Garden Design for Children
Activities that Children Enjoy
Start by listing out all the activities that your children currently enjoy. The simplest approach is to observe how they spend their time in your own garden, their friends' gardens and in parks.
Whereas many adults are happy to sit quietly in a garden, either resting, reading or simply enjoying the smells and sights, children rarely want to sit for long and when they do they are probably catching their breath before embarking on the next energy sapping activity.
The suggestions listed below are intended as a starter and you really need to adapt the list according to the needs of your children, their age, abilities and interests.
The overall aim is to attract your children with healthier options than TV, video games and social networking, not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with any of these activities.
As a starter for your list, consider the following general ideas:
- Most children like to have hidden places that can form the basis for no end of games and even when they are older, children may enjoy having somewhere that they consider to be their "favourite place"
- All children love the idea of a "den" – some kind of structure that they can make into their own. Older children may be able to construct something to their own design if there are suitable materials available for them to work with. Younger children may need some help from adults. If you have the space you may decide on a Wendy House. They come in all kinds of designs and sizes and, if chosen carefully, can be incorporated into the overall design of the garden. Children also need an area where they can have a rough and tumble without hurting
- themselves, so the surface is really important.
- There will inevitably be tumbles so take this into account when deciding the kind of paths and hard landscaping you choose.
- You may decide to incorporate more ambitious playground equipment such as swings or slides. Unless cost is not an issue, you need to choose features that can be used in different ways as your children's' interests change, although some items, like a swing seem to be of enduring interest.
- Other features may, by their very nature, be short term such as a tent or a sand pit made from four sides and a lid.
- More permanent features that you might consider could include the likes of a paddling pool or trampoline, though it may be prudent to incorporate them as semi permanent features.
Once you have your list more or less complete, you can use it to decide what needs to be incorporated into your garden design that can then be adapted to provide the activities that are most suitable for your children.
For example, you may opt for an open grassed area that can be adapted to suit many of the activities in your list. You can buy grass species that are tough enough to withstand most children's activities and still be a pleasant place to sit out or even have a picnic. Other surfaces that may be equally suitable might include bark or even some kind of synthetic child-friendly surface.
You may incorporate tress and shrubs to provide secret places for children, though you will need to select varieties that are tough and able to withstand a fair degree of abuse.
In fact, if the garden area already includes some mature trees, you may be able to construct a tree house, which always has appeal for children and takes up very little floor space. However, you should check with your local planning department to see if you need specific permission.
You can get additional ideas by visiting children's play areas, particularly those that have been designed with the environment in mind. There are some amazingly creative ideas that are constructed from natural materials, often using construction methods that are simple whilst at the same time being robust.
It is probably true to say that play opportunities that incorporate more natural features, such as rocks, bushes, trees, banks, mounds and the like will stand the test of time much better than plastic and metal constructions.
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