When you’ve slaved to turn your garden into a calm oasis of botanical elegance, introducing child-friendly elements can be a challenge.
Coloured, plastic playpens and tacky trampolines don’t sit well with standard camellias and sandstone sculptures so, if you have children who want to use the garden, a compromise may be needed.
Some people decide to wait until the kids are grown before developing the ultimate urban paradise, but why deny yourself the pleasure of a lovely garden when you can have an outdoor living space for all ages.
Luckily, there’s a bit of the kid in all of us, or if there isn’t, there ought to be. It may be time to dig deep for your inner child and consider how best to create a garden to satisfy everyone.
Auckland garden designer Debby Lewis believes kids’ things can also be elegant.
She believes mystery is the most important element in kids’ gardens.
Try incorporating places to hide, such as a short hedge or an evergreen tree clipped into a pillar shape.
“Kids also love water, so a shallow fountain could be incorporated if your children are a bit older and are aware of water safety,” says Debby.
“You can also use a channel of very shallow water with a plug so the water can be emptied.”
Fish and tadpoles will provide endless fascination. Kids love hanging out with fish and they’ll learn heaps from having their own pond.
“The single best thing? I’d say a tree hut, but combine that with a sandpit underneath and it’s even better,” Debby says,
“Kids should be encouraged to have their own gardens, even if it’s just tomatoes in a pot or beans on a teepee, to learn how things grow.”
All kids love to have their own hideaway, a place where they don’t have the rules of the big house. DIY enthusiasts can probably make a pretty flash timber playhut, but there are also numerous prefabricated and kitset models available.
If you choose materials that complement existing structures, this will help to integrate these elements into the existing environment. A playhouse or hut using the same materials as the house will look as if it belongs, whereas a bright plastic job may not.
one thing on which all garden designers agree is that children don’t like to be excluded, so siting their stuff out of the way where nobody can see it simply won’t work.
Your kids will continually trail out from behind the garage with droopy bottom lips and kick the legs of your outdoor table while you’re trying to pour the wine.
However, put a fascinating fish pond and a smart climbing frame nearby and everyone will be happy.
Easy pickings
If you want to grow something that you’ll enjoy eating and the kids might also get interested in, zucchini is your baby. Chuck a couple in now and they’ll be ready in about 45 days, and enough will happen along the way to keep everyone in the family interested.
The flowers are flashy and, if you can stop the kids from picking them, tiny zucchini will appear on the plant at record speed. Provided they get a bit of TLC, they’ll double in size just about every day.
First you need to decide which colour will work the best in your garden.
Plant your chosen specimens about a metre apart in a slightly raised, well-composted bed, and mulch well.
Water regularly – a good job for children. The yellow variety is more resistant to mould in humid areas and will fruit even when the leaves have mildew.
If the plants show signs of powdery mildew, dissolve one teaspoon of baking soda in 600ml of water and sprayit over them.
If your plants make heaps of fruit, eat them when they’re about the size of your thumb.
Easy-care plants
When it comes to planting areas that children will use it’s important to employ some common sense.
Grasses, flax, astelia, griselinia and coprosma will stand a good deal of rough and tumble before they turn up their toes. Plant grasses in clumps and once they’ve taken off, they’ll provide a great hiding and rolling place.
other good choices are banksia, grevillea and daisies. For something to fascinate kids, bird of paradise and echeveria are very other-worldly.
Alternatively, you could plant creeping thyme, lawn chamomile and lawn mint. They’re fairly robust and the lawn mint releases its scent when tramped upon.
oass plant in clumps rather than rows or borders so, if one or two plants succumb to a bit of rough treatment, the gaps are less obvious and the plants are easily replaced.