Planning A Play Area In Your Landscaping

Every home that has children should have a designated place outside for the them to play in. Providing an outdoor play area for children brings lots of rewards: the children love it, parents know the children are safe and happy, and the rest of the garden is (usually) left to grow without too much disturbance. In fact, it may turn out that if you create a nice enough place, It could become a favorite hangout of all the kids in the neighborhood, which might or might not be something you want. It is usually reasonably easy to adapt  landscape plans so that at least a small play area can be provided for the younger members of the family.

Play areas for smaller children should be placed closer to the house. The kids will be visible but not feel too restrained. An area that is visible from a kitchen window is perfect. While there are a lot of manmade toys that can be placed in a play area, young kids will often prefer to think up their own games using nothing more than sticks, rocks, and other natural materials. A simple sandbox (covered when not in use, to keep out neighborhood pets) will keep small children happy for hours, especially if there is a source of water nearby. Place some natural materials like rocks or sea shells in the sandbox. (When the kids are all grown up, you can turn the sandboxes into a raised garden beds.) Old logs make a good climbing frames and so can a small tree, especially if it has strong branches that are closer to the ground.

The older kids will prefer their play areas be a little further away from the house. Still, they should always be in a very visible place that has been specifically planned into the front yard design or backyard landscaping ideas. Older kids still like to use their imaginations so hold off a bit before giving them a treehouse. Start simply, possibly with some board steps nailed to a tree or a rope ladder up into the branches of a tree. Then the tree can be anything from a house to a plane to anything of the imagination.

A rough grassy patch can be good as a play area as it is soft enough to fall in and possibly long enough to be a hiding spot. If this just doesn’t seem to go with your landscaping ideas, consider bark mulch as a good surface underneath play areas, and especially those with a trampoline, as a cushion from falls.

An area of concrete will also be a well used spot as the kids grow up. Learning to ride a bike, rollerblade, play jacks, jump rope, and many other childhood games will happen right here. And who knows. They may even take up gardening if you give the kids a sunny spot of their very own.