Summer has finally arrived, and it’s a great time to get the kids enjoying some time outside. If your little ones are dinosaur-mad and you’re looking for themed activities, how about creating a mini dinosaur garden? You can make a perfect prehistoric landscape with any watertight container - an old Belfast style sink from a local reclamation yard is ideal - and a few everyday garden items. Let’s explore how.

What you’ll need:

1. A watertight container

2. A lightweight drainage aggregate such as LECA

3. Compost

4. Landscape fabric

5. Gravel

6. Slate chippings

7. Rocks or pebbles

8. Small plastic bowl

9. Plants

• 10. And of course, dinosaurs!

What to do

1. Place your watertight container in its final position - ideally a reasonably sunny spot in the garden - and fill the bottom around 5cm deep with lightweight aggregate. Alternatively, you can use small bits of broken rubble or pottery - this is purely to help with drainage.

2. Cover the aggregate with landscape (weed) fabric. This will prevent the compost from falling down and blocking the plug hole (if using a sink) or any drainage holes.

3. Fill the container with compost up to about 5cm from the top. Then scoop out enough to make room for your small plastic bowl. Fill this with water and arrange rocks, pebbles or slate around it to hide the rim.

4. Plant your plants, placing taller ones at the back. You can use ferns, spinach, mosses, herbs and alpine rockery plants. If you’d like some flowers too, try nasturtiums or violas.

5. Cover the remaining bare compost with landscape fabric, then spread a generous layer of gravel over the top.

6. Add your dinosaurs to their new home.

You can be as creative as you like with the placement of your plants and the features you build. Use pebbles and slate to make a rocky outcrop for the dinosaurs to climb. You could even find a large rock to be a volcano, and have fun adding red, orange and yellow paint to make it look like it’s erupting. Coat with clear polyurethane or acrylic to make it waterproof.

Plant ideas

Herbs - Thyme, dill, rosemary, coriander, flat-leaf parsley

Alpine rockery plants - Sedum, mountain daisy, dwarf mountain pine, abelia

Shrubs - Hebe ‘Green Globe’, dwarf balsam fir

Moss - Irish moss, delicate fern moss, haircap moss

Discover a dinosaur adventure near you

To celebrate the creation of your mini dinosaur garden, why not take your children on a dinosaur adventure live at a theatre near you? Dinosaur World Live is touring the UK from August, journeying from Ilfracombe to Aberdeen to introduce kids to the wonders of the prehistoric age with the help of stunning puppets and a talented cast.

This walking with dinosaurs theatre show is aimed at little ones aged three and up, being just 50 minutes long with no interval.  You’ll meet triceratops, microraptor, T-rex and more. Search ‘family theatre near me’ to discover when it’s playing at your local venue and book your tickets in advance to avoid missing out.