What is the best piece of garden equipment you have bought?

[jclm]

Posting in AIBU for traffic. What is the best piece of garden equipment you have bought? We are looking for inspiration!! We have recently moved house and have a large garden on three levels. We will buy a trampoline as we have two children aged 10 and 8 (one with ASD). We are looking for ideas eg perhaps a BBQ or garden furniture or an egg chair. We have only been in the house for 8 weeks so not sure how we will use the garden space yet.

My autistic 8 year old loves the trampoline, the swing seat, and the monkey bars/hoop thingies we hung in a tress. He spends hours spinning on them. No idea how he manages to walk afterwards.

Everything else is completely ignored.

TP climbing frame with large slide. It has a monkey bar bridge thing. They love it so much. Hours and hours spent out there!

And a Wendy House.

Metal set from Brave. Was scary expensive (compared to our usual spend), but has been used for a few years now - you can choose what to hang from the swing bar (swing (toddler, normal, extra wide, basket, flying), trapeze, rings, rope ladder, punch bag, hammock...), one leg has knobbles so you can climb, has fireman’s pole and a net about 4or 5ft up where DD sits and reads, rope ladder, etc. It’s not as visually heavy as wooden set as the frame is narrower. Got it when DC was 5 and still gets used a fair bit now as she’s 10, when she’s a teen I’ll use a hammock from the swing bar.

For me, the greenhouse! I absolutely love it, gets used year round (I don’t hear it in the winter though), you can make it as simple or complicated as you like (depending g on what you want to grow), so can always have some successes.

Comfy furniture is also lovely to have.

And a bird feeder IF you live somewhere without many cats.

And a pond or small water bowl thing. I’ve one that’s just big enough for a dwarf waterlily.

Trampoline and a bestway fast set pool.

Play house for my younger kids but the 9 year old with ASD loves the trampoline (in ground one for safety) and slide.

Garden table etc is nice to

I get hours of pleasure from my bird table. Easily my best garden item. We have a cat but she just likes to lie watching the birds. In fact I think she’s friends with the pigeons as they seem to just chill together. The starlings scare her away though.

For actual gardening, the best bit of kit I have purchased is gardening dungarees with integrated knee pads. My garden is very rocky and these make it so much more comfortable and efficient.

This sofa set although I definitely didn’t pay that much for it, prices are crazy at the moment!

It’s so comfy and lovely to lay out on in the sun reading a book www.outandout.com/Copenhagen-luxury-corner-rattan-set-out-and-out-original

Artificial grass.

Unfashionable I know, but we’ve had our hot tub over 2 years now and it is still very well used, especially as the children get older. They’ll sit and chat in the hot tub in a way that just doesn’t seem to happen elsewhere in the house/garden.

The trampoline is also well used. I was worried about getting one, but it’s well anchored with a decent ladder and enclosure and a strict one person jumping at a time rule.

Swings were also well used when the children were younger.

Over the years we’ve also had playhouses, a tree house, daybeds, above ground pools and a mud kitchen which were all used a little but probably not enough to justify their value.

I came on here thinking you were referring to gardening equipment (in that case, would’ve said a self propelled petrol lawn mower) but see you mean garden play equipment

Trampoline

We had it for years, used constantly. As the DC got a little older, they also had sleep outs on it.

Kettler sofa, armchairs and table. Had them 8 years and almost as good as new without much help from me.

A giant beanbag
We’re going to have to get another one as there are fights over who gets it.
The cat wins usually.

My double egg chair. Expensive but I love it already!

I love my egg chair. The toddler has just discovered his older brother's playhouse (complete with kitchen), they both love playing in there. The six year old likes the swingball. So do I, it's quite relaxing batting a ball on a string!

Recently bought a little splashpad which works better than a paddling pool.

I have a large deep dish with a small solar fountain in it and it looks really lovely doing its thing every time the sun comes out.

3 seater swing seat with canopy.

Not that we have a lot of other equipment - a small wooden table and chairs, and a bench that was a wedding gift from my Grandmother.

For the DC (and I have one with ASD too), hands down, the trampoline. I'd buy as big a trampoline as you can fit and afford. Next to that, for DS (with ASD) a hammock swing. It fits onto a normal swing frame. He lays on it, stands on it, sways on it - absolutely loves it,.

For the other DC, two football goals, which allows them to play 'end to end'. Forza is a good brand for this. And Forza size 4 footballs.

For all of us, a massive cantilever parasol. It means that our garden table on the patio is always in shade, wherever the sun is.

For the kids, a playhouse - years of fun with it and now they're grown up it's a garden store/potting shed.

For me - a hammock

Swingseat.

I'm the only one who's first thought was food equipment and went to pizza oven amn't I?

We first got a 3 seater hammock when my boys were teenagers. It got a lot of use. We replaced it with another 3 years ago and it gets the most use in our garden.

Our Hot tub.

DD 5 is in most evenings after school and the weekends.
She loves it and keeps her entertained for hours

For my daughter a trampoline, basketball stand and slide. Pond was already here and we have newts etc which always fascinates children. As a family a fire pit ( had one for about 15 years before they were popular). Ordered a egg chair for my 50th. But my current pride and joy is my gazebo ( won in a competition 14 years ago) that I'm revamping.