Check out the Gardening with Kids forum

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I vote for a fountain with both a very large nozzle and a smaller one on timers. Picture a small pool, then about once an hour the smaller nozzle comes to life and bubbles up to about 4 ft high for a few seconds before the large one shoots a geyser high in the air.

A simple sprinkler. The kids love running through it.

Mine spend hours in their extra large sandbox.

A mud pit or a spot to freely play in the mud. When I had one as a kid we called it a "Lava pit". My 10 year old still loves to put on her play clothes and sit in a mud hole of her making. This is one feature you want to put to the back or least visible part of the garden!

Sand is cool, but mud is sooo much better!

My mom does fall school farm tours and always has a garden she takes the classes through. She has lots of signage with little facts on them which correspond to the schools Standards of Learning (SOLs).

At one time she had a butterfly house which was kind of neat. It was wire mess with flowers flanted inside. Kids caught butterflies in the garden with nets and placed them inside. I think it was difficult to manage the growth inside from one year to the next though.

She has a shallow frog/fish pond that is fenced in too and always a center of attention.

Other features were climbing (cargo) nets and suspension bridges.

Also some trellised gourds, beans, and kiwis.

As a father of 3 boys, with the first entering 1st grade soon, this is something that I have thought about. Below are a few thoughts.

First off...I have heard that the "late and great" Michelle Derviss is authoring a book on the topic: "The Backyard Kidspaces Idea Book" from Taunton Press. We shall see if her volume contains ideas that are within the budget of us that are not members of the Marin County Millionaires Club.

Lawn: This is probably the most useful item in my landscape. The kids love an open area to play soccer, hit a ball, play in the sprinkler, set up a tent, and such. My kids also love running around the house and at my new place they can ride the electric car all around the house as well.

Playset: A few years ago I picked up a large wooden playset that Costco was selling. Is it worth the assembly time, the expense and the room that it takes up? I am not sure. They do play on it some what and it is a good place to congregate with friends, or at least push a toddler in the swing while the other boys play.

Places to be boys: I need more areas where my boys can be boys. There is a balancing act between creating areas that kids want to play and areas that parents want their kids to play. Piles of dirt and pits of mud are great...if you are a little boy (I don't have much little girl experience), but maybe not so great for Parents. My oldest was upset when I cut down some overgrown forsythia bushes because he liked to play under them.

Kids Garden: My 6 year old has gotten a reasonable amount of joy out of a butterfly garden that we (mostly I) planted. He enjoyed picking out some annuals, he enjoys seeing a butterfly in "his" garden, but he really loves finding worms! If he finds a worm elsewhere in the yard he will take it back to his garden.

Changes and Personalities: Kids change quickly, so it would be hard for me to invest a bunch of time or money into something that will only provide one year's worth of interest. Also, I see quite a difference between what things my 6 and 4 year olds like to do (it is a bit early to tell with the youngest). One needs areas to run and play sports, while the other would be fine to sit and play with characters. Make sure you are creating items that YOUR kids would want to play with.

- Brent

Here's a link to a page about junk play. This is the sort of stuff we did when I was a kid, as we did not have the quantities of toys that kids today seem to have. We usually raided the garage for stuff to play with.

Here is a link that might be useful: link

One item that was on my school playground when I was a kid was a concrete sewer pipe (~3' diameter), painted with spiral candy stripes. We enjoyed the echoes, learned how to walk around the inside in a complete upside-down circle, climbed on top of it, hid in it. Both my sister and I (we're both over 40) were disappointed to find it gone when we revisited the playground with my niece this summer. Although first quality pipes can be expensive, flawed ones might be a more affordable price.

Thanks for all your suggestions, I like the idea of sand to play in...I might have a sand path that could also work as a sandbox. I have also added a sunken pot of shells to play with and a very small stone box, which when opened, reveals small painted plastic lizards. The garden I am making is actually a garden room where the "walls" of the room are actually various tropical and hardy plants, and the wall area is where I would most like to mix some child friendly activities. The entrance is a boardwalk over a bog and there are a few paths running through the walls to the various activities I will add. Also within the room there will soon be a rainbow colored hammock. I'll keep watching this post for any more responses.
Cheflara

If this is to be a public space, this is all good, if its for a specific child or children, Id get to know the kid, and find out what they like. For some it would be a little garden rail way, for others, an out door "Kitchen" some like a twig hut, others want a tidy little play house. one thing the One in my garden loves is a little collection of hoses and odd old and new sprinklers and the "Y" joins, spikes, etc. so far, random ideas about what some kid would enjoy, have never worked for any specific kid I have tried to please. The current child resident of my garden loves serious garden tools, plants,(has his own little fuschias) pots and compost. He is irrate that we cannot find a kid sized pitch fork. he has free run of the garden, and does it no harm. often he spends pleasant hours watering. he likes to water the collection of tiny trees in tiny dishes with a small cup and bucket. Most of the few toys I have provided, except for the play dishes, have paled in comparrison to the actual tools around the garden. He is 4 1/2 tho so this could change. One of his first words was "Bamboo" So I know that the 'Boo grove is a thrill

Cherry tomatoes. My kids LOVE to pick them. There are so many tomatoes, unlike the bigger kinds, and they ripen over a very long time, so there is at least 6 weeks of picking. Everyday now they ask if they can go check to see if there are any more tomatoes. They are not interested in eating them, only picking them. By far their favorite.

Don't think of this as veggie gardening, this is play. It's exciting for the kids.

put in light stepping stones or big rocks that they can lift and find big fat worms!

plant a sedum like autumn joy. pick one of the bigger leaves. pinch it gently to loosen the skin on the lower side, and blow into the end where you picked it. the leaf will blow up. we used to call them frog bellies!

I think spam on our forum is very unexcitement.