Play stations

If, when you visualise a children's garden, you imagine a pretty little girl in a Laura Ashley print tripping through a swathe of daffoldils, you need to adjust your image. The fact is, kids and beautiful gardens are often diametrically opposed. If you're lucky enough to welcome to your garden the sort of kids who can be separated from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and their cellphones without coming out in a rash, it's likely they'll appreciate trampolines and sandpits more than swathes of daffodils.
That's why it's not unusual to hear parents say: "oh, we're not going to bother with the landscaping until the kids are grown up."
For gardeners, that's a huge sacrifice, but, fortunately, creating a garden in which children and adults can co-exist is not impossible.
My partner, a young-at-heart 50-something silver fox, was at one of his regular gigs landscaping at the local school when he sent me the following text: "Two of the kids were walking past and one said to the other: 'Don't throw your rubbish in the garden. That old guy has to pick it up."'
We laughed ourselves silly. Inadvertent insults aside, "that old guy" likes working at the school. Developing kid-friendly gardens is a challenge and one that - as the owner of two dogs and four cats - he's up for.
It's important, he says, to accommodate the needs of the end user without trying to change them. If children (or dogs) have been taking a particular track from the lunchroom to the gym, they're not going to alter that just because you've suddenly planted it with daylilies. Even if you cordon it off, they'll jump your barrier and tread their usual path to wherever they're going. That's just how it is.
So the trick is, plan your garden exactly as you want it, include kid-friendly features like a playhouse, a trampoline or a paddling pool, and then assimilate them into the design using appropriate (read "child-proof") materials and plants.
The first decision, says "that old guy", the landscaper, is to incorporate pathways into the design. Kids take the shortest route to anywhere, so line their tracks with flagstones, stepping stones, crazy pavers or a boardwalk.
Create mysterious or at least interesting routes - the more intriguing you make it, the more likely it is to be used. Along the edge of the path place volcanic "moon' rocks, half-buried "archaeological" pots, driftwood or agricultural relics - such objects will, with luck, lend themselves to flights of fancy in which the imagination, as opposed to the computer, will supply the details.
Rather than bordering the paths or pavers with small plants, create a buffer zone with shells or pebbles.
At some point, though, hard landscaping must give way to planting if the garden is to be aesthetically pleasing to adults as well as children. Choosing child-resistant plants requires both thought and self-discipline. Selecting the big trees isn't a problem, although it may be nice to use something your grandchildren will climb in later years.
It's the smaller plants that need to be chosen with care. A sensitive garden full of tender plants is a bit like a playroom full of fine china, so be disciplined in your choices.
Grasses, flax, astelia, griselinia, and coprosma are generally quite hardly and will stand a good deal of rough and tumble before they turn up their toes. Plant carex in clumps and once they've taken off, they'll provide a great hiding and rolling place. Other good choices are banksia, grevillea, daisies and, for something to fascinate them, bird of paradise.
Whatever you choose, mass plant in clumps rather than rows or borders and if one or two succumb to a bit of rough treatment, the gaps are less obvious and the plants easily replaced.
If you want lawn, choose a variety that's tough and fast growing. Alternatively, consider lawn camomile and lawn mint. They're both fairly robust and the lawn mint releases its scent when tramped upon. Creeping thyme is also good.
And for a bit of fun, incorporate a game - chess, draughts or a simple hopscotch grid. You'll be surprised how much use it's given by adults.
Larger "toys" can also be used to enhance kids' pleasure in the garden. A jungle gym, playhut, see-saw or swing set may be a big ask, but haunt the internet auction sites and you'll be amazed at what you find. Remember that kids delight in the most surprising things, and helping you to tart up a tired trampoline or a tumbledown hut will bring pleasure to the whole family.
If you'd like to make suggestions, agree, disagree, question, elaborate, comment or berate, please email me at info@gardenpress.net