Camping six metres from the back door

A garden camp-out is the best value adventure available to a family. It costs nothing, requires no booking, and produces roughly the same volume of story as a proper trip.

What you actually need

• A tent, or four chairs and the largest blanket in the house.
• Torches. One each, non-negotiable, and accept that they will be on all night.
• Something warm underneath. The ground gets far colder than anyone expects.
• A flask of something hot for about ten o'clock, when the novelty begins to wear thin.

The bit where it gets dark

There is a moment, usually around the point the last of the light goes, when a familiar garden becomes an entirely unfamiliar place. This is the whole reason to do it — and it is also the moment somebody wants to go in.

Name the sounds as they happen. That is the fence. That is next door's cat. That is Waffle, eating something he should not be eating. A named noise stops being frightening almost immediately.

Watch the episodeThe Garden Camp-Out8:42