Create a family friendly garden
A good family garden should be designed to work for everybody who uses it, whatever their age. Gardens make fantastic play spaces for children and with careful design and planning you can create a really fun space for the kids, without sacrificing the entire ‘garden’. Plus, if the garden is safe and suitable, it will give you a much needed break for a few hours. Follow our planning advice and you too can create a safe and interesting garden that still looks like a garden, but will give your children somewhere to play.
Start by deciding on a list of your top priorities, what you want in the garden, what your kids would like and then plan your garden accordingly. It’s possible to layout your garden so that it evolves with the changing needs of you and your family. And if you get the major areas/layout right, then garden features and planting can be easily changed to suit you and your family.
A good ‘useable’ family garden needs to meet the demands of family life and fulfill a number of uses from a toddlers playing to your planting. The main priorities for most families is to incorporate a safe play area for the children and a comfortable patio eating area for the adults, with of course a splash of pretty garden green by way of grass, trees, hedging and flowers. The key challenge you face is to create a space that is great fun for the children without compromising on on the actual garden side of things.
Play area vs cutting edge design
Families tend to swing between two extremes, either the entire garden becomes merely an area to contain plastic climbing frames and the like, that make any attempt to create an attractive garden impossible, or else any hint of family fun is banished, sacrificed to the cause of a garden that is purely for the green-fingered connoisseur. However, there is a solution of sorts… Our advice would be to plan your garden carefully before you spend any money, a well designed garden can incorporate many different elements, but still work as a whole. You can also hire a garden design or landscaping company that has the relevant expertise and experience to create your family’s dream outdoor area.
Create a safe child friendly garden
As part of the planning/design process, it is important you take into consideration few important safety factors. Allow your children some freedom of expression in their outdoor play rather than an ‘ultra boring’ play zone. For example, a few years back at the Chelsea Flower Show, Marshalls’ unveiled the Garden That Kids Really Want, which had been developed in conjunction with primary school children. The garden featured a dramatic rock stack for climbing and scrambling over, a hidden inner chamber, a shallow pool for skimming stones and a den with a raised observation deck. All of these features combined to create a safe, but ultimately fun outdoor space.
There are some basic safety issues for a family friendly garden that you need to think about:
- If your garden is hedged, it will need to be checked regularly for gaps. You might want to run chicken wire down the base of a hedge if it isn’t bush all the way to the ground, to keep younger children contained.
- Secure, strong fencing and a well-hung gate are vital to keep your kids within the safe confines of the garden.
- Natural gardens are all well and good but be aware that you’ll need to keep your borders trimmed back from paths so that any sharp leaves or thorns don’t get in the way. Try to avoid planting prickly or thorny shrubs full stop, as they tend to be at head height for smaller children.
- Beware of dangerous plants in the garden and educate the children on the hazards of eating them. Some plants have sharp stems which are quite capable of delivering a nasty cut (such as pampas grass), while the pointy leaves and thorns of holly or roses can give a nasty prick.
- You’ll definitely win brownie points if you install a climbing frame or a playhouse in the garden. Always be careful with where you position these features, as they need to be well away from concreted areas and not too near any walls, fences or large bushes. Ideally, you should set up any play equipment on a dedicated ’soft’ play surface.
- Take a good look at the condition of the paving in your garden and replace any damaged slabs as soon as cracks appear or if they work loose.
Design & Planning
So how do you go about planning a family garden? In large gardens, different areas can be sectioned out to accommodate everyone’s needs, but in a smaller garden the layout needs to be more creative. There are a few key elements to bear in mind before you tackle your design.
- Play equipment
Is there room for a permanent slide or swing? If not, use equipment that can be stored away. Great if you want to sometimes reclaim the garden for say a BBQ/party. - Colour
A family garden needs plenty of bright primary colours. You can introduce colour by painting walls, trelliswork and furniture, and through selecting some bright plants. - Planting
When it comes to family gardens, our only advice is just make sure it is easy to maintain and resilient enough to withstand footballs, pets and play fights? - Wildlife features
Children will adore messing about by a pond and spotting insects. Bird feeders are another great way of getting your kids closer to nature. - Easy-care seating
Furniture that can be left uncovered all year is best. That doesn’t necessarily mean plastic… Lightweight metals such as cast aluminium are a good, durable option.
Garden Fun
Since children’s tastes change rapidly, you need to be adaptable. Once something has fallen out of favour, be unsentimental and find a good home for it. This means your design needs to be flexible. A play area near the house is ideal for small children, but older children will want something well away from the eagle eye of parents. The garden is the ideal place to allow children to take some risks – a familiar yet ever-changing environment where they can get muddy and explore the natural world. Consider buying a garden playhouse, in which your children can play, there are some great timber options on the market.
Planting
Plants have to be robust enough to withstand rough treatment from children and pets, so avoid fragile blooms. With young children around, you should steer clear of plants with thorns. It’s well known that foxgloves and deadly nightshade are poisonous, but other seemingly innocuous things, such as uncooked rhubarb leaves and daffodil leaves and bulbs, can also be poisonous. Teach your children never to put leaves or flowers in their mouths.
Great plants for a family garden are Choisya ternata (Mexican orange blossom) – tough and reliable, with very fragrant flowers; buddleia – robust and attractive to butterflies; Stachys lanata (lamb’s ears) – children love the soft feel of its grey leaves; lavandula (lavender); chocolatey-smelling Cosmos atrosanguineus (chocolate cosmos); and Rosa ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’, a strongly scented, repeat-flowering bright pink rose that is completely thornless. It’s also a good idea to set aside an area for children to grow their own plants, vegetables or herbs. They could try growing easy vegetables, such as beans and lettuces, which they can pick and eat, or annuals such as sunflowers and nasturtiums.
Pets
Dogs love to dig and run around in gardens, so try to give them an overgrown area where they can run wild, while teaching them to leave the flowerbeds alone and keeping their mess away from the children’s area. Cats like to use freshly dug soil as a litter tray, so keep it covered with fleece, a cloche or an array of soft bark.
Water Features
Ponds attract a wealth of animals, birds and insects, and children love paddling, collecting tadpoles and identifying insects. But please be careful, small children can drown in a few inches of water, so it’s best to wait until they’re a little older before installing a water feature. If you’re taking over a garden that already has one, make it safe by fitting a custom-made metal grille over the surface.
Eating Area
On a summer’s evening, there are few nicer activities than an alfresco family meal. Any patio should be large enough to accommodate a dining table and chairs. If you’re lucky, there will also be enough space for a BBQ.