Depends on the gender of the kids. I have a young daughter and we used to do things like create fairy houses out of branches, leaves, moss, mud, stones. She also loves playing at the pond side so I got her a wooden sailboat.

You could plant sunflowers to create a living teepee. You just plant these in a circle and gather the tops in a lose bind. You can create a 'house' as well using the same method. Or use bamboo stakes and a large old bedsheet.

It would be a perfect opportunity to create handprints or footprints too.

outdoor picnics are great with little girls.

boys like to climb and swing and so if you have a tree perhaps you can hang an old tire.

boys like to explore too so little science kits to gather insects could help. I would say girls too might enjoy this. My daughter was fascinated with the swallowtail butterfly caterpillar which she took inside a jar and fed dill and parsley. In time it became a butterfly to her amazement. I also recall as a child I used to play with beetles and spiders.

treasure hunting is always fun- create fossils out of cement
You could create more fun using old cardboard boxes and create kid sized castles or huts with them.

We have one of those tree faces that holds birdseed in its mouth - a gnome reading a book - wind chimes and bird houses. Somewhere hidden out there is a small turtle and a frog. For years I've been planning to make a kid sized Cracker Barrel style checker board out of a stump.
My girls have their own tools, but prefer to use mine (because those are the ones they can find). Last summer, they had their own section of garden where they grew gourds. They also have a "secret" garden which is mostly spring flowering bulbs. It takes me by surprise every year to look out the kitchen window and wonder what's 'that patch of yellow' down in the woods?. I love it.
I'll also admit to sneaking in some learning, but they generally don't mind. They would much rather spend and hour figuring out how many seeds they can buy with X amount of dollars, instead of doing math. :-)

I have a six year old godson who is here about 60 hours a week. He loves to water but he can be little rough using most nozzles, so I bought one of those real gentle dramm dozzles. It isn't as excititng as blasting things with a jet of water; but I can get a lot done while he drowns rocks and flower heads...

Mickie

Great ideas! I have an idea for the veggie garden. I'm going to get four metal arches (when they go on sale) and line them up two deep to make two "tunnels". I'll plant cherry tomatoes in red, yellow and orange (supposed to get 5' - 7' tall) on two arches and purple climbing beans on the other two arches...maybe beans behind the tomatoes. Underneath, the kids can run under the tunnels and the veggies aren't big enough to hurt them if they fall off the vine. I might tuck a few strawberries (with lettuce and spinach) in the beds around the arches.

I have some mini-veggie seeds that I ordered from Scheepers. Baby carrots, baby cabbage, bambino eggplant, much shorter cherry tomatoes, little head lettuce and mini-romaine. The pink radishes might look cute with these too. Some three foot sunflowers might end up with these veggies...everything in miniature. This will probably be the part of the veggie garden closest to the fairy garden :)

I have another metal structure (the top of an old metal gazebo) that's about 8' in diameter and 2' tall. It's got four "legs" coming off the centerpiece that curve down and used to attach to the 6' long trellis pieces my mom kept for her garden. When you set the top on the ground...it looks a lot like a four legged spider (LOL) The plan is to plant mini-pumpkins and gourds on "spidey" which one of the nephews have taken over as his project. He wants to add bush melons and zucchini between each "leg" with lots of nasturtiums and radishes...he's a big fan of companion gardening!

In front of this, I have a space for a bean teepee made from bamboo poles with different kinds of beans on it. I may include a few climbing peas, just to get something growing on it earlier in the year. On either side, there's space for some purple kohlrabi and other root vegetables.

Corn, potatoes, big pumpkins, vining melons, broccoli, and other root vegetables will have to go in another space with a lot more room...soon to be started. This year, they might go in my mom's garden :) She loves having the kids up to visit and she's reclaiming the back of the garden this year.

I also saw a neat idea of adding stepping stones painted with numbers and flowers/veggies for a hopscotch area. That would be perfect between the fairy garden and the kids' veggie area. Any other ideas? I'm looking for all ages/boys and girls. I have a lot of nieces and nephews who come out in the summer. Many don't have gardens at home, so the more they can do out here, the more they'll enjoy gardening in the future....I hope!

I have to admit, my garden is almost entirely plants, and not much else. It's more for me than the kids, but they love to watch things grow and bloom. Dd (5 yo) now has her own border, which we work on together - but it is all plants, no ornamnent. I suspect they would like cute stuff - but I'm just not a cutesy type of person, lol.

Oh, and dd loves swings, more than ds. I don't have one, partly so I don't have to swing her constantly!

The tunnels, teepees and houses are great ideas in theory, but my experience has been that kids are too terrified or grossed out to actually enter. The sunflower fort works best, especially if you lay down straw inside for them to play on. It's also nice if you interplant morning glories among the sunflowers to grow up on the stems.

One thing my kids love is to repurpose things for the garden. Fill an old pair of shoes or rubber boots with soil and plant something in them. or an old straw hat turned upside down.

Both my sons love to garden, and eat what they grow. I gave them each their own area in the garden. They made signs with their names on them so everyone would know that part was theirs. They also made plant markers that I laminated and stapled to popsicle sticks. When they were younger, we would make a garden calendar so they could count the days until each plant grew something that they could eat. Towards the end of the summer, they would choose something to take to their grandparents house and share. Part of that was explaining to their grandparents exactly how they grew it. There's nothing cuter than hearing a 4 year old say "You tuck the seed into a little dirt bed, drown it, and blow it a kiss goodnight".

I have found that if you get creative, there is quite a bit you can incorporate your children into when it comes to gardening.

More great ideas! The old boots would be fun and making plant markers would be a great art project. I wish I had room for a swing. I saw an idea for a little seating area using a "stump" and "toad" stools, which sounded fun for the little ones. I have a tea table and ice cream-style chairs in another area, for the older kids and adults.

I did change one thing. I decided to make one tunnel out of three arches, but have gaps in between, so there will be more light, it will be much easier to plant...and the kids can duck out in the middle if they get scared.

The checker board is a great idea...don't know how I missed that before :)

Also saw a cute idea for the mini-veggies, using a Peter Rabbit theme. That could be a lot of fun and give us a good excuse to read a story in the garden. Mom found a great book on painting stepping stones and other cement edgers to make them look like flowers, animals, and all sorts of neat things. I think that might be more fun for us than the kids (LOL)

Gardenluv- That is an adorable description of how to plant a seed!

In my experience, kids can get easily bored with one project. Planting is fine for some period but when they do get tired of planting and tending to these, entertain them with other things.

Bring out play cooking pots and pie plates. Kids love making mud pies. They will start cutting leaves and flowers,etc to do their 'cooking' so expect it.

Old bedsheets to make picnic blankets or tents. I would recommend asking them to assist you in setting up the teepees or tents. Nothing is more enjoyable to see one's project come up.

Save large refrigerator boxes if you can and with ducktape you can create houses or castles with them. Paint them.

use plants with textures like lamb's ears.

Make marigold & sunflower hats and leis.

Have an outdoor shower (easily done with a ladder and hose and a shower head) - kids love water. And this is especially useful in case they start tracking in dirt into your house.

Set up hay bales so the boys can play fort.

and in my experience - just let them be and they'll occupy themselves silly.