Planning your family garden can be a rewarding experience. The space once used for the occasional alfresco sausage can be transformed into a playground full of opportunities to explore and experience Mother Nature. Gardens come in all shapes and sizes. Smaller gardens require more creativity, but as a rule of thumb there are key elements that make up the ideal family space.
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The play area
Consider if there’s room for a trampoline, swing or slide. Storage areas can hide away clutter. Alternatives to a shed might be garden seat storage or under your decking. Create a play area in the shade, from a canopy or an umbrella.
It’s great to make space for ride-ons and push along toys – POD loves her pretend lawnmower. She also loves to dive in and out of her pop-up tent – an economical way to provide children with their own space.
Colour
Create a splash of colour, family gardens thrive on primary colours. This could be with plants and flowers or by painting walls or trelliswork. Incorporating stepping stones with letters or numbers works really well.
Plants and flowers
Great plants for a family garden include buddleia, which attract butterflies, one of POD’s favourites who are always greeted with a shriek of “butt-fly!” Stachys lanata (lamb’s ears) have soft leaves and Rosa ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’, a strongly scented thornless rose.
Children are fascinated by the growing process. Vegetables, like lettuce and beans, as well as sunflowers and nasturtiums are all great examples they can watch flourish. Some flowers and plants are harmless unless digested so it’s worthwhile checking before you buy. Teach your children not to put plants or flowers in their mouth.
The dining area
Make the most of the opportunity to dine outside. If you have a patio or decked area, choose furniture you can leave outside such as synthetic rattan wood or metal.
Outdoor lighting adds to the ambiance on a long summer’s night and allows you to enjoy the not so light evenings that little bit longer, I found a great selection here. With so many barbecue options available these days there’s surely one for all spaces and budgets.
Your ultimate goal is to create a safe and fun environment. POD adores being in our garden, playing, spotting insects and birds or helping to water the flowers. We’ve managed to create a space that allows us all to enjoy being together outside at every available opportunity.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for which I was compensated. All views expressed are my own.
What a gorgeous garden you have! I love the dining area. #PoCoLo
Thank you Nell, very kind of you. We just need some sunshine so we can sit in it 🙂
We’re rennovating our house and extending back next year so next year we’ll be re-doing the whole back garden area and this is exactly the sort of thing I needed to read! I need to plan areas!
Thanks 🙂 x
That sounds very exciting indeed, I can’t wait to hear about it. The planning helps massively 🙂
Your photos are beautiful as always. I’ve let my garden go in recent years being unable to do much during pregnancy and with a little baby to look after. I really should get out there and get it looking nice again. I really miss my herb patch
Thank you so much Anne, that’s really kind of you. It’s difficult to keep it going when you’re pregnant and with little ones – no doubt that time will come and you can get it looking nice. And have that herb garden!
I just love your photographs, and some great suggestions too – we have just inherited a garden when we recently moved, and there’s loads to be done!!!!! Great to know about plants that attract butterflies. :o).
Thank you very much. I hope all is going well with the new place and you’re settling in alright. There’s always masses to do, inside and and out. You’ll get there 🙂
What a lovely post and i can so relate to this, it has taken us nearly 4 yrs to finish ours as we took a little patch at a time and we now love it 🙂 x
Your garden looks beautiful Jaime, I saw it in a video the other day. Well done, it’s amazing 🙂
What a gorgeous garden, we also have a pop up tent for our garden days – the kids always love it. Popping over from PoCoLo x
Thank you so much, it’s a great space we just need to get our areas right! Then hope we have the most amazing summer. Pop-up tents are just brilliant, POD adores hers 🙂
that looks lovely! i am desperate to sort mine out, it could look so much nicer
came from #pocolo
It’s always such hard work though isn’t it Anna? We’ve still got a lot to do to ours so we can enjoy it in the summer 🙂
Lovely post, beautiful photos. I have just planted a Zéphirine Drouhin in my front garden, I can’t wait for it to establish itself x
Thank you so much – can’t wait to see your Zéphirine Drouhin 🙂
Beautiful, informative, fun post. I love designing our garden and this has most definitely given me food for thought! x
Thank you very much, lovey of you to say. We still have a lot to do but we’ll get there. Glad it was useful 🙂
I always love your photos and posts Charly and this is fab! I am so looking forward to sorting out our new garden when we move and I shall certainly come back to this post for some ideas. Thank you for linking to PoCoLo xx
Thanks Vicky, that’s really kind of you to say. I love taking photos! Great to hear you’re moving, you must have found somewhere?!