I wouldn't put the pea gravel on top of the mulch, or you'll end up with a mix of gravel and mulch that will be neither one nor the other, and a real mess. IMO, if you want gravel, you should remove the mulch first.

Otherwise, what kind of mulch did you use? Unless it is plain hard wood chips of the sort you might get for free from a tree company, I don't think you'd have a problem with splinters. I'd use bark mulch, which would make a fairly soft surface.

As I recall,about 12 inches of bark will provide fall protection from the average height of playsets/swings. Look at playset manufactorer's website, as these usually have an assortment of materials and depths.

I used a depth of 18 inches sand under my playset, and that safety investment has paid off at least 4 times.

The thread linked below also has some comments on this topic. BTW, I have used various type of mulch under my kid's playset and splinters have not been a problem.

- Brent

Here is a link that might be useful: HELP! Ground cover for kids play area????

The thing is to use bark mulch, not chipped up trees. Bark has a spongy texture.

purplelotus - sand by the bag at the big box stores will be expensive. Look for sand from a quarry or landscape supplier. They will deliver it by the cubic yard right to your house. Don't forget to inflate the tire in your wheelbarrow ;)

I also use the playset sand for heeling in plants and overwintering late season sale plants.

We ended up putting pea gravel over our torn out deck as an interim measure until we could afford to put down stone. Its very miserable on bare feet, and it became the neighborhood cats' litter box- yuck! We're going to use cocoa mulch in our roses beds instead of tanbark. Its a small round and flattish shape, and it smells heavenly. It is not edible of course, I'm not sure children like think its really chocolate and try to eat it??

To see pics of our recent landscaping project and some pics of Roses we grow here, ck out my Picture Trail:

careytearose

Here is a link that might be useful: look at Landscaping Projects 2007, Favourite ROSES We Grow albums

Bark and soil dealers sell wood play chips for the purpose. The comparatively small cedar chips we have been getting, that originate with a cedar mill are very clean, aromatic and pleasant (we are mulching beds with them).

Tree service wood chips may have rubbish mixed in and are very moldy until aged long enough to be past that stage. The mold alone would make them unsuitable for a play area.

Tree bark is splintery and waxy, forms a crust unless coarse grade.

Sand attracts cats.

Pea gravel moves around underfoot and ends up where you don't want it.

I'd agree that wood ships work better than bark, sand or pea gravel. We used redwood chips in a 16' x 24' perimeter of 4x4s (bolted together - 10' high) installed by the Playset Place in Lubbock, Texas.

The material and depth met the recommendations of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

We haven't had any problems with splinters.

Here is a link that might be useful: Playset Place

The 'Using a Trellis' thread disappeared before my very eyes. How about the same fate for this last poster?

Maro