This Sunday is the celebration of the annual Garden Day on 11 October 2020. South Africans across the country will celebrate their unique green spaces and gardens by downing tools and popping on a flower crown for Garden Day. Gardening provides children with opportunities to stay active, get some vitamin D and plenty of fresh air, practice creativity and develop a love for nature.

For the Garden Day Tool Kit Click here
SOMETHING FOR THE KIDS

Celebrate the balmier weather with a day of outdoor activities for your kids on Garden Day, Sunday, 11 October. These garden-inspired craft projects will keep them busy while connecting with nature on the cusp of summer. Garden Day is the ideal opportunity to clear your schedule and spend the day making memories in the garden with your little ones.

Make a bonnet with blooms

Help your kids make colourful bonnets with flowers perfect for a spring celebration. Let them find and pick their favourite flowers, help them play around and plan a design, and see them beam with pride when they put on their own creations.

 You’ll need

·           summer hat with a wide brim

·           a length of wide ribbon in any colour

·           florist wire, raffia, or twine

·           fresh flowers from your garden

Steps

1.       Cut a variety of your favourite flowers, herbs, and twigs in different colours and sizes from your garden. Remember to leave a longer stem. Help your children handle the secateurs, they are very sharp!

2.       Play around with the flowers and greenery by making small bunches and arranging them in a row to find a design they like.

3.       Cut some stems shorter and leave others long to give the spring bonnet a whimsical look.

4.       Tie your flowers onto the ribbon with florist wire, raffia, or twine.

5.       Tie the ribbon with your flower design around an old summer hat with a wide brim to create a beautiful spring bonnet ideal for a Garden party.

Tag #GardenDaySA to share your works of art with us. 

Create a flowery butterfly

Go on a treasure hunt around the garden to collect flowers in all shapes, sizes, and colours for this Garden Day-inspired butterfly project. Keep your little ones busy collecting, cutting, drawing, and sticking to create a beautiful work of art in celebration of spring.

You’ll need

·           cardboard offcuts

·           white paper and a marker or a printout of a butterfly

·           a stick of glue

·           flowers and twigs from the garden

·           child-friendly scissors

·           an assortment of bowls or containers

·           a butterfly or bug outline, which you can download here [insert link to download]

Steps

1.       Collect flowers in all colours and sizes from the garden. Download Candide, a garden community app, to help the kids identify the different names of the flowers they collect. Candide is free for download in the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

2.       Help your children cut the petals into various bowls. They will use the petals to decorate the butterfly wings.

3.       Use the blank paper and black marker and help your child draw the outline of a butterfly. Or find one online and print it out.

4.       Stick the paper onto a large enough cardboard offcut as a base.

5.       Help your children choose and stick the petals to decorate the wings in their own unique style.

6.       Use any left-over pieces of cardboard and create more flower patterns.

Tag #GardenDaySA to share your works of art.