How to Create a Child-Friendly Garden

That Supports Bees and Pollinators Too.

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Child-Friendly Gardens That Supports Bees and Pollinators

Child-friendly gardens are about creating a space where kids can explore, play, and learn about nature while staying safe too. It’s important to design gardens that are both safe for children and beneficial to pollinators like bees and butterflies, and it’s easy to do when you know how!

Creating a garden full of pollinator-friendly plants can enhance your garden’s educational value and help to teach kids about the vital role of bees in our ecosystem. Getting kids involved in gardening is a great hands-on way for them to learn about nature, why we needs bees and how to grow food too.

Why Pollinators and Bees Are Important for Kids to Learn About

Educational Value: Creating a garden that supports bees and pollinators can be an interactive learning environment, allowing children to observe and take part in creating a bee-friendly space, which helps them understand the lifecycle of bees and butterflies, the process of pollination, and their role in food production.
Encouraging Responsibility: Children can learn the importance of protecting pollinators and the environment by caring for plants that attract bees and other insects. Learning about caring for the environment from a young age fosters an interest and love of nature they will carry through life.
Building Awareness: A garden focused on helping pollinators fosters a sense of connection with nature and helps raise awareness of the challenges pollinators face, and building bee-friendly gardens are an excellent and interactive learning tool.

Designing a Safe and Fun Child-Friendly Garden

Safety First: It’s important to create a garden that is safe for children, with soft surfaces like grass, non-toxic plants, and clear boundaries to keep them away from potentially harmful areas like water or garden tool storage.

Accessible Garden Beds: Get kids involved in planting by using raised garden beds, pots or low-growing plants that children can easily reach to plant, water, and harvest. This creates a more hands-on experience so they can do more planting or harvesting of fruits and veg.
Playful Features: Gardens should be fun and interactive spaces for kids to learn and play. You can add elements like a greenhouse or kids vegetable garden for them to dig and grow in, or help them to make a butterfly or bee water station or bee hotel where children can interact with nature.
Incorporate Sensory Plants: Let the kids explore by using plants with different textures, colors, and scents (such as lavender, mint, or buddleia) that engage children’s senses, making the garden more appealing and enjoyable for them. Selecting interesting and non-toxic plants lets children interact more with your garden.
Avoid Pesticides: Children like to touch everything, so choosing organic gardening practices that avoid harmful pesticides, ensures that the garden is safe for both children and pollinators.

Choosing Plants That Are Both Child-Friendly and Bee-Friendly

Pollinator-Friendly Plants: Highlight several bee-friendly plants that are also safe for children. Include examples with vibrant flowers, appealing scents, and easy-to-care-for varieties.
- Sunflowers: Large, cheerful flowers that attract bees and are easy for kids to grow from seed, and can be a fun project for kids to see how tall they can grow!
- Lavender: A fragrant herb that appeals to bees and can be used in sensory play activities and children can harvest some themselves.
- Wildflowers: Create a wildflower patch with native plants that support pollinators and are visually stimulating for children, it can be fun for kids to help plant wildflowers and watch grow in a variety of bright colours.

Edible Plants: Include child-friendly, edible plants like strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and herbs like mint to engage kids in growing their own food and observing how pollination benefits crops. This will teach them about growing their own food as well as letting them enjoy eating the healthy food they grow.
Non-toxic Plants: It’s important to select non-toxic plants for safety reasons, especially if children are prone to putting things in their mouths. Check advice and labelling to ensure your plants are non-toxic, and when in doubt stick to herbs and edible plants.

See our bee-friendly flower guide for more info on choosing your plants.

Creating Pollinator Habitats for Bees and Other Insects

Bee Hotels: Build a simple bee-hotel with the kids and place in the garden to create a safe space for solitary bees to nest. This can also serve as an educational tool for children to learn about bee habitats. Read our bee-hotel guide here for step by step help.
Puddling Areas: Add shallow, accessible puddling areas where bees can drink and gather minerals. This can be a fun science experiment for kids to observe how bees and butterflies behave around water. Read our guide here about adding safe water sources to your garden.
Wildlife-Friendly Spaces: Encourage the creation of natural areas like a wild-flower area, pile of leaves, or a log for insects to shelter. These spaces can be used by children for exploration and learning about garden ecosystems.
Butterfly-Friendly Zones: Create a butterfly garden with plants like buddleia, which attracts bees and butterflies, and add puddling stations for butterflies to drink, providing a multi-sensory experience for children to observe nature in their garden.

Making the Garden Fun for Kids While Supporting Pollinators

Nature Play Stations: Set up stations for children to engage in nature play, like a “pollinator observation station,” where they can watch bees in action with magnifying glasses or small journals for note-taking and recording how many bees visit their bee-hotel.
Garden Crafts: Do some nature themed garden crafts with the kids, from plant pot painting to building bee hotels, check out five kids garden craft ideas here.
Interactive Learning: Create learning opportunities for children to identify different types of pollinators, observe the growth of plants, and perhaps even track which pollinators visit their garden.
Garden Activities: Have seasonal activities like a “planting day” or “harvest day,” where kids can take part in planting flowers that attract bees or harvest produce that bees helped pollinate to help them understand the full life cycle of the garden.

Time to get started!

Getting kids stuck into the garden is a great way for them to learn and have fun, and it’s definitely possible to create a bee-friendly garden that’s also a safe place for kids to play and explore.

Including some simple, safe, and educational garden elements suggested above will help to create a space where children can learn about nature, pollination, and environmental stewardship while having fun playing outside.

You can start small and gradually build a garden that supports both your children’s growth and the vital pollinators that help our ecosystems thrive, and over time cultivate a child-friendly natural garden that supports bees and pollinators too.