If your home is blessed with a garden, you should definitely take advantage of all its benefits. For kids, there is nothing better than playing outside in the sun and learning new skills, all the while bonding and experiencing things that will become cherished memories once they grow up. If you want to provide them with a garden that meets all their needs and allows for their creativity to flourish, here are a few tips.
Define the Borders
No matter how safe a neighborhood you live in, if you have little kids, it’s best to fix that fence (or build one at last if you don’t already have one). That way, you can be relaxed that neither do trespassers enter your garden, nor do your children wander away while you are not looking. Making sure the garden is safe is the number one priority of creating a kid-friendly garden.
Paint a Blackboard Wall
If your little ones are aspiring artists, why not take their creative adventure outside? An affordable idea that won’t even take up an inch of space (and is thus perfect for small gardens as well) is designating an area on one of your back walls and painting it with chalkboard paint. That way, your children will be able to draw all they want. Just make sure you let them know that they are not supposed to do the same with just any wall in the house!
Get Your Kids Involved!
The best way to make your kids feel like the garden is a great place is to get them involved. Do you have a small vegetable garden? Perfect! You can start teaching your children how amazing it is to grow your own vegetables and they will learn about responsibility and hard work. Go shopping and choose the seeds together while teaching them what grows best where you live. You can also get cute children’s gardening equipment, and they will like planting and caring for their vegetables even more!
Create a Camping Area
Those of us who have memories of camping and sitting by the campfire are lucky – these are enviable experiences all kids should have the chance to enjoy. Therefore, setting up a camping area in your garden is a great idea. You can set up a teepee or other kind of tent where they can play and arrange the surrounding area using natural elements. For example, tree stumps can work as chairs and tables kids will love to play on. Find toys appropriate for outdoors as well, such as interesting wooden puzzles, and the camping area will be your kids’ new favorite place in your home.
Build a Treehouse
If you like the previous idea about the camping area, you will like this one even better. If you have a suitable tree in your garden, nothing would be a better kid-friendly addition to your garden than a treehouse. It’s the perfect hideout for children’s play, and they will be eager to go out and spend time in it every day. Keep in mind that building a treehouse is no small feat, and to make sure it’s safe to play in, you should be well-versed in this kind of thing if you want to build it.
Provide Storage
To make sure your garden will not overflow with toys thrown all around the place, you should provide ample storage and teach your kids to use it. One great idea is getting a few buckets and labeling them so that all toys can be stored in an organized manner. In fact, you can even make cleaning up sort of a game this way! Just make sure you place the buckets in a protected area where they won’t get rained on, and no one is going to trip on toys lying in the grass anymore.
Toxic Plants
One more thing you might think about in making a kid friendly garden is which plants to avoid in the landscape. Here are some common plants you might want to avoid.
In Conclusion
Creating a kid-friendly garden is essential if you want to teach your children from an early age to enjoy the outdoors. It’s important for them not only because of all the physical activity they get this way but also because of all the benefits of gardening they will reap and all the precious memories they will create.
Author Bio
Mia Ackerson is a Melbourne-based part-time writer. She babysits her nephew and loves writing about it based on her personal experiences, in her free time. She’s also interested in interior design, reading books, movies, music, baking, and gardening. You can follow her on twitter.