Gardening is a relaxing and enjoyable pastime and, if done thoughtfully, undoubtedly an eco-friendly one: it allows you, for example, to grow aromatic herbs and zero-food-mile produce in a garden or on a balcony, or to attract pollinating insects and wonderful butterflies with the right flowers. Autumn, with temperatures no longer scorching but still mild, and days still long and bright, is a perfect season for spending a little time together outdoors. But how can you garden with children — perhaps relatively young ones — in complete safety? As well as involving them directly in planting, watering, repotting and so on, here are 5 ideas for sharing this green pastime with them.

Making labels for the pots

While you get on with sowing or repotting plants and herbs, the children can be kept busy making the labels or little flags that will be used to tell the different crops apart. There is naturally no limit to the techniques or materials — including recycled ones — that can be used to make them. A fun idea might be to suggest that the children draw the corresponding flower or plant on each label: it will also be a simple way of helping them get to know the various plant species.

Gardening with children: building a scarecrow

When gardening with children, it can be fun and useful to suggest they make a small or large scarecrow, using reclaimed materials such as paper, raffia, worn-out clothes, dry branches and old hats. The pumpkin, the undisputed star of the vegetable patch in autumn, can be a perfect alternative for building a fully green scarecrow. Always supervise the children's work to avoid any mishaps.

Decorating pots and stones

While you prepare the soil or sort out the irrigation system, the children could put their boundless imagination to use decorating — by painting them with non-toxic paints, for example — the garden stones or the pots of the new seedlings. Little monsters, pirates, elves or animals: there is naturally no limit to their artistic possibilities, which could also include different decorative techniques, such as applying moss, flowers, leaves and so on.

Setting up a fairy garden

Elves, gnomes and fairies, as everyone knows, love gardens and small green spaces. So why not, when gardening with children, devote some time to setting up a little corner reserved for these tiny enchanted creatures? Little houses, flowers, hiding places and a small pond are ideal for a perfect home for fairies and sprites.

Making feeders and shelters

Autumn is a crucial time for small urban animals. The weather changes, migratory species begin to leave, and food starts to become harder to find. So why not involve the children in making shelters and feeding stations? Old plastic bottles or spare jars are all you need, for instance, to build small bird feeders that, filled with tasty seeds, will also protect the vegetable patch from any feathered raids. To make a feeder from a cylindrical container, simply make a small hole low down, folding the cut section downwards so that it becomes a little perch for the birds' feet. Once the feeder is ready, all you need to do is hang it somewhere fairly sheltered, and perhaps not too close to the freshly sown vegetable patch. As an alternative or in addition, you can involve the children in setting up an autumn shelter for stray cats, or help them keep watch against less considerate neighbours near the swallows' nests, left empty during the colder months.