toys they won’t part with), but are played with on a daily basis as they bez up and down the front of the house, and round the side and occasionally onto the street to check out any passer by’s (supervised before anyone thinks otherwise) and they love every second. Scootering is by far what they do the most.

3. “Mini Beast Adventures” 
This has to be my favourite thing to see them doing in the garden, I see their inquisitive personalities, their fearless natures and their love of all creatures. Because we haven’t done a lot with the garden it attracts a lot of insects/wildlife(?) and so they have had endless hours of fun hunting them.

4. Dandilions
This has been their fave thing of the season, you could say a morning habit they have – Its a bonus for them of us doing minimal gardening and every morning they pull one each and spread the seeds. And then laugh their heads off before jumping on their scooters. It never gets boring and it always makes me smile.

Its the small things isn’t it? So yes we don’t have all we want right now but what we do have keeps them outdoors, keeps them laughing and creates hours of fun!

This is my entry into Waltons blogger competition to win a wooden playhouse. If you’d like to enter please visit Twin Mummy and Daddy for the details.