7 Fun Kids Projects to Attract Animals into the Garden or Yard

As gardens begin to replace those large expanses of grass and mowing we call yards, it’s best that we find ways to involve the kids with that whole sustainability thing we’ve got going on. That goes for teaching to grow food, as well as to make the garden a healthy ecosystem.

While plants and trees are the major points of interest in our vegetable beds and backyard orchards, they don’t compile an entire ecosystem. For that, we’ll need animals, too. From tiny microbes to beneficial insects to toads to bears (maybe not in the garden), animals play a role in keeping the environment humming along as it should.

The good news is that there are great garden projects to attract animals, and they are fun for children to make as well. Plus, spotting animals will be even more fun knowing that they’ve come to enjoy something you’ve built.

Garden Pond

A garden pond is perhaps the best way to attract a multitude of animals to the garden. Everything needs to drink, and lots of animals that are ideal garden guests, such as frogs and salamanders, like to live in and around water.

If buying a pond liner to put a larger pond is feasible, that’s great. The kids can help with digging and setting it up. If not, an old stock pot or bucket, some rocks, and so on can be used to make a couple of tiny ponds to put around the garden.

Wildflower Tract

Pollinators like bees and butterflies are wonderful animals to find flittering around the garden, and growing a wildflower tract is an awesome way to entice them there. What’s more, is that these tracts often work as habitats for other beneficial insects and animals as well.

Choose a spot near the garden and allow the grass to grow up wild. Add in some early-blooming bulbs, hardy perennials, and self-seeding annuals so that it comes back year after year with more flowers. Choose native and naturalized wildflowers.

Insect Hotel

Though some insects can wreak havoc in the garden, other insects are predatory, feed on those insects, and help to keep the ecosystem balanced in the task. So, rather than using lots of pesticides and poisons, it’s much better to provide housing for those predatory insects.

Insect hotels are construct from a mix or materials like rocks, logs, sticks, bamboo, bricks, old lumber, and so on. The idea is to create lots of nooks and crannies for larger insects to call home. Then, they’ll go out looking for something to eat.

A Rockery

Rockeries make for beautiful gardens, and they can be useful features in orchards as well. Beneficial animals like toads, frogs, snakes, and lizards use rocks as places for shelter. Meanwhile, they’ll feed on insects, mice, voles, and other pests that are attracted to gardens.

Rockeries can be used as an end of raised beds, they can be a free-standing pile of stones, or they can be stacked into terraces. The point is to put some rocks in the works because they make a great habitat for small predators.

A Stumpery

Stumperies are very similar to rockeries, only they are done with wood stumps. Not only will small reptiles and amphibians find stumperies are perfect homes, but lots of predatory insects will settle in, too.

DIY Birdfeeders

Birdfeeders can be made from all sorts of repurposed materials, everything from broken tea cups and saucers to pine cones and peanut butter. Kids will love making them, and they can be dotted all around the garden.

Most birds are welcomed additions to the garden ecosystem. They’ll clean up old weed seeds. They’ll drop fertilizer when they perch for rests. Some will even feed on pest insects. That’s without getting into how much fun they are to watch.

Sheet Mulch Garden Bed

A sheet mulch bed is made by layering organic material several inches, even a foot high, so that it will decompose and make compost as the vegetables grow in it. This organic material can include food scraps, grass clippings, straw, leaves, plant prunings, and shredded paper.

These beds generally have a layer of cardboard or several layers of newspapers at the bottom. The layer of cardboard is great for attracting earthworms, and the layers of organic material will be a haven for millions of microbes, insects, worms, and other decomposers.

These are low-impact, easy-to-do projects the kids will enjoy doing, and they’ll also love finding the wildlife they bring to the garden. All the while, that little backyard ecosystem will be getting more and more diverse.

Suggested Products:

Here are some product suggestions that promote sustainable gardening and organic practices.

1. Organic Seeds:
   • Garden Republic: Herb Garden Seeds for Planting – 10 Medicinal Herbs Seed Packets Non GMO
   • Garden Republic: Indoor Herb Garden Seed Starter Kit –  Tea Growing Kits, Grow Medicinal Herbs
2. Natural Pest Control Solutions:
   • Neem Oil Spray
   • Cute Farm Neem Spray Oil for Plants
3. Compost Bins:
   • Cooler Kitchen White 1.3 Gallon Steel Compost Bin 
   • Spigo Indoor Kitchen Compost BIN
4. Organic Soil: Organic Bokashi Bran for Quick and Easy Composting
5. Gardening Tools: Sustainable Hand Tools (e.g., trowel, pruners)
6. Soil Test Kits: Soil pH Test Kit.
7. Organic Mulch: Organic Mulch (e.g., straw or shredded leaves).
8. Gardening Books: Many can be found here