How does your garden grow?

At Mum’s the Nerd, we’re a family that love being outdoors, from exploring the countryside, walks in the woods, camping and even just being in our own garden.

We love adventures, and exploring and there’s so much that we can do in our very own outside space.

I grew up with a fairly large garden and spent a lot of time climbing trees, hunting for bugs, helping with the gardening and taking it all in, no matter what the weather was. I’m glad that the Mr and Isabelle share my love for the outdoors.

At the moment, our garden isn’t really geared up for Isabelle, in fact it’s in a sorry state but over at nanas house, Isabelle can roam free, whizzing around on her bike, clambering up and down the slide and leaping from the swing. I’d love a garden that would get Isabelle involved, a place where we can plant our own herbs and vegetables and watch them grow, a place where we could explore the nature around us from ladybirds to the inquisitive squirrels.

Being the planner that I am, I have created a rather whimsical version of what my ideal garden would be like. This is what I dream of and what I intend to create for my little family to enjoy.

Isabelle would love a garden where she can create her own adventures, being a pirate, chasing dinosaurs and even high tea with Lamby in the mud pie kitchen. This is the kind of space that I want to create, a space to create memories and happy times together. I want an outside area where we can have afternoon picnics and stare up at the clouds. I want to create that magical space were we can watch the stars twinkle in the night sky

I asked Isabelle what she would like in the garden, her replies weren’t that useful, especially when she proclaimed that her garden needed a dinosaur and a rocket ship but she became rather excited when I showed her some more realistic items to make our dream garden. Here’s the list that Isabelle put together to make her creative space.

1) A slide/pirate boat – we figured this would be the best bet, Isabelle picked out the Plum Impala Wooden Play Centre with some added extras like a boat wheel and telescope from Activity Toys Direct
2) A Sandpit just like the seaside to create sandcastles and sand creatures
3) A fairy house & garden
4) A trampoline for bouncing to the moon
5) She would very much like a playhouse/den that would become a place of adventures
6) A bug hotel so that she can inspect her creepy crawly visitors
7) What’s a garden without the tools to work it?
8) A mud pie kitchen for her creative and extravagant dinners. A place for her to pop on her wellies and enjoy the muddy puddles.
9) A cart for taking all the essentials out and around the garden/rainforest/jungle
10) She still needs that dinosaur

My list on the other hand is far more sensible, it’s the kind of homely garden that will hopefully provide fruits and vegetables when I become a green fingered gardener.

1) The garden staple, the Barbeque for al fresco living
2) A chiminea with a built in pizza stone for heat on the colder evenings
3) A bird feeder, I love bringing nature to a garden
4) Flowers and plenty of them and low maintenance bushes and shrubs
5) A vegetable patch
6) A herb garden
7) Fruit Trees
8) Fruit bushes
9) Outdoor/Patio furniture so that we can enjoy time outside and sun loungers for lazy days and time out for tranquil reading.
10) A butterfly garden

I would also love a duck pond, a place to keep chickens a tree house and all kinds of things that aren’t really realistic for my current garden. For now I’m planning my produce patches

I’d love to create a garden for Isabelle to have hours of fun in and a place where the  adults can relax but also  a place that we can all enjoy and benefit from, a family garden. I know the £750 wouldn’t cover the majority of our dream garden but it would certainly help towards the start of creating our own little outside space.

This blog post is an entry into the Tots100/Activity Toys Direct garden makeover competition