Every home with children should have an area somewhere outdoors for them to play. There are a lot of pluses for building an outdoor play area for the kids: the children have a place to play, parents are comfortable to know the kids are safe, and the rest of the garden and landscaping is usually left to grow undisturbed. In fact, it may turn out that if you create a nice enough place, It could become a favorite hangout of all the kids in the neighborhood, which might or might not be something you want. It’s generally quite simple to design at least a small play area into your landscaping and garden plans.

For homes with smaller children, a play area should be placed closer to the house. The kids will be within sight but not feel locked up. An area that is visible from a 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 (covered when not in use, to keep out neighborhood pets) will keep small children happy for hours, especially if there is a source of water nearby. Equip the sandbox with some common elements like small rocks and sea shells. (At a later time, you can make the sandbox into a raised bed.) Old logs make a good climbing frames and so can a small tree, especially if it has strong branches that are closer to the ground.

Older kids like to play a little more away from the house. However, the play area should still be a highly visible safe spot that is intentionally designed into the front yard or backyard landscaping plans. Older children still like to use their imaginations so don’t build the treehouse just yet. Start simply, possibly with some board steps nailed to a tree or a rope ladder up into the branches of a tree. Then the tree can become anything that comes to the imagination. A plane, boat, castle, house, or almost anything.

A patch of grass in the garden area can be great for everyday play – soft enough to fall down on and possibly even long enough to hide in. If this ideas doesn’t suit your overall landscape plan, you might consider bark chips as a good surface beneath play equipment, especially the trampoline, as a shock absorber for inevitable tumbles.

An patch of concrete slab will almost always be a favorite and well used spot as the children grow up. Riding a bike, rollerblading, playing jacks, jumping rope, and a lot of other childhood games will be learned right at this spot. And the kids may even discover gardening if you let them have a sunny area of their own.