What makes a good family garden?

[Pannacotta]

We're in the process of renovating our very neglected garden and would be interested to hear what works for you, and what doesn't!

I am thinking we will keep as much lawn as possible for ball games etc and keep the lawn shape a bit curved, ie not too neat/fussy.

We have a raised bed for veg growing.

I plan to get a trampoline once DS2 (age 2) is a bit older.

Other than that I'm not too sure.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Anyone?

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Wow thanks Squiggly, am really impressed! Lots of lovely ideas.

I love gardening but so far have struggled to make it fun for the boys.

Will look up the book you mention and yes I have thought about a play house/den, just not very organised about getting round to it, also hard to find good landscapers here.

Our youngest is quite destructive, his favourite past time is to ride his Little Tikes car into the only planted border we have (he isnt interested in the borders which are still empty)!! Your 2 year old sounds very cute though....

Alpine strawberry plant or 2 or 3 so they can pick off the odd one as they get rip all summer.

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Squiggly I agree about the wild look, have decided to go down the route too, both for wildlife and also for my sanity!

Squiggly your garden sounds great, very interesting and lots to keep your boys occupied, which is what I have struggled with.
Did you get any help with planning the layout/shapes of your paths and borders?

I agree that winding paths and hide outs etc are much more fun than anything too obvious/straight laced, am bit stuck how we can manage this - our garden is wide but quite shallow, (in fact twice as wide as it is deep). At the moment it is rather boring (with some nice planting) with straight borders round the edges and no secret spots (which I long for...) I have done lots of research on line and using library books but I havent found much about creating secret/wild gardens etc.

Also agree a den is a great idea, I always wanted one as a child and never had one. Did you design/make one from scratch or adapt a shed/outbuilding?

Sorry for all the questions! Its great to exchange some ideas and really appreciate your suggestions...

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Oh God, Squiggly, I could cry at the descriptions of your garden. I want to come play!!

I am going to save this thread as my garden is a large blank canvas (finally! 15 skips later!) and I just didn't know where to start and how to do it.

Squiggly it sounds amazing! I also want to come and play! As would the DSs!

Thanks for all the lovely descriptions and suggestions....
I am going to get the Roots book on Amazon, any others you have found useful? I keep borrowing from the library but nothing has fired my inspiration yet...

In fact your garden sounds just like what I want to create, though my DH thinks I am bonkers...

Did you plant small shrubs etc, so you could prune as they grow?

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i've quickly scanned the suggestions: wrt to shrubs etc, the best thing you can plant in your family garden is raspberry canes: then you'll have free and healthy fruit every summer! and kids love helping to pick them.

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Thanks Squiggly. loads of great ideas and advice.
Interesting to hear what you say about lawn/football pitch, I think that you've found a good compromise there, perhaps I shoudl follow suit, as its hard to creat much sense of intrigue if the garden resembles a pretty football pitch, as ours does...

Will check out the book suggestions too and the raspberry canes nickelbabe - soil is a touch acidic so we should be ok there....