Fun Kids Garden Projects

By all accounts the Netherlands summer has been short-lived. (See this DutchNews.nl article.) We had several nice warm days early on and then the rain came and stayed. This week the sun came out and temperatures were in the 70’s and everything is green.  Not quite summer. Not quite fall. Combine that with our new 34 weeks pregnant stay close to home mentality and our last week of summer holiday and I’m embracing the opportunity to do some fun outdoor projects with the kids.

The first project was actually part of our letter school class. The boys are both in Dutch school programs so I try to focus on English letters and learning at home. With H at home for summer break I’ve been trying to incorporate some more advanced lessons as well into O’s letter learning. This week was letter S in which we are also talking about plants, specifically succulents.

The boys and I headed to the local garden store, Intratuin, and picked out some succulents, soil, sand and a jar to build our own terrarium. (NASA has an easy to follow tutorial and guide on what you will need to build your terrarium. I actually found most of the supplies in the fish section, where I could buy the sand and rocks in smaller quantities.

We had a great time dumping all the layers into the jar and then planting our succulents. My boys of course picked out some fun stones to put in there as well, anything to make the project their own.

Once O was down to nap, H and I started work on our “mommy and me” pet project. H’s friend in Colorado has a beautiful fairy garden. The girl and her mother paint rocks and do all sorts of beautiful creative things for their fairy garden together. H has been wanting to make a place that his friends’ fairies could come visit here in the Netherlands and I was happy to comply.

I loved these fairy pots from Bored Panda, but wanted to find something that H could really help with, so we hit up the sale section of the Intratuin. Many of the things in the sale section were missing small pieces or the hanging parts had fallen off, but they were perfect for our little fairy garden. H also dug into his “treasure jars” which are full of shells, rocks and other little trinkets he has collected to decorate our garden.

We found a perfect little spot in the yard and I let him plan out our little town. I helped a bit with making sure things were secure and I dug the holes, but in general he placed everything around.

Since building the garden H has brought the peg people out there to play and often runs outside to check if any fairies are visiting or have moved any of his little trinkets. It has been a great way to engage his imagination outside.

We continue to harvest the tomatoes and potatoes from the Albert Heijn Garden! Everything else seems to have peaked or died in a particularly nasty bout of rain and wind we had while we were in Scotland. The cherry tomatoes though continue to produce a bowl a day for us to pick and enjoy.

After a fun day I loved placing my terrarium in its new home, in some bright, indirect sun. The boys love checking on it each day and I love that it will remind us of our carefree summer days.

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