Gardens

We moved house and area just under a year ago and I'm finally getting close to advertising for childminding again. I would like to make the garden a bit more inviting although I don't have my own very young children anymore so I'd like things that can be stored easily when I'm not working. What great things do you have in your outdoor space?

Good morning!

my children are older teenagers now, and somehow, i have more 'stuff' in my garden than i ever did when they were little !!!!:laughing:

I have a wooden play house that has a kitchen in, and is also used to store a small table/chairs for outside. I have a tuff tray on a stand that i use as a sand table, and a small water tray. in theory these could be put away in the play house, but never are. I have some plastic shelves that have plastic baskets on them, and in the baskets are sand/water toys, vehicles, a collection of play people and animals, 'mud kitchen' equipment - lots of bowls/jugs/whisks/plates/spoons etc, balls. I had initially planned to put these in the playhouse, but they took up too much room! I also have a collection of pieces of guttering/plastic tubes/wooden planks/sticks! that are used for all sorts. these live standing upright in a big pot at the side of the play house.

I have also 'acquired' (to DHs horror!) a large little tikes climbing thing with slides. again, the idea is that it can be tidied away out of sight, but in practice, it is too big, and we never move it!

so, i'm not really much use! I would say that if you could have a small shed ( i used to have a shallow 'bike' store' with shelves in ) that you can tidy away into, it works much better. My minded children quite enjoy putting everything away.

I don't think children need lots of 'stuff' though - we spent a day recently just using a washing up bowl, a tray and a couple of jugs/cups to make potions/tea/fairy food with flowers and leaves and nothing else was played with!

That is helpful Loocyloo! It doesn't sound like you have excessive amounts of stuff! I'm hoping for less plastic and more bits like saucepans, etc. I already have a few plastic bits like sandpit, small slide, etc. Also we're growing some vegetables and herbs so I'm we can make some potions!

The only permanent feature I have is a messy play area - a mud kitchen, outdoor shelves with loose parts and accessories, a table, a blackboard etc. It's an area off to the side of the garden, so not an area we'd really use as a family.

Everything else I got out as and when needed, then pack away again. I don't think you need anything overly fancy. Lengths of guttering and planks of wood are really popular here, plus they take up very little space when they're packed away. They can be used with cars, water, balls etc and the children can arrange them as they want to.

I also have a box of outdoor toys for physical play - balls, bean bags, small hoops, skipping ropes etc.

Then a box for gardening - tools, pots, soil, seeds, gloves and laminated pictures. It's used for real gardening and play gardening.

My sand and water tables are on folding stands, so easy to pack away.

Other than that, we just take indoor stuff outside - small world play, books, cars, magnifying glasses, musical instruments etc. I've got a variety of outdoor mats and blankets so set stuff up on those, or on the tuff tray.

I've just got a little tykes cube slide that stays out all the time (really light, so I just drag it to the side of a big bush when not it use, so it's not 100% in sight - but not 100% hidden either. My sand is in a 'really useful' plastic box with a lid at the moment and that gets dragged under a bush too. Everything else gets lives in the shed.

I think the most important thing is storage. We recently invested in a second outside outside storage thing (not exactly a shed) and we're going to add extra shelves in there when we get a minute. The other shed was too small and we ended up just having to pile things on top of each other and so it was a pain getting stuff out and putting it away. The kids always seemed to want whatever was at the bottom of the heap.

So I need a small storage/shed thing! I have space for one so that should be ok!

I had a long bit of guttering at the old house but it didn't get used much so I got rid of it before we moved. Maybe I need shorter lengths.