Spring minineast activity

[mumofone]

Can I realistically do a minibeast activity in the garden at this time of year or are they better done in summer? Can anyone give me any inspiration please?! Thank you :-)

[FloraDora]

Can I realistically do a minibeast activity in the garden at this time of year or are they better done in summer? Can anyone give me any inspiration please?! Thank you :-)

Minibeast work can be completed in Spring Summer and Autumn best of all. We are not quite into nature Spring yet so there isn't a lot to see - apart from worms and wood lice. But this time of the year is great for making minibeast habitats to search in later. Log piles, drilling holes in lumps of wood for little houses , we rebuilt our big minibeast hotel last week.
The woodland trust has got lots of good ideas separated into seasons.
A couple of weeks ago we dug over a vegetable bed and found loads of worms so we set up a tray with soil to put them in to watch in the garden - I did this with 2x just 3 year olds.
Have fun.

[mumofone]

Minibeast work can be completed in Spring Summer and Autumn best of all. We are not quite into nature Spring yet so there isn't a lot to see - apart from worms and wood lice. But this time of the year is great for making minibeast habitats to search in later. Log piles, drilling holes in lumps of wood for little houses , we rebuilt our big minibeast hotel last week.
The woodland trust has got lots of good ideas separated into seasons.
A couple of weeks ago we dug over a vegetable bed and found loads of worms so we set up a tray with soil to put them in to watch in the garden - I did this with 2x just 3 year olds.
Have fun.

Thanks flora, did you just have a tray with soil and the worms, nothing else? I always hear about wormerys but not sure if this is just a tray of worms or whether theres more to them! :-)
Youre so good with all your gardening stuff :-)

[FloraDora]

Thanks flora, did you just have a tray with soil and the worms, nothing else? I always hear about wormerys but not sure if this is just a tray of worms or whether theres more to them! :-)
Youre so good with all your gardening stuff :-)

Thankyou, I just love the outdoors, nature and gardening and the children I have are happy to play with me outside.

I have never been successful with wormeries, ( at school when we paid big bucks for fancy ones) or home made - big jars layered with sand and soil and watch their tracks. The worms just bury down and you just see a trail.

I put out a big tray like this though bought cheaply from a garden centre/ wilkinsons.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garland-2251-GARLAND-SQUARE-GARDEN/dp/B000VPDIZ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1457636558&sr=8-2&keywords=tray+garden

The children put a thin layer of soil in it then dig deep in our veg patch and find worms - transport them carefully on our plastic trowels - when we have about 8 we stop finding and then just watch them move and in the deeper areas bury down. We sat for 20 mins and watched them move all over the tray - ( DH lit up the outdoor wood burner to keep us a little bit warmer ) I like these big trays for this because the worms move a long way and the children have space to observe - one on each side with me . We return the worms to their original home after. A card board box cut down would do as you are only using it for a short time. White trays are good as the white shows through ( I have some big catering white trays) as the worms move the soil. but I still like my black square ones.