5 YEAR GUARANTEE 
Gardens are brilliant for children. Most grown-ups are more than happy for you to get outside, so pull on your wellies and get out there. Here is a fun idea to inspire you to discover, learn and feel connected to our awesome planet!
One of the easiest things to do (and most satisfying) is to make a bug hotel. Your grown-ups will thank you for introducing helpful insects into the garden and you will get to encourage and observe loads of different minibeasts. You can use anything natural for this and the best part is that all of it is just waiting to be found. Get foraging… larger bits of bark are brilliant because they have lots of hidey holes, as are larger bits of wood that are starting to rot. Old terracotta plant pots can be filled with shorter lengths of sticks or even long grasses or straw. Garden canes make brilliant shelters for smaller bugs to crawl inside, but make sure you check with a grown up before taking one from their carefully arranged vegetable patch! With some help from a grown up, you can cut the cane into smaller lengths and tie them together to make an interesting habitat for creatures to use, such as earwigs or spiders.
Think about the structure you want to create and choose a quiet corner of your garden, where you won’t need to disturb it once you’ve finished. Have you got an unwanted pallet or an old wooden box that you could turn on its side? Plan the basis of the hotel and then think how to fill it. Try and make a roof of some kind so that the materials can be sheltered and keep the bugs from the rain – they will love all the nooks and crannies you have created for them.
You can return to your bug hotel from time to time to inspect it but remember to replace everything as it was, so that the bugs can continue to live happily. You could keep a tally chart of the bugs you see and even create a pictogram and take it into school if you want to impress your teacher!
