Backyard Play Area Ideas

We are shortly going to convert part of our lawn area into a dedicated play area for the kids

We already have a trampoline and have a new swing set coming for Christmas (just a small 3xSwing wide one) and also already have a plastic climbing gym, and a clam shell full of sand, and a plastic cubby house. The area will be about 4m x 5m. Currently there is grass where we plan to set it up, we are going to put a border around (we have some existing treated pine sleepers to use) and were thinking of using either fine bark (so its the softest possible), or rubber matting (from Bunnings etc) or even looking into the playground soft base stuff (but thinking this will be very expensive)

Any ideas? Recommendations?

The Bark and Rubber Matting are the cheaper options, but problematic with weeds coming through

Also - any idea's what to use to kill off the grass? We plan to put some type of weed matting over it too.

I also had a great idea to get a large sheet of the waterproof plasterboard and attach it to the fence and paint it with blackboard paint :) Also put a shade sail over part of it, What other cool idea's can you throw at me that will look cool/funky and entice the kids to play outside? We have a boy and a girl

Ta

I think it's a great idea. I would like to do something similar for our kids. Just need more time to plan something. I especially like the idea of the blackboard paint. No real advice, but round up kills pretty much anything.

We looked into that playground matting and it was soooooo expensive so we have a combination of white sand and real grass. Don't use fake grass - it gets very hot.

The girls have a flower garden, fruit trees, strawberry pots and a couple of herbs that are theirs to do with what they will, and they spend a lot of time "gardening" and "cooking" with their herbs, setting their table with flower arrangemets etc.

They also have lots of stuff like balls, totem tennis, scooters, bikes, soccer nets, big snakes and ladders mats, paving chalk etc

Killing grass - better off I think to dig it out, then put weed mat down.

sand/dirt to dig in. any digging tools, buckets and constructions equipment (random bits of wood, bricks, etc). My kids love that stuff.

Nooooooo!!! Killing off your beautiful soft grass????!!! Wahh!!!

I digress!

Somewhere to play hopscotch? DD1 loves that right now. A little basketball ring? Not sure what else, I reckon your set up is pretty awesome.

Tis OK PRMG, its only a little section, will still have heaps of lovely soft grass, I promise!! :)

Will blackboard paint work in the weather? We did it inside and it is AWESOME! I don't regret it at all.

We are in the process of making toadstools for the garden for DD. They look pretty cool and DD is smitten with them. Ive also seen a really cool little racetrack made with old tyres and a small amount of cement (hope to do that soon too). Sounds like its going to be an awesome area!

I think so, as its washable, but might check the tin first :)

One of the bestest things that i ever saw for a play area was in this house that we were inspecting to buy a few years ago where they had put up some wood board thingo at kid height on the fence and had drilled an old wall telephone on it, an old computer keyboard and a whole bunch of locks with the chain thingos etc. This is probably more suited to pre primary school ages, but a cool and largely inexpensive idea!

Matting can get uncomfortable hot in summer and fine bark gets into shoes and clothes and then ends up all over everywhere. I'd stick to grass.

A cover for the sandpit is a must have or it will end up being a toilet for every cat on the block.

In summer some kind of water play is lots of fun and cools everyone down. There are water play tables you can buy or you could just make your own with a bit of imagination and a few tubs, buckets and bottles. My boys are happy to spend hours moving a few buckets of water about the place and in the evening you can pour it out on what ever part of the garden needs it most.

I'm having a chess board paved into my yard. About 2.4m square. And buying 16inch tall chess pieces for them to play with.

Lots of other things can be played on a paved area that size, too.

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Matting can get uncomfortable hot in summer and fine bark gets into shoes and clothes and then ends up all over everywhere. I'd stick to grass.

A cover for the sandpit is a must have or it will end up being a toilet for every cat on the block.

In summer some kind of water play is lots of fun and cools everyone down. There are water play tables you can buy or you could just make your own with a bit of imagination and a few tubs, buckets and bottles. My boys are happy to spend hours moving a few buckets of water about the place and in the evening you can pour it out on what ever part of the garden needs it most.

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Rethink the sandpit!

Everyone loves them, but sand doesn't stay in the sandpit! It is so frustrating!

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Rethink the sandpit!

Everyone loves them, but sand doesn't stay in the sandpit! It is so frustrating!

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That. I will never have a sandpit again. I got so sick of having sand in my house.

we don't have a sandpit as such, just a patch of sand in the middle of the lawn. yes, the sand/dirt gets spread around but they play out there for HOURS sometimes. So worth it.
Buckets of water are also an excellent investment.

My kids love to dig and they love nature. Maybe a mini raised garden bed for them to tend and do as they like. My girls had a lettuce farm that turned into a caterpillar farm and they loved it in both states. A bird bath/ raised bird feeding platform/ nest for native birds they could observe (probably best somewhere over grass though so you don't get bird poo everywhere.

I'm going to ask my DH to make I'm not sure what you would call it but think shop counter/old style lemonade stall with a counter and rails up the side and a small roof/awning for outside so they can play shops and use it as a work surface for out door play dough/mud pie making. Do you know anyone handy? Maybe the cubby house would do for this.

My kids love drawing on our concrete with chalk and making hopscotch pattns even though they still don't get how to do hopscotch.

At dd's old kindy they had a plastic oven and a real (but dead) microwave plus lots of old baking tins/pans/sieves and the kids loved using them in the sand pit.

In summer an upside down sprinkler tied to your sail cloth could be fun, or one of those hoses with holes dotted along it attatched to the sail (water restriction permitting)

And the best thing-children's imagination!My girls were playing pirates the other day sticks were swords, the Eskis were treasure chests, the table a boat and the dogs lead was their rope for helping people to board their boat. Poor dog thought he was going for a walk but in fact he was the shark!

We are getting artificial grass for our side area. There was a ccc that re did their area so sold us the old stuff really cheap. Great for what we needed