You may have a very pristine garden that you designed and decorated to your heart’s content, using it for garden parties and hosting summer barbeques. But when children come into the picture, that garden is transformed into more of a play area for your kids. It is no longer your peaceful and relaxing abode but a place where your kids will be playing ball games and making forts; some might even use it for cycling.
Your natural paradise must not be littered with plastic toys and structures. However, it does not have to be an either-or situation. Read on to learn a few tricks to transform your garden into a kid’s play zone that you will also love to use.
Keep The Natural Vibe
You don’t need to buy particular items for your kids to play with. You can create simple areas to play in using your imagination. Using natural materials such as tree stumps, you can make a seating area or obstacle course for your kids. You can also add decorative fence panels or paint stones and spread them around the lawn
.You will have accumulated waste while pruning it, and chopping the garden, but instead of throwing them out instantly, you can leave them for a while for your kids to have fun with. You can leave it in a pile and ask your children to make something fun out of it.
Gather The Right Play Equipment
Consider incorporating the ideas of your children when you are redesigning the landscape. If you are constructing steps, you can include a stainless steel slide by adding a simple sand pit at the bottom. Making these additions will give your garden a stylish look while keeping the kids happy and engaged at the same time.
Lay A Playing Turf
The lawn is the best place for your kids to play. You can design a playing turf where your kid can practice handstands and cartwheels. It can be a pitch for ball games or a place where they can sprawl. Since there will be a lot of running about in a play turf, choose plants that are easy to maintain and shrubs that can stand up to being trampled for the flower borders surrounding the turf. You can take gardening tips from experts to know how to maintain the garden with a playing turf and give your garden a more wholesome and natural feel.
Add A Curved Path
You can add a hard surface with decking or paving so your kids can scoot, cycle, or roller-blade on it, as kids love riding anything with wheels. A standard patio is fine, but adding a curved path will give the garden a more adventurous feel. A quirky path that wiggles around the garden will be much more enjoyable for kids than a straight path. This type of curved path will inspire various races and games for your children. Adding a more aesthetic value to your garden, a curved path will encourage you to take evening strolls with your significant other, enjoying the sun going down.
Design a Sensory Garden
You should build the garden in such a way so that your children can stimulate all their senses while playing in the garden. Flowers with multicolored stems, such as nasturtiums, marigolds, and sunflowers, can stimulate the sight. During a quiet moment, hearing can be stimulated by the sounds of rattling seed heads or the rustling of grass.
Your kids can use their sense of touch through the downy leaves of sage or other textures. You can stimulate the sense of smell by including the curry plant or the chocolate cosmos. For taste, try growing juicy strawberries or herbs that are easy to grow, such as mint and chives.
Include A Sunken Trampoline
Bouncing up and down for hours on end is a surefire way to keep children entertained. Trampolines can be a great choice, as they are available in the market in various sizes. The only issue might be that they take up a lot of space. You can go with a sunken trampoline instead if you are looking for something less imposing. You can get a professional to install the sunken trampoline for you in your garden or get a DIY kit if you feel able. Getting an embedded trampoline is safer as children won’t fall off it, and there is no risk of it blowing over. Plus, it will look great in your garden.
Have Multiple Uses for Your Furniture
You can make your swing double as a beautiful wooden swing seat. Your kids may love to sway, but you may not have the space to install a proper frame. Getting a wooden rocker would be the best solution. You can also get a fabric hammock and tie it between two posts for a lot of fun. You can also attach the hammock to a portable stand which you can remove later.
Have Options For Setting Up A Camp
Children love playing in makeshift hideouts and forts, which you can easily create by shading out a garden corner or building a treehouse. You can get a bean tepee; it’s a simple solution to support beans and can also be used as a camp where the kids can play with their outdoor toys. You can simply erect this by heading to your local garden store and buying bamboo or willow canes to build a circle that is held in place using garden twine. Next, you can plant beans at the base of the frame and train them to grow up the frame.
Allow People To Take Cover
It might get too hot outside on a summer day in a completely open space. It can get too much, especially for the children, so you should create a shade for them to retreat to. Trees are the best natural option, you can also erect an umbrella, a canopy, or a pergola. But the kids need some incentive to stay out of the sun in the shade so put a sand pit, swing, or a play table in the shaded spot. If it’s raining, the shaded spot will allow you to go out for some fresh air while being safe from getting wet.
Use Mosaic Tiles Creatively
A great way to brighten up your garden is using mosaic tiles. You can easily buy them from craft suppliers. You just need to select a waterproof grout and go wild with your imagination. If you are feeling generous, create large designs on patios and walls. You can easily create numbered stepping stones which can be the basis for various games for the children to play, plus they really liven up the place with their colorful look.
Paint a Blackboard On A Wall
If you are scratching your head over how to decorate a spare wall, think no more. You can transform it by adding a coat of blackboard paint into an art station. If your wall isn’t flat, clad it with some exterior plywood to add a sealant along the edges. You can also just hang a framed blackboard on your wall and place a seat below it so the children can use it as a kneeling spot to reach over and mark their art on the blackboard.
Make a Wall Climbable
Get your kids to climb a wall instead of driving you up the wall. You can easily buy ready-made climbing walls that are sometimes included as a play structure package. You can use a pack of climbing wall holds to create your own climbing equipment if you need more space to install large equipment pieces. The wall you choose has to be very sturdy so you can easily screw the holds at various points. It’s essential to secure the screws properly, so you should go with an expert to handle the process.
Arrange For Storage Options
Kids are bound to create a lot of clutter, so arrange for storage areas in your garden that are easy to access so you can hide the clutter and keep it out of the rain. You can add space under your deck for this purpose or get containers purpose-built. You can also choose garden seats. You can also get bins and label them up as to what goes in them. This would be a fun way for children to tidy up after themselves.
Wrapping up
A garden can be the part of the property that you spend a lot of your time in to relax and to have a workout while gardening. But having kids in the house will require you to redecorate the garden for multipurpose use. Following the handy tips mentioned above, you can repurpose your garden into being a kid-friendly zone where adults can have a good time too. Happy gardening to you.
