Gardening with children needn't be expensive if you largely manage to avoid nurseries and garden centres and bin catalogues brimming with must-haves for the green-fingered.
One of the joys of sharing this hobby with your children is that apart from a couple of essentials -- a metal spade and a watering can -- children are happy with very little.
But often rain stops play so when it's time to retreat inside the gardening fun can continue. Read on for a crafty, fun gardening activity.Quite often I'm a bit stuck for present ideas, whether to say thank you or for an upcoming birthday party of which there seem to be many.
Living in a village, and mindful of the environmental impact of just "nipping into town" I have found being creative, or getting my children to create, gets me out of a tight spot.
Recently I needed to send a thank you present to someone who had been generous and kind. I knew she had a young child and loved gardening so I enlisted the help of my four-year-old to help make seed packets.
I cut and folded some A4 plain paper into a bit of a crude envelope (to add to its home-made charm I reasoned) and asked my daughter to draw some pretty flowers which she cut, coloured and stuck to the front of the packets.
Then we searched our extensive seed collection for just the right ones to delight a young child and settled on some sunflowers, pumpkins, nasturtiums and a roll of carrot tape. This is rather like narrow strips of toilet paper which will break down, allowing the seeds inside to grow. As carrot seeds are so small this is perfect for children.
It would be easy to add some compost in a sandwich bag, some plastic flower pots and a couple of labels to turn this into a wonderful, creative birthday present.