Best piece of garden play equipment you've invested in?

[Stripedmum]

I'm thinking a play house after seeing how much DS loves his at his grandparent's house.

What are your recommendations?

Houtland playframe - with various attachments, slide, trapezes, firemans pole, monkey swing etc etc

The BEST thing is a homemade teepee / wigwam. Cost £'s in the shops but I made DD one from 6 garden canes tied together with a bit of rope with a couple of old throws pegged round. she adores it. Used it all last summer and we have got it out again now the weather is warmer. She puts all her toys in and has picnics. Her friends love it too and it looks fab!

When they were just sitting up a cat litter tray filled with water and some palstic cups.

Poundland water guns that are like a syphon that you stick one end into the water and suck it then squirt.

Ridiculously expensive play house on stilts with shop underneat, swings and wiggly slide.

Football

decent slide (about £50) has been used now for 5 years by all three children, still showing no signs of disintegrating. Sand/water play table (Little Tikes, but there's loads of choice) also great. Wooden playhouse not used much, even in first year! . My eldest (5) loves swingball but it's a bit treacherous when the other two run towards the ball/bat....

We have had great use out of a large slide (Argos £50ish) I have 3 children and they play on it for ages - dolls, cars,balls etc get fired down it too.

If you have a sloping lawn, the best thing we had as a Slip n' Slide! Also a big trampoline and a proper swing, ideally made with nice long ropes hanging from a tree.

Trampoline. It's better than a treadmill for my tearaway boys and my daughter, a competitive gymnast, uses it to practice and hangs out on it with her friends .

12ft trampoline......keeps them outside and active for hours.

Would love a trampoline for my 3. Would 10ft be big enough for them? Keep hearing how dangerous they so that puts me off slightly.

I have 3 and they all go on together (8, 5,3) ours it 15x 10 oval that is a good size for 3. A round one you'd need 12 or 14 ft I reckon. No injuries yet (1year)

Miaow, I'm very sorry to hear about your relative on the rope swing - that must have been very difficult for him/her to come to terms with. However, we all have to manage and embrace a bit of risk, and all the play equipment that has been mentioned on this thread has the potential to cause or facilitate harm or serious injury. Indeed, so do many of the other activities we regularly encourage our kids to engage in - swimming, bike riding, organised sport. Precautions are fab - we wear helmets, seat belts, have life guards, and trampoline nets, but I really don't think it's healthy or developmentally sound for us to remove all risk from our kid's activities - how will they learn to manage it for themselves otherwise?

To each their own, I guess. In your original response, you did make it very clear that you wouldn't have a trampoline because you had seen too many injuries from them. I lost a close family member to a recreational cycling injury, but that doesn't mean I keep my DS off his bike, or off the roads.

Neverending did you actually read what Miaow wrote happened to her relative?? Of course she's freaked out by them, but she's not telling other people not to have them, just to be careful! Pretty understandable, I reckon. I can see why she's a bit cheesed off with your comment... And I bet your more careful with your kids on their bikes on the roads than you might otherwise have been....

itsn0tmeitsyou - Agree with your point - we are very keen on helmets in our household.

I clearly understood the poster's point about their relative and reflected this in my response. The rest of my comment was about an opinion whereby I don't think it's healthy for us to rule out certain bits of kit because they have risks associated with them - risks are healthy for kids - just suggesting that folks don't worry too much about what might happen with certain bits of kit, assuming that they take appropriate precautions.

Actually, my response was, in the main part, about Miaow's objection to trampolines, and not rope swings. The OP asked for advice about what to get and Miaow responded about trampolines with personal advice that he/she would not get one because of the injuries they create. Then, apparently, when I disagree, it's actually all about the neighbours

Again, Miaow, I reiterate, I am genuinely very sorry to hear about what happened to your relative. I understand completely what it is like when a happy, fun activity turns horrible.

The sand box is the most played with. The swings weren't a hit at all. Dd2 likes them but dd1 doesn't care too much about them.
Watering cans are also great fun too.

Another vote for a swing and trampoline. They're things they use all the time and will continue to use as they get older so that's good enough for me!

Trampoline. My 11 year old brother still plays on his now and he has had it years.

Climbing frame with slide, linked monkey bars and a high den.
Seven years on and it's still in constant use.

The free sand pit my friend was getting rid of 7 years ago is great too.

Giant sand pit.

I really REALLY want a trampoline for DS, he loves them and can't him off them at other peoples houses. However, the ground on our garden is very uneven, and I've heard this is unsuitable.

Anyone with an uneven garden managed to get away with a trampoline?!

Best buy when they were young was our climbing frame, converted into all sorts of places in our childrens' imagination - pirate ship, fort, princess tower. Then the trampoline; started off with a safety net a must in my opinion for younger children. Now they are older we have taken off the net and it is still in use - by myself, while my children lie on it and read or revise!
Another great buy has been our Swingball, a permanent fixture during the summer months. It is great to take camping, picnics or even on a UK holiday.

We have some Quadro:

www.quadroplay.co.uk/index.html

it's a German 'system' which you can use to build all sorts of things. The best bit was probably the enormous pool that you can buy, and put the slde into. We have had so many children around splashing into the water. It comes with a mini version that you use to plan your next structure.

BabyBearleigh still hankers after a trampoline too...

marking place so can have thinky later on

REALLY want a trampoline- was thinking my kids too big (9 and up) but am pretty sure it'll get at least three or four years' use by me

now am going to try and work out how big is big enough- don't want it too wee, but don't want it dominating not-huge garden like an oil rig