Family-Friendly Garden Projects for Autumn

Autumn is a great time to slow down from the busy summer period and embrace all the beauty of the natural world that the changing seasons bring. As the air turns crisp and the leaves drop from the trees, seize the opportunity to spend some quality time outdoors with your family.

Of course, summer gets all of the attention when it comes to garden fun, but autumn is actually perfect to get more hands-on without the beating sun.

For families with children, these cooler months offer a great opportunity to help them connect and learn about nature in creative ways. Many animals are getting ready for the bitter winter months and are making shelters, which makes autumn the best time to create shelters and provide food sources for the wildlife around you.

These projects also offer educational experiences for children, from learning about biodiversity and the lifecycle of insects to understanding how weather impacts wildlife. So, whether you have a large garden, a modest courtyard, or even just a balcony or windowsill, there are plenty of ways to make your outdoor space a haven for both family fun and local wildlife.

In this guide, we’ll delve into a range of simple and environmentally conscious garden projects that are perfect for families to enjoy together in the autumn season. Each activity is designed to be accessible for children, uses natural or repurposed materials where possible, and supports wildlife as it prepares for the colder months.

We’ll also offer advice for those without access to a garden, proving that even the smallest outdoor space can become a mini sanctuary for nature.

Why Autumn is a Great Season for Garden Projects

Autumn is often overlooked when it comes to outdoor activities, but in many ways, it’s the perfect time to enjoy your garden with the weather still mild enough to be comfortable, and the lower temperatures keeping flies and wasps away.

Nature itself is putting on a show, with vibrant colours, falling leaves, and all sorts of animal activity as wildlife prepares for the coming winter.

The transition from season to season makes autumn the best time for supporting the wildlife in your garden. The birds are beginning to migrate and search for food, hedgehogs are looking for safe spaces to hibernate in, and many insects are on the hunt for warm spots to shelter through the winter.

This means that the structures you build in autumn will be used almost immediately by wildlife in need.

Autumn offers children the best chance to see wildlife up close, tracking changes in the environment and helping them to identify each species, along with taking pride in building things that have a real impact.

These experiences not only foster a sense of responsibility but also cultivate a long-term appreciation for nature and sustainability.

Build a Bug Hotel

One of the best garden projects for kids is building a great bug hotel. These simple structures are easy to create and provide a real important resource to the ecosystem of a garden.

A bug hotel provides shelter for a variety of beneficial insects, such as ladybirds, solitary bees, lacewings, and beetles, and these creatures help pollinate plants and control garden pests, making your garden healthier overall.

To build your own bug hotel, start by finding a frame - usually in the form of an old wooden crate, a broken drawer or even by stacking some hollow bricks.

From here, fill the compartments with natural materials that will provide some nooks and crannies, The best things to use here are straw, pinecones, leaves, bamboo canes and even pieces of cardboard. The variety of materials will attract a wider range of insects, each looking for a different type of home.

For this, let the children take the lead in finding materials, and you can turn it into a scavenger hunt by heading out on a nature walk and encouraging them to collect items for the bug hotel.

Once constructed, place the bug hotel in a quiet, sheltered corner of the garden, preferably close to ground level and away from strong winds. Over time, you may notice new insect visitors taking up residence, an exciting reward for young builders.

Create a Leaf Pile Habitat

Another incredibly simple project to do with children is a leaf pile.

When trees start to shed their leaves, the first instinct for homeowners is to bag them up and get rid of them, however, fallen leaves are a really valuable natural resource for wildlife, providing a key habitat for many creatures.

By gathering the leaves into a pile and placing them in a quiet, shaded area of your garden, you can create a shelter for frogs, toads, beetles, centipedes, and even hibernating hedgehogs. The loose, decomposing leaves offer warmth and protection while also enriching the soil beneath over time.

This is a really easy project to get the kids involved in as it essentially just requires them to rake and pile leaves in one area. As a bonus activity, challenge your children to track which animals come to visit the pile.

Look for footprints in the mud or snow, use a wildlife camera if you have one, or keep a nature diary with drawings and notes.

Make a Homemade Bird Feeder

Birds are the easiest type of wildlife to entice into your garden, and autumn is a really important time to provide birds with extra food as they prepare to migrate. With berries and insects become scarcer in the cooler months, garden feeders full of nuts, pulses and other nutritious items offer a reliable source of nourishment to help birds maintain their energy levels.

Making a homemade bird feeder is a very easy project for the whole family, and one that children require very little supervision to do. One of the simplest designs involves using a toilet roll tube, a spoonful of peanut butter (unsalted and unsweetened), and some birdseed.

Here, you can simply spread the peanut butter on the outside of the tube, then roll it in birdseed until it is well-coated, and then thread some string or thin rope through the tube, and then hang it from a tree or fence post.

Of course, you can also get more creative by using items like old teacups, yoghurt pots, or citrus rinds, but there is really no need to keep things cheap and easy.

Upcycling waste materials into feeders is a brilliant way to reinforce eco-friendly habits and show children how to reuse household items in clever ways.

Once the feeder is up, encourage the family to watch which birds come to visit. Keep a pair of binoculars and a bird identification guide nearby, and start a tally of sightings, and over time, you might notice regular visitors and even recognise different species by their songs or feeding habits.

Construct a Hedgehog Home

Hedgehog numbers in the UK are on a concerning decline, so providing a safe home from around your home is one of the most impactful things you can do in your garden.

Essentially, a hedgehog house needs to be small, weatherproof and protected from predators and extreme weather, and you can create this without too much effort.

To make a basic hedgehog home, you’ll need some untreated wood to construct a box roughly 30cm wide, 30cm long, and 30cm high, with a 13cm x 13cm entrance hole.

Adding a short tunnel to the entrance will help prevent predators like foxes and badgers from reaching inside. Then, fill the house with dry leaves or straw, and position it in a quiet, shaded part of the garden, ideally under a hedge or near a compost pile.

Of course, you can buy a pre-made hedgehog house, but people often find that making one from scratch is a great activity for the entire family.

Children can help with simple steps like placing materials inside or choosing the right location, but once the house is in place, it’s best to leave it undisturbed. If you’re lucky, it may soon become a winter home for a hibernating hedgehog, which is something that the kids will never forget.

Plant an Autumn Container Garden

Autumn may not seem like the best time for planting, but there are plenty of hardy flowers and herbs that will actually thrive throughout the cooler months. Creating an autumn container garden is a great way to add colour and life to your outdoor space while giving children a chance to learn about gardening.

You can start this simple project by picking a few pots and containers, either plastic, ceramic or any other upcycled items like buckets and baskets, and let the children decorate the containers with paint or permanent markers to personalise them.

Choose plants that are suitable for autumn conditions, such as violas, pansies, cyclamen, heather, and ornamental cabbage. Also consider the sturdy herbs like rosemary and thyme which do well in cool weather and can also be used in meals, adding another layer of engagement.

Encourage your children to be responsible for watering and caring for the plants, even through the winter months, this helps them develop a sense of routine and responsibility.

What If You Don’t Have a Garden?

Of course, not every family home has a garden, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of projects to get involved with. If you have even the smallest of outdoor space, like a balcony or windowsill, you can turn it into a wildlife-friendly zone.

The first option is to create a mini bug hotel by using a small tin can or wooden box filled with paper straws, twigs, and cardboard. These miniature bug hotels can be hung on balcony railings or tucked onto a windowsill, attracting insects like solitary bees and ladybirds who will use them as safe resting spots.

If you’re looking to attract birds, try a suction-cup bird feeder that sticks directly to the windowpane, as these allow you to observe birds up close without needing a garden at all. They’re particularly popular with young children, who can watch birds feeding just a few feet away from the warmth of the indoors.

Potted plants are another fantastic way to bring nature to your balcony or window box. Herbs like basil, mint, and chives are easy to grow and offer a source of nectar for pollinators in early autumn. Let children plant seeds in small pots and track the progress each week. You can even add labels and drawings to help identify each plant.

Teaching Eco-Friendly Values Through Nature Play

One of the best things about these autumn garden projects is just how easily they encourage children to learn about eco-friendly habitats, while also providing wildlife with safety and food.

By using repurposed household items and natural materials, children learn to see waste differently and truly understand how their actions can impact the environment on a real scale.

Children who spend time in nature are much more likely to value and protect it as they grow, and simple projects like these create the foundation for those lifelong attitudes.

While autumn may signal the end of the growing season, it can be just the beginning when it comes to engaging, educational, and rewarding outdoor activities for the whole family.

Whether you’re building a bug hotel, creating a leaf pile for hibernating creatures, or planting a colourful container of cooler flowers, each project is an opportunity to bond, explore, and give something back to nature.

Most importantly, these activities don’t require perfection, and you don’t need a large garden or expensive tools. Instead, with just a bit of creativity, a sense of adventure, and a willingness to get your hands dirty, the rewards are well worth it.

So bundle up, head outside, and see what magic you can create in your garden this autumn.

If you’re planning on preparing your garden on a larger scale this autumn, and plan on having some longer-term landscaping work done ready for the spring and summer of 2026, why not head over to our pricing guides to find out how much each project may cost - it may be less than you think!

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