The Lawn Garden Games
- Harry Fletcher
- Jun 8
- 4 min read
Hello!
As we reach the summer, we are always looking to change things with our garden. A few years ago, we added the decking - for musical talent to show their skills. We then added a Wood Kitchen, We can cook all sorts of street food, hold garden parties and private events; We also built a sensory play area ( mud kitchen) for children under the ages of 10 years old... but what about the teenagers? the older kids? The kids inside an adult body? (me). Mostly we noticed we kids were just stuck on their phones or tablets trying to end the boredom of the family dinner, we thought "kids need to be more interactive", it was then we thought, we need something for them to do!
After looking at a few options, I remembered a game I use to play quite often with some school friends over the years, no one really knows about it... but they should! We had a big mud pit in the middle of our garden left from the marquee we rented over winter... but we quickly got to work and used this to our advantage! Myself (Harry) and maintenance man Hippy jon, used a series of rakes to flatten out the lumpy surface.
We had been meaning to for a while, when you take food out it was often a hazard and people who struggled to walk found it hard to walk across it, so after a few weeks of raking while the surface was wet, my managed to get it level in time for some grass seed!
The Locals, didn't share my optimism the grass would come back... the saying goes "a 3rd grows, a 3rd dies and a 3rd goes to the crows" so, we over compensated and stuck down around £350 pounds worth of grass seed... and it worked, our lawn was back, lump free and now level enough to install some interactive lawn games
The First Lawn games, My favourite game, The one that popped into my head was "KUBB - aka - Viking chess"
Kubb is one of the oldest lawn games out there. Originally from Gotland - Sweden's largest island, it is believed dated back to Viking times. It seems so fundamental and primitive looking in from the outside when you have never played it, but when you play it - it opens a world of fun, and you soon realise you have probably just gained a new addiction. Its fun for all ages, anybody can play it, it just takes a little bit of skill. We do ask when kids are playing this game at the Woodman's, they must be playing with an adult.
A more commonly known American game however, Legend claims a Bavarian cabinet maker named Matthias Kuepermann invented the game after watching children throw rocks into a groundhog's hole, replacing them with safer corn-filled bags. But in 1883, Heyliger de Windt patented a game called "Parlor Quoits," which featured slanted boards, bean bags, and a square hole. It evolved over the following decades, utilizing the abundant dried corn found on American Midwestern farms is its documented roots. Its a brilliant game, and again, anyone can play it.
So with these two games install, it was time to launch to the public that we were doing these games in our garden. The Idea of them was to get families to play together, family to interact, get children of their multimedia devices and challenge their parents to some bragging rights. So we reached out to Ross Taylor at "Mindset Bros" and asked would they like to join us one evening and get the lads to play while we cooked them food from the wood kitchen and had a little film of them enjoying the games...
It was an amazing evening, sun was shining, the lads were in good spirits and food was being churned out of the wood kitchen. The MindSet Bros, started on cornhole, the more familiar of the 2 games, all while sheepishly looking at the KUBB set wondering what the hell it was. The were a few comments about it, what it is? are they just blocks of wood? it doesn't look fun to play! but i knew, soon as someone started, they wouldn't be able to stop.
Two lads, finally plucked up the courage to have a game, all while i was explaining the basic fundamental rules but explaining there is another level to this game once they learn the fundamentals of it. They quickly learnt, then played the intermediate rules.... I couldn't get them off it! 2 hours they were playing and only stopped because it was just after 10pm and visibility was bad but everyone jumped into play, all stating where this game come from? its amazing! it was good to see it was such a hit.
A few days later, I found out a few lads from the group had bought their own KUBB set from amazon they loved it that much.
I feel KUBB, while very popular universally, doesn't really get much attention in the UK, and especially on the Isle of Wight. So here we are, determined to get people in it so we can start a little tournament at the Woodman's and really have a fun filled event playing the Lawn Games.
So if you are visiting us this year, give it a try, you won't be disappointed.
We hope you pop along, and give it a chance!
Thank you for reading.
Landlord Harry
