When you’re stuck at home and you have run out of ideas for activities, check out these fun projects to get your kids out in the garden and have fun.
Most of these crafts can be done with minimal preparation and materials.
Recycled Wind Spinners make great recycled garden projects for kids
These spinners are made from leftover wire and a few other items like marbles, beads and little balls the kids might have out-grown.
When the wind blows, the balls inside appear to wave up and down as they spin around.
Have a look at this post for the full instructions and get started making your own.
Wind Twirlers
This post from CBC shows how to make a plastic bottle into a bunch of tree streamers that waft and wave in the breeze.
Simply cut around a bottle in a circular motion after first colouring in the bottle with permanent markers.
There are so many different ways to colour and change this craft to really make it your own. It’s a great way to introduce elements like the wind to children.
Making A DIY Rain Gauge Is another one of our favourites recycled garden projects for kids
Turn some left over plastic bottles into something useful for your garden by making your own rain gauge.
- Simply cut the top 1/3 off the top of a soda bottle, turning it upside down and insert back into the lower part of the bottle.
- Take a permanent marker and mark centimetres up the side of the bottle.
- Next simply pop your gauge outdoors and wait for the next rain shower.
Why not keep a weather journal and record the rainfall each week.
Here’s a post with many more weather activities to try in the garden with your kids.
Suncatchers: A fantastic recycled garden projects for kids
Another fun garden craft we love to do again and again is making suncatchers from leftover beads and old cake tins.
Check this post here for the full instructions.
Making A Sundial Is A Super Simple Recycled Garden Projects And Educational Too!
Making a sundial is a wonderful way to show children how time passes through the garden. It may sound complicated but it’s as simple as 1.2.3.
1. Take a thin card tube like the kind you find in the middle of a roll of wrapping paper and glue onto the centre of a large circle of card. Glue it standing on its end like a flagpole in the middle of the card.
2. Put your circle outside on a sunny day, using a marker pen, mark where the shadow of the tube falls on the circle’s edge.
3. There you have it, a sundial. each time the sun works its way around your garden you can work out the time of day. Can you work out how to tell it’s half past the hour?
You can decorate this any way you like, cover with scraps of tissue paper, paint it, stickers etc just make sure you leave room for the shadow to show up.
This is a great craft for kids who are learning to tell the time as well as a fun craft that uses up leftover packaging. Simple and effective don’t you think?
Make A Milk Jug Windmill
The plastic that is used to make a milk jug is so useful for all sorts of crafts as you can get large enough sheets of plastic to make a range of crafts, some of which you will find on this page like the plastic flowers below. This milk jug pinwheel is a fab place to start? Check out the full instructions over at thinkcrafts.com
The bonus of using this material is that it can be coloured using permanent markers or even nail varnish and its water proof for use outdoors.
Bonus!
A Cute Recycled Garden Projects For Kids: Fairy House
These cute little fairy houses we found over on Filthwizardry.com are just adorable. They can be made in all sorts of shapes and sizes depending on what containers you have.
We made some to hang in our fairy glen. Hop over to Filthwizardry.com to find the full instructions
Self Watering Monster Bottle Planters,
I’m not sure about you but we have been seeing cute planters EVERYWHERE but none we really wanted to buy, so we thought we would make our own.
We recycled some soda bottles to make these cute little guys.
They are super cute and self watering so what’s not to love?? And you can make them any way you like. Make a unicorn, a TV character or even a goldfish let your imagination run free.
You can use them as plant pots like us but they’re also really useful for pens and pencils, tooth brushes or even snack pots.
Materials you need
* Large plastic bottles
* A few lengths of cotton material, part of an old towel, strips of felt or some wool.
* Paint, we used
*scissors
* Any other embellishments you like such as googly eyes, stickers
The first step is to clean your bottle thoroughly and remove any labels and adhesive.
After the bottle is clean and dry, Draw the ear shapes and cut them out.
Simply cut holes in the bottom or your soda bottle with a pair of scissors or a knife to allow for excess water to drip out.
Paint the bottle with two coats of your chosen paint, letting it dry between coats.
Depending on the character you have chosen to create. draw or paint on any extra features you need.
All that’s left to do is to fill your planter with soil and plant your favourite plant inside.
How cute!!
Recycled Garden Projects : Bottle Top Art
Last year we had an epiphany when we discovered using bottle tops in the garden.
We collected bags of the things and we decided to use them to make a scuff mat for under our swingset.
By The kids had scuffed a bare patch of soil under each swing that happened to look like a butterfly’s wings so we got down to business.
Check out how we got on and how you can get started here
Milk Jugs Flowers
These pretty and simple flowers made from milk jugs can add a touch of fun to any garden. Check out the instructions over on OurKidthings.com
Recycled Project To Feed The Birds
Feeding your garden birds can be fun and really simple. There are lots of ways to do it that are easy to put together which is great for kids.
Here are our favourites ways here
Recycled Garden Projects That Make Plant pots
Let your imagination run wild and make your own recycled plant pots.
From soda bottles, tin cans, milk jugs or any
Loo Roll Plant Pots
Toilet roll insides can be used for so many things. When one end is folded in they make amazing seed starting pots.
They are so simple to make and use. Check out instructions here
When it comes down to repotting you can just plant your seedling whole in the pot.
Apple cartons
We like to use apple cartons on their sides. Cut off a side and use them to plant seeds in. Use them to grow salads in and pop them on the windowsill.
Soda bottle salad bar
Like the apple cartons above, using leftover containers like soda bottles as salad bars is ideal.
Tin Can Plant Monsters
This post from Hello Wonderful, features some pretty cool tin can monsters. We made some to dangle around our garden.
You can use them indoors or out. Maybe use them to tidy pencils or other stationary indoors or even plant something inside just remember to make holes in the base.
Stepping Stones
We used some leftover beads, broken shells and pretty stones to make pretty stepping stones for the garden.
Stone Painting
A favourite craft right now is rock painting. There are so many ways to paint your rocks and occasions to do so.
Make plant markers for the garden so you remember where you’ve sown seeds.
In our area we have a group of parents who paint rocks and hide them in popular parks, woods etc. Then everyone tries to find them.
When we find a rock, we can post a picture on the Facebook page and then either keep that one and hide our own or revise that one.
It’s like a giant game of hide and seek and is a wonderful way to introduce kids to the countryside.
Strawberry Stones.
If you’re growing strawberries, you will know how frustrating it is to have the birds eat them all just as they ripen.
An easy way to prevent that is to paint us some strawberry sized stones with bright red paint. Do this a few weeks before the strawberries are due to ripen.
Scatter the red stones around the plants and birds will think they are juicy red fruit.
After trying to peck at them for a few days the birds will realise there’s no point coming back to those fruits and when your real fruits grow they will be safe from birds and delicious
DIY Recycled Garden Project The Kids Will Love – Tic Tac Toe
Make your own board game by turning a flat stone and a few painted little ones into a fun game the whole family can play. Check out the instructions here
Flower Crown
This super cute flower crown is a wonderful way to spend some time during the summer.
Paper Tissue Flowers
We have made these paper flowers for many occasions. They’re super easy and can be made up or any recycled materials like paper, card tissue paper or even old fabric materials.
Seed Bombs
Do you wish you could get the kids gardening but don’t have a garden? or no idea how to start?
No Garden = No problem!
If you don’t have your own garden to plant in, or room for a few pots, don’t worry!
Here is a super simple way you can teach the kids to make seed bombs with paper so you can make your local area a little bit brighter
Recycled Plastic Flowers
We discovered this fantastic recyled garden craft which not only makes beautiful flowers but recycles some unwanted plastic too.
To make these fantastic flowers you will need
• Clear plastic cups, (like the kind you get smoothies in)
• Sharpie pens in various colours
• Kebab sticks on garden canes
• Glue gun
• Scissors
Making them is super easy. Just colour in the clear cup in lots of pretty colours
Cut down the sides of the cup in however many petals you would like.
Then pop in the oven untill the shrink and melt.
Don’t worry you can get full instructions on this other post. This one needs help from parents so make sure your around.
Remember to download your Garden Activity Ebook.
So there you are, fab ways to use and recycle house hold stuff into wonderful garden crafts the whole family will love.