Planning Play Areas Into Your Landscaping
Every home that has children should have a designated place outside for the them to play in. Making an outdoor play area for your kids has a lot of advantages: the children are happy, parents are happy because the kids are safe, and the rest of the garden can grow without the threat of little feet trampling through it. In fact, you may find that if you provide a very attractive spot, all the neighborhood kids will end up at your place, which can be a mixed blessing. It’s generally quite simple to design a garden plan with at least a small amount of play area for the younger folks in the family.
For very small children, the area needs to be close to the house so the children can be closely supervised, but not feel too restrained. An area that can be seen from the kitchen window is ideal. Many manmade toys – swings, slides, climbing frames and so on – are available for such an area, but young children love to think out their own games and will enjoy being inventive with natural materials. A basic sandbox will keep small children happy for hours. Equip the sandbox with some natural materials like stones and shells. (Later, you can turn the sandbox into a raised garden.) Small trees with strong branches close to the ground and old logs works good as climbing frames.
Older children like to play a little further away from the house but still need an area that feels safe in the front yard or backyard landscaping where they can enjoy playing. Older children love to use their imagination, so don’t provide them with a treehouse immediately. Start simply, perhaps with some timber steps nailed to a tall tree or a rope ladder for climbing into the branches. Then the tree can become anything that comes to the imagination. A plane, boat, castle, house, or almost anything.
An area of grass can be a good addition for playing as it is soft enough to fall down on. If this idea doesn’t quite go with the rest of your landscaping, give bark chunks or chips a try as a cushion under play equipment.
A concrete slab will also serve a purpose as the kids get older. Learning to ride a bike, rollerblade, play jacks, jump rope, and many other childhood games will happen right here. And those other skills may even include gardening, if you give them a small, sunny place of their very own.
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