Get the kids in the garden this summer: Tips for making the backyard the best hangout spot

If you want the kids out of the house and spending time in the fresh air and the sunshine, you’re going to need to create a garden that’s simply the best place to be! That means making it fun, making it comfortable, and making it a bit messy here and there as well. To manage all of those elements, you’re going to need some help! Check out our tips below for making your backyard the best hangout spot this summertime for kids in the garden; they might even make you fall a little bit more in love with it.

This is a collaborative post.

1. Have a weekly BBQ

How often do you have BBQs right now? Maybe you’ve had one or two so far this summer, and each time you promise yourselves you’re going to do them more often because of how fun and awesome they are. However, a couple weeks go by and you’ve completely forgotten about the whole idea. Sound familiar? It’s a curse every family has to live through! 

So let’s put some effort into having a weekly BBQ, to keep both you and the kids outside and enjoying blue skies above. Weekly BBQs are frequent enough to be fun, but they’re also infrequent enough to stop them from becoming a chore. This way you’ll look forward to your weekly BBQ with the family, and you won’t be dreading having to come up with another fun way to skewer meat and veggies onto kebabs! 

You also don’t have to come up with your own recipe ideas, as there are plenty to find online that’ll have the kids wondering just how you managed to make that sauce so amazingly zingy.

2. Give them a planting patch of their own

If the kids get to choose their own seeds, pop them in the ground, cover them with soil, and then come out a couple times a week to water them, the garden is going to become a normal part of their life. They’re also going to see their handiwork grow out and flower in real time, meaning they’re going to see very tangible results from keeping up with this routine.

As such, give them a planting patch of their own somewhere in the garden and let them go wild. Give them maybe a square foot of soil, or half if that’s what you can manage, and let them know that’s their patch of ground to do whatever they want with. 

If that means they’re going to grow all kinds of seeds, no matter how nicely those plants may fit in together, let them! Or if it means they’re going to set up a garden diorama with rocks, gnomes, and ceramic farmyard animals, that’s also OK. It’s all about letting the kids be creative in the garden and encoding it into their heads as a fun place to be.

3. Let older kids host their friends

If you’ve got kids over the age of 10, why not give them some time to have the garden to themselves? Let them invite a couple of friends over on the weekends and let them have free reign of the outside yard. This way the garden becomes a ‘cool’ place to be, and you become an even ‘cooler’ parent for letting them all get together!

Of course, check in on them every now and then to make sure they’re OK, but otherwise let your older kids have some time to be independent without needing to leave the house. They can then be responsible for their own snacks and planned activities, but you give them a bit of freedom to be a teenager without any of the risks us parents worry about!

On warm nights they can even have sleepovers out there, if you’ve got room to pitch a tent and plenty of blankets for the kids to snuggle into. You can even add a bit of sparkle if the kids are old enough for that extra special party, anytime of year.

4. Build a playroom

Have you got some space in the garden for something like a shed or a log cabin? Then you can put a dedicated playroom out there for the kids to spend time in. Not only will this give them more of a reason to get outside – as that’s where the best and biggest collection of toys are – but they can then use the whole run of the garden to play around. Doing this really does combine the best of both worlds! 

Once you’ve got your playroom structure up and running, you can also get the kids to help you decorate it. What do they want to see in their playroom? Maybe fun animal or book character wall murals? Maybe a soft, plush rug on the floor to sit on? Maybe a reading nook in the corner where you can all have storytime together? Whatever it is, hear them out! 

If you get them involved in the design process, they’ll be even more motivated to use the room in the end. They had a choice in making it, and that’s something kids take very seriously!

5. Buy inflatable garden toys

Inflatable garden toys are a lot of fun. Blow them up, pop them on the lawn, and then let the kids hit them around, splash them with water, and ultimately play pretend to their hearts’ content. Once they’re done, deflate them and put them back in the shed where they’ll keep just fine until next year. 

From paddling pools to giant unicorns that also double up as sprinklers, there’s a lot of inflatable summer items you can throw out into the garden to keep the kids entertained all day long. You can even buy inflatable sports gear and have a fun game of soft play football or cricket, with little chance of anyone getting hurt from a ball being hurled too fast! 

Kids tend to love being out in the garden anyway, but if you want to convince them that screens offer nowhere near as much fun as being outside, refine your backyard space with these ideas. Have fun, spend time together, and make some memories without even (technically) leaving the house!

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We do have other articles on gardening on the site, so check them out if you have the time:

We also have other thoughts from off site for you as well:

Thanks for coming to see us today, and we hope that you will come back soon.

Helen

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