Best sandpit around? Any good ones seen?

[user1486161908]

Hello! I have quite a small garden and have lots of little plans to make it good for the kids, 1yo and 5yo. First on the list is a sandpit, wooden looks nicer, but many don't seem to have a proper lid, plastic ones I've seen are quite small... we definetely need a secure lid, lots of cats etc around, and big enough to fit the two children comfortably, I would love any recommendations!
Thanks for reading!

We used to have a very small garden with DC a couple of years apart in age.

Having looked long and hard at suitable sandpits, we ended up with a combination - a permanent sand and water table (the Plum wooden one is stacking...) which got used throughout the year as they could stand up at it wearing waterproofs in winter, and a basic wooden square frame (again Plum does one, but you can make your own version with treated wood and weedproof membrane (for water to drain through).

On rare sunny days, you can lay out the membrane sheet, frame on top, tip a bag of sand in and then at the end of the day pick up the corners of the membrane, tip all the sand back into the bag or a rubble sack/trug and store the frame vertically. No cats and solves a small space issue quite neatly!

It's not the greatest looking but it's hard to fault our little tykes turtle.

Size wise 2 children seem to have enough space. It takes 2 or 3 bags of sand to get a decent depth.

The lid is fairly light and easy to get on/off but secure enough that we haven't had any cat problems (unlike the rest of the garden).

We have the tykes turtle also. We just make sure to leave a brick or something on it so that the lid doesn't fly off. It is great.

I think you can buy another hippo version (I'm sure I saw in Argos)

Thanks for replies! I have come to the conclusion that it will be the turtle one if we go for plastic, or have seen a wooden lidded one for around £40, it's going to be right in front of our living room window, husband is highly against the turtle.... was kind of hoping Aldi might bring out some amazing special offer one bit it may be too early...

The grandparents have a wooden picnic table from Aldi, the centre of the table lifts off and has a sandpit in the middle...from memory it was £40 and obviously has the benefit of being a picnic table too I'd imagine it would come up for sale again this year.

Ooohh that sounds good... any idea when aldi might do that sort of stuff? Perhaps after Easter...

Toys R Us had the turtle one plus five bags of sand for £20 the other day.

wooden like this.

We had one in three different houses, used frequently for 8 years. We got some tarpaulin to keep it dry, heavy tarp underneath and had a shade over the top.

Anotherday I LOVE that one!! But out of price range just now, prob have up to about £60... turtle offer sounds fab Spudlet, £45 has been seeming ridiculous for a bit of plastic...

I know what you mean! I wasn't at home unfortunately (we were staying with my parents for a few days) so the car was too full to get it home, or I'd have grabbed one and weathered the DH sulks about yet more stuff to go into the garage

Well if DH doesn't like the plastic option and the budget doesn't stretch to a wooden one, you will just have to make one. (though I suspect it would end up costing the same especially counting the wine it would take to recover from the swearing, if I were making it!)

Ours was from Tchibo (like lidl/aldi) so maybe hold on and keep your fingers crossed...

I think the Aldi one came out about May last year....I'd hold out for it, it's the same quality as my identical Plum one but half the price!

Oooohh anotherday, I love the look of that one to make, tho tis DH who is handy with making, and he already has many projects lined up... hmmmm...

Ooohhh I'm very glad I swithered and waited, the Lidl sandpit came out today, we got one and it looks fab! £35. Just in case anybody else was looking for one.... thanks for all comments.

Hooray!