It was school holidays here recently – Time for an adventure! For me, I’m always on the lookout for one that is fun, cheap and educational.

If you do some research about your local area there most likely will be a local Botanic garden or parkland nearby. I’m grateful that there are heaps of natural attractions that are close to where I live.

Two botanical gardens that we love visiting are the Maroochydore Botanical Gardens and the Noosa Botanic Gardens.

Our adventure this school holidays was a picnic at Noosa Botanic gardens.

Off we set with our picnic rugs and a packed lunch. It doesn’t need to be an elaborate lunch (but it can be!) Usually we pack a loaf of bread, salad stuff, sliced cheese and ham to make sandwiches there.

These gardens have large grassy areas, which looked green and lush after the recent rains. It was a perfect spot for a picnic! I like to find an area that is fairly open so the kids can run around while I chill out on the picnic rug after lunch.

Now to the adventure part!

Exploring the gardens after lunch is always fun. The garden has wide paths that the kids can run along, a cool fern house (which reminds them of the Jurassic Park movie), wetlands to spot birds in, sculptures and an amphitheatre.

Botanic gardens also have many of their plants and trees labelled so it’s fun trying to pronounce botanical names. I am currently studying horticulture so I was happy that I could recognise some family and genus names.

I also love to get close to the plant if possible. For me it’s important to tell my kids not to explore in the actual garden beds, so we only get close to the plant if it’s not in an out of bounds area so the kids can observe the foliage. We discovered the Crocodile Fern on this visit and the pattern on the leaves was amazing – hence the name, Crocodile Fern! My kids also asked, ‘Do you think the plant snaps like a crocodile?’

We also discovered a rare King Fern. It was so majestic. Letting the kids know that there aren’t that many King Ferns in the wild made them feel special that they could see one up close.

The beauty about an outing like this is that the kids can have an awesome time exploring the outdoors and appreciating what nature has to offer. Kids are curious and I love it when they discover unusual plants and are amazed by them. My kids are computer obsessed so seeing that they can still be amazed by plants and have fun in the outdoors makes me happy.

Before you go on your garden adventure, don’t forget the following:

– Snacks and drinks – Exploring is hungry and thirsty work!
– Insect Repellent – Just in case there are pesky biting critters around
– Hats and Sunscreen – Adventures aren’t much fun if you come home sunburnt

Now over to you – What have some of your garden adventures been? Do you have any garden adventure tips?  We would love to hear them. Please share in the comments below!