KIDS IN THE GARDEN

Equipped with everything from a zip line and wooden tree house to a circuit track, this amazing garden is nothing short of a paradise for little ones. Peter Shaw, a landscape designer who, along with his wife Simone, runs Ocean Road Landscaping, shares his secret to get kids outside in a place where the stimulus is natural.

When we opened our own garden to the public a couple of years ago through Open Gardens Australia we watched to see what people gravitated to. The answer was unexpected, and it made me think a lot more about the relationship between children and natural spaces.

Over the weekend the garden was open, visitors — adults and children alike — were attracted to the bits specifically incorporated for our kids’ sakes. If you’re like us, keen to encourage natural play rather than hours spent indoors in front of a screen, you might find the following helpful. It’s what we’ve done, and done cheaply, and it seems to be working.

As a professional, I’m often asked to design and build landscapes with children in mind. As I’m also a parent, I often refer to my own experience with our four children who are 16, 15, 12 and 10.

Right from the beginning, even while we were still living in a construction zone, we’ve always had lots of things in the garden to attract play. In those days the children were younger and very happy to dig and fossick in piles of rocks, pebbles, soil and mulch. In the years since, they’ve grown and their needs have shifted so we’ve added things to suit.

LOOPS ARE GREAT

We’ve laid a circuit track through a bed of shrubs and under the trees, somewhere they can run along and hide, but, more importantly, there are places to visit along the way. A water bowl and firepit in a sitting area is a great place to go to read a book or sit aroundwith friends.

Further along, the younger two have a fairy garden, furnished with a hammock and some logs. They’ve decorated the fence nearby with coloured chalk (it washes off, clearing the surface for new expression) and the rainbows they’ve drawn mean this place is now known as Rainbow Land.

Yes, it’s a bit more difficult to mow but almost everyone who visits — child or adult — takes off their shoes to sink their feet into our meet the drive so on coming home I often look through the trees and see my kids at play.

A CRAZY LAWN

Until a little while ago we had a lawn like most other people, a flat zone of green. And it was put to the usual good use. But then we played with it and now have something with almost magnetic appeal.

We took the lawn and divided it into a series of soft interconnected mounds in varying heights so that now just walking across our lawn is fun, or lying in the valleys between to read a book is fun — or sitting on top or playing with the dog or rolling around.

1. A single pallet on a lawn is a brilliant boat

2. Make a simple tepee out of multiple straight sticks tied at the top.

3. iver pebbles, sand and water are great materials to pull together, whether you put them into a sandpit or rig up something more elaborate with a recirculating pump.

4. Chalk on any surface is brilliant.

5. Gather together a heap of branches and watch your children make a temporary cubby.

6. Collect empty crates or boxes and they’ll arrange them into a whatever.

7. Loose logs can be moved into endless settings for play.

8. Make an outdoor kitchen with old taps, sinks and even an old microwave (and don’t forget to add water and sand as the perfect ingredients).

TREEHOUSE WITH ZIP

And then, after many years of scribbling dream designs in a notebook, we all built a treehouse together. We used tea tree logs and hessian rope and tied them up in the tree to create three platforms along the lines of something out of The Swiss Family Robinson.

Everyone was involved from stripping rope to building the ladders and it was a great bonding time.

There were many discussions about how to do things and I gave the kids the space to make a few mistakes. I also discovered that they had good ideas I hadn’t actually thought of. It was a great time together and I believe we ended up with a fantastic space because of that.

Oh, and did I mention the icing on the cake? The zip line that carries them off from the top level, out across the garden. It’s been a huge success.

WHAT WORKS AND WHY

Of course we could have gone out and bought a brand new wooden cubby and slide from a big shed store. Initially it would have seemed OK but there wouldn’t have been the same level of involvement possible for the kids — literally waking up with more to do each day to make the tree house happen. And so the interest in a delivered cubby must drop off because, nice as they are, there’s not much scope for change.

My vote goes for something that’s more natural and evolutionary as it has the chance to grow with the children. It might start off as a platform in a tree; then, as they get older, you could add some ropes, then a ladder and a sandpit below.

AND THE POINT IS?

Simple: to get kids outside in a place where the stimulus is natural but without spending a lot of money and by giving them good reasons to be out there. If we watch what goes on, we tell them to go outside and they head out for about 10 minutes before coming back in. But if you can make something out there, something that’s exciting enough to make them want to go out there without being asked, you’ll be the ones calling them in.

At our place, since the introduction of the zip line and the platforms, the garden has become a whole exploring space. I now watch my kids’ friends arrive and head off into the garden with no thoughts of going inside for some screen time.