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Home › Articles › Family Life › A Backyard Wonderland

A Backyard Wonderland

Spruce Up Your Yard for the Little Ones

By Jacqueline Rupp

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For the vast majority of moms, warm weather brings a sigh of relief. The kids can finally play outside! No more ball throwing in the house (well, less). Kids can run off steam in the grass instead of through the kitchen, and the play areas have increased exponentially. Add on cool bonuses like hunting for rocks and bugs, having lunch outside and not watching television for a while, and it's no wonder we wait all winter for days like these.

Still, there are easy ways you can actually increase the functionality and fun of the backyard for you little ones. All it takes is a little imagination and some flowers to make this season really blossom for your kids.

Gardening with Kids in Mind
Stacey Rocklin, horticulturalist at the Leila Arboretum in Battle Creek, Mich., encourages parents to create something special in their home gardens for their children. "Anything we have done in the LAS Children's Garden can be recreated at home," she says. "All it takes is getting to know the plants needed to create the garden and finding the space to make it happen."

Rocklin believes that children learn a wide spectrum of lessons from working at and enjoying a garden, especially if the outdoor project is tailored to their sensibilities. "For instance, to create your own pizza garden, just prepare a circle of soil at least 3 feet in diameter and plant a wheat crust, fill in the center of the circle with three paste tomatoes, some onions, garlic cloves, several basil plants, green peppers, oregano and enough orange and yellow marigolds to make it look cheesy!" When everything is grown the pizza garden can become a spot to pick from for kids to make their own pizzas.

Safety First
When planning special outdoor spaces for kids, it's important to keep some basic safety rules in mind. "First, think safety," says Mary Donovan, an interior and exterior designer. "Lock up tools and chemicals. Be careful what plants you use. Thorns and razor sharp leaves make very bad playmates. Also, most parents don't realize that some commonly sold plants can be toxic. Try to hold off on installing pools, spas and ponds until your children are old enough to enjoy them without constant supervision."

Rocklin has a unique suggestion for including some water effects while maintaining safety. For kids too young to be near a pond, she suggests installing a natural looking spring. "Install a fountain with no exposed surface water, only running water," she says. "This can be done by covering the pool of the fountain with a grate and covering that with rocks so the fountain looks like a spring of water coming up out of the ground."

When children are older, Rocklin suggests adding a pond. "Any activity spots that involve water and motion are great for children," she says. "Even a small pond at home can help teach children many valuable lessons about ecology, nature, animals and how to be a good steward for our environment."

Kid Size It!

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