How to Design a Garden Suitable for Kids

by Chatter DC News

If you are planning a garden makeover or even a redesigning now that you have young children around, there are endless possibilities. Here are some ideas to help you design a garden that is suitable for kids.

Play Equipment

Play equipment options are endless. What you decide to get will depend on how big your garden is and how much you want to use your garden for other things. Play equipment can be great fun but it can get in the way of you tending the rose bushes or hanging out the washing. Design one area of the garden for the kids’ play equipment if you want to utilize the rest of it for other things. It can be a good idea to put this equipment close to the house where you can keep an eye on the kids when they are outside. Favorites include swings, slides, and trampolines.

Sandpit

Kids love sandpits and they will have hours of fun playing in them. You can buy plastic sandpits from most good toy shops. These often come ready-made but you can put them together yourself and then just fill them with sand. If you are good at carpentry you might decide to design and build one yourself. Enlist the help of your kids if they are old enough as they will love knowing that they have assisted with the project and they will get a lot of enjoyment from building as well as playing in the sand afterwards. Use an online sand calculator to work out how much sand you will need depending on the size of the sandpit.

Storage

There are many garden toys that can be put away after use. This is great if you want to be able to use your garden for other things, such as entertaining once the kids have gone to bed. Toys such as paddling pools, balls and bikes are great for this purpose. There are many stylish sheds on offer that you can use for storing these toys or putting them away for the winter.

Gardening

Develop a lifelong love of gardening in your kids by letting them help you to tend the plants and flowers. You can get them involved with simple things such as watering the plants to start off with, and once they are old enough, help them to create their own section of the garden. They will love watching flowers grow and bloom and they could even help you to cultivate fruit, vegetables, and herbs. This will teach them a lot about food and where it comes from. They will enjoy eating the food they have grown themselves too and this will encourage them to eat healthily.

If you have the space in your garden, you could even get creative and design and grow a small maze to run around it. This will keep them busy and occupied as small children and it will still be a novelty feature once they have grown up.

Lawn

Hopefully, your kids will want to spend a lot of time in the garden playing games, running after balls, and using their play equipment. This is fantastic for them, but it might play havoc with your lawn. A beautiful lush green lawn looks amazing but isn’t necessarily practical with small active children around. Consider laying an artificial lawn and this will look wonderful whatever the children have been playing with on it. The added bonus is that you won’t have to spend your time mowing it so you will have more time to play with your kids in the fresh air.

Water

Water should be restricted to a water table or a hose that kids can play with. An ornamental pond may look wonderful, but it is a bad idea around young child. To avoid accidents, remove these when you are redesigning your kid-friendly garden. You can always put them back once the kids are older and not likely to have accidents if you want to.

Decking

If you have decided to lay decking in your patio area, be mindful of the type of material that you use. Wood and stone tend to get quite slippery, and kids can have nasty accidents falling over on a hard surface. There are some great non-slip materials that you can use as decking and this will help to keep your kids safe when they are playing outside.

Follow these tips and you will have a safe, beautiful garden that kids will love spending time in.

 

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