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SO YOU’VE bought them the junior gardening gloves, miniforks and little wheelbarrows to get your kids in the mood for gardening – but when all the planting’s done, what’s next?

Well, other enticements might include a den, tucked away from the adults, preferably in a shady part of the garden that will not suffer from high use with little ones coming in and out all the time.

For an improvised hideaway, create a simple teepee from willow canes pushed in the ground in a circle and tied together at the top. If you want something prettier for next year, plant climbers such as clematis to climb up the canes in spring to provide flower cover.

A treehouse may be the ultimate den, but it can be costly and complicated to erect if you’re not a natural DIY-er, so you may be better off letting kids make their own den.

Leave a wild area for them to roam around in, preferably towards the back of the garden, but where you can keep an eye on them, providing a variety of twiggy sticks, plants and wood and let their imagination run wild.

They can also make their own camps using old curtains, old sheets, blankets and pegs.