A family garden

No matter how big or small, a garden is a sanctuary for modern family life. For my own family, it is the most important part of our house. Our garden is not huge, but is big enough to kick a ball about, play games, have picnics, run around and have good old fashioned fun, whatever the weather.

We have been in our house now for four years and this year, we finally managed to make a start on the garden. Over the summer, we worked as a family and took down the old battered metal shed and erected a nice new wooden one to store toys etc. Next, the decking came up and nice new patio stones have been laid. It is a huge improvement. The decking was not very child friendly, as the children kept getting splinters and whenever they were out there in the wet, they would slip over.

(I know the swing should not be on the patio, it’s only there temporarily while the grass recovers from all the work we did in the garden)

Now we have the layout of the garden set, we need to work on the planting and toys for the children. Our dream garden, would be a place where we can all spend time as a family, playing, exploring, socializing with friends, having BBQ’s, getting active and relaxing.

Here are our ideas for our dream garden…….

Garden Toys

First and foremost on our garden makeover list, would have to be toys and equipment for the children. If the children are happy and active, we are happy (and active?). We have a very old second-hand swing in the garden which also has some monkey bars on. Ideally, I would love to replace this, so I can be sure it’s not going to collapse under the wait of three very active children. This is what I would choose :

Swing

Soulet Lucille Wooden Swing Set from Activity toys direct.

This swing looks fantastic! It would be strong enough to hold all of my three children and the bonus is, there are three seats, we could avoid sooooo many arguments!! I love it!

Climbing frame

Secondly, my children love to climb and I believe it is very important for their physical development to encourage this. Therefore, I would also get a climbing frame.

TP Toys Explorer 2 Growable Climbing Frame with Platform would be my choice. I love the look of this climbing frame for several reasons. Firstly it reminds me of the climbing frame I had as a child and have many, very happy memories playing on and under (see pic below, but please excuse my hat, horrendous I know!!). Secondly, it is a really good size, not too big, but big enough for children to have fun on. Thirdly, I believe, my children could experience so much imaginary play with this, the shape lends itself very well to lots of imagination. They could turn it into a rocket, a castle, a play house, a den or a tree. They could throw covers over it to hide under or we could buy the TP Toys Explorer2 Removable Den for them to have their own little ‘clubs’ in (as my children call it). They could have picnics in it, read stories, play games or just use it as it was intended……for climbing!

Thirdly, when I asked my son what he would love in his dream garden, his answer was “a kings castle”…..Hmm, not sure, I can accommodate that, but the climbing frame described above might work well. However, his second choice, was a go-kart. My children love getting active, scooting up and down the new patio, playing on their little cars, towing things round the garden and a go-kart is something they don’t have, but are getting to just the right age for it now. I can see them riding up and down, fixing dollies on the back and trailers.

Go-Kart

I love the look of this go-kart  BERG Toys City Compact – Rally Go-Kart.

I can’t believe how excited I have just got looking at all these go-karts! You can get passenger seats, which would be perfect for my kids. You can get trailers, a loader, a number plate….oh my goodness, it’s my children’s paradise! Go take a look!

Relaxation

Now the children have been catered for, we would love to have a few plants in our dream garden too. Not too many, I am not green fingered and it needs to stay child friendly, but I would love some nice plants to grow up along the fence to hide and soften it a little, as well as encourage nature, butterflies and insects into the garden, to show the children. Having plants in the garden would encourage some relaxation all round. It would also help give the easter bunny some more hiding places for her eggs next year.

We would have our BBQ area, as we all love a good BBQ, especially when family and friends come round in the summer and the paddling pool comes out…..a perfect afternoon!

This is how we would like our dream family garden to be.

This is an entry into the Tots100/Activity Toys Direct garden makeover competition.