Planning Play Areas Into Your Landscaping

Written by Home Buying Treks on February 6th, 2010

Every home with children should have an area somewhere outdoors for them to play. 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, 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 usually fairly easy to add at least a small play area into your garden design plans.

For small kids, a play area should be closer to the home so the children can be visible but not feel too restricted. An area, such as a kitchen window, that is visible from the most used areas of the house is good. 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 (kept covered when not in use, to keep neighbors pets out) will keep younger kids happy for hours. Add some natural elements to the sandbox like small stones or sea shells. (Later, you can turn any sandboxes into garden beds.) An old log makes a good climbing frame, as can quite a small tree, especially if it has strong branches not too far from the ground.

Older children enjoy playing further away from the house, but they still need a safe area created in the front yard or backyard landscaping where they can enjoy imaginative play. Older children love to use their imagination, so don’t provide them with a treehouse immediately. Begin with the simple, possibly using some boards nailed to a tree as steps or even a piece of rope to climb up into the trees. Then the tree can become anything that comes to the imagination. A plane, boat, castle, house, or almost anything.

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 doesn’t fit the rest of your landscaping plans, consider using bark chunks or chips as a surface cushion under play equipment which can help ease the pain of those falls and tumbles that are bound to happen.

A hard concrete patch will also be invaluable as the children get older. This is where they’ll break in the rollerblades, learn to ride a bicycle, play jacks, jump rope, and learn and play many childhood games. And who knows. They may even take up gardening if you give the kids a sunny spot of their very own.

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