How to Design a Childrens Play Area in Your Landscape

Children need an area to play in the landscape. There are a number of ways to integrate play areas with the landscape in general. Here are some.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Choose a site for your play area that is easily visible from inside the house and outside patios. You want to be able to keep an eye on young children at all times.

2. If you live in a warm climate, you might to choose a site for your play area where there will be some natural shade. If you plant a young tree, the children will probably grow faster than it will when it comes to providing shade! You might also want to situate a play area near a water source so you can have water available for play and clean-up.

3. Shredded recycled tires are safe and perfect for play areas -- and they come in colors.

   Use a ground cover that will handle traffic and falls. Shredded bark and gravel are often used as well as lawn. My favorite is to use bags of shredded tires that need no upkeep, are safe even if swallowed, last for a long time, provide bounce for falls and can be moved elsewhere when the children grow bigger -- maybe to a sport court.

4. The PlayMor yacht

   There are some fabulous constructs for children to play in making over the old-fashioned play house into impressive themed designs or acrobatic set-ups. Some have slides, stairs, 'tree' houses and built-in games. There are forts and tents and more. You can construct your own and find design plans for building play houses on the Internet.

5. Giant sunflowers are fun to grow.

   You can decorate the child play area with a children's garden to add interest and fun for the kids. Grow big sunflowers, rambling pumpkin vines or grapes over a surrounding fence.

6. These are just a few ideas you can use to help you build a space for young children to play. And if you are dreaming of building a swimming pool one day when the children are a little older, why not consider building your play area right on that site? That way the space is well used until you are ready to build that dream pool.

Resources

• Gates & Croft Horticultural Design Ideas and Info.
• How to recycle tires