Pebbled garden and young children - advice

[user1490025201]

We are moving out of London in October to a house with a pebbled back garden. It's a rental, and we only plan to stay there a year before we hopefully buy a house. Is there any cheap(ish) ways to make the garden more kid friendly? We'll be moving with 3 kids - a 3 year old, 18 month old and a newborn. Usually we have always used our garden as an extra room to play in from Spring to Autumn - so am dreading the pebbles (and as the the youngest kids are v.young it will be a case of them continuously moving and eating pebbles...).

Obviously there are things we could do if the landlord was okay with us doing it (artificial grass / grass) but seems like quite an expense for us if we're only staying a while. I don't get the impression that the landlord would want to pay for the works themselves. Anyone more green fingered than me got some amazing (ideally cheap) solutions to make a pebbled garden kid friendly?

Any advice much appreciated.

You can get foam mats that are designed to be used under climbing frames etc, so they have small drainage holes in them and are ok to use outside.

Your kids might still be able to pull small pebbles up through the holes but it would slow them down!

I think you alway have to watch them like a hawk at that age anyway to be honest.

I’d embrace the pebbliness! Mine love a pebble beach. Paint them, stack them, make roads in them.

You will have to be very strict on not throwing or eating, but then that’s the same even in a garden with a gravel path. Hopefully they will mostly be too big for choking anyway.

For the newborn a playpen may be the safest option. Or roll out some old carpet when it’s sunny.

Thinking a bit more, could you get some outdoor rugs? Ikea do them quite cheaply. At least it would go on top of the pebbles so less likely the kids will try and eat them.

I had a gravel garden for a couple of years when mine were 1 to 3 years old and 5 to 7.

We had some patio so put foam mats on that. And used this for a paddling pool base.

We also embraced the pebbles with buckets and spades and dumper trucks.

Thanks all! Really appreciate the feedback. OK looks like its a combination of mats and embracing the pebbles. Will see how we get on. Thanks again!