Landscaping Design Ideas for Kids | Gaithersburg MD

Landscaping design for your outdoor spaces must meet two ideals. It must be beautiful to look at to attract your family and visitors to the garden. And it must be livable, which for adults, conjures up solid surfaces on which you can place furniture for lounging, ponds and water features for relaxation, and a built in grill or fire pit for cooking. These features, however, may not be ideal for kids. If you want to a backyard that your children can enjoy, consider the following ideas.

Avoid hard solid surfaces

A concrete slab may be perfect for outdoor meals but too hard of a surface for your little ones to fall on. Grass is a preferable play surface. It also requires no washing or stain removal, and only an occasional mowing for maintenance. If you still want a solid surface for entertaining, consider a deck either of wood or composite materials. These surfaces are more forgiving for rough-and-tumble play.

Stick with ground plantings

Bushes and trees planted directly into the earth easily survive collisions with kids. Contrast that with containers that can cause injury if they’re made out of hard materials like terracotta or stone, can tip over, or be emptied when appropriated for play sessions. Look for kid-friendly plants that are low-growing, so they don’t block your view of the kids, non-toxic, and resilient without any painful defense mechanisms, such as thorns. Some examples include rigid verbena, camelias, and red fountain grass.

Try a sandbox

If you need a garden accent, how about a large sandpit? Kids can spend hours building sandcastles, playing with construction toys, or simply rolling around in the sand. After hours, the pit works equally well for adult entertaining. Put a portable fire pit in the middle and surround it with Adirondack or beach chairs.

If you want to try these ideas on your property, please contact us. We can develop a design that meets the needs of each member of your family.