How important is a garden when you have children?

[Snakesandpropertyladders]

We are house hunting and have found a nice house which ticks all of our boxes. It has an ok size garden but its not very child friendly. It's been heavily ( and expensively) landscaped and it looks beautiful but is tiered so nowhere to ride a trike or play football. There are also concrete steps coming directly down from the conservatory which could be dangerous.
We currently have a much larger garden that will be ideal for games of football, swings, slides etc, though the inside won't work for our family in the long term.
My baby is too young for playing outside at the moment so I've no idea how important or not a garden will be. Any words of wisdom?

I used to have a back yard and said outdoor space wasn't important,... Then I moved somewhere with an enclosed grassy garden and wondered how on earth I'd ever managed without. I use it as another room really, but with the added bonus of it wearing out ds really well

Could you buy the house and then un- landscape it? If the house is perfect, surely you can work on the outdoorsy bit to make a compromise?

Is there a park nearby?

I think its a nice to have but if you have to choose between inside space and outside space, the inside space is more important in the long run. Kids need a large garden for a relatively short period of time.

My priority list would be: nice area, close to transport links, schools, enough inside space, close to a park, other amenities, outside space.

Kids can play happily in any kind of garden. Mine have never tried playing football in the garden but like make believe, digging, picnic games etc all of which could be done in this kind of garden. Loads of scope I reckon.

Young children tend to respond to the space around them so, if they're in a wide space they want to run etc, smaller spaces with different and defined areas make them curious to explore.
If the indoors works so well and you've not seen anything else you could fill the triangles with different materials such as soil, gravel, sand etc and give them containers to pour and fill. Add guttering, deck planks, boxes etc in the larger spaces; little ones want to use their imaginations so you could use the tall plants for fairy dens and small world figures and cars when they're older.
Buckets and bowls of water, chalks etc - there's loads they could entertain themselves with (albeit under your supervision when they are more unstable - but again they adapt and learn)
Take them out to swings, parks forest etc for the energetic stuff
Google some early years blogs such as imagination tree, happy hooligans and you'll be inspired. There'll be more links on them to help you further.
Don't be out off yet - there's loads of ideas out there :-)

It doesn't matter that the landscaping was expensive as long as you don't pay a premium for it if you buy the house. why not get a quote from a landscaping firm to see how much it would cost to level it off again?

Having lived in flats when my DC were young, I'd say it's better to have no garden than the wrong one.

I disagree with LondonGirl as I see it as equally as important as inside. I also disagree (sorry LG) that they need it for a relatively short time. My 11yr old needs dragging in of an evening.

Personally I think that garden style is fine. Kids learn steps etc quickly and they aren't that steep

It's fine to add a sandpit in corner, have picnic in another, and to take toy dinosaurs outside for a play. Plus can fill baby bath with water in summer etc.

Rarely to people have a big enough garden to actually play. I think it's fine to have a garden they can go outside in and play with toys etc, and use parks/ commons/ fields to actually run and play

We live in Central London. We have a roof terrace. It's decked with fake grass in section. Has table and chairs, BBQ, sandpit, etc.

They are 3 and 4 and spend ages outside in summer on roof. They have a large pavement Slab each for chalking pictures, play in sandpit, have tea parties on a blanket, paint at table, take cars/ duplo/ animals etc outside, make dens with sheets/ pens over the table etc.

Every day we also go to the parks to run/ climbing walls to climb/ tennis on courts/ climb trees etc. Things even with grassy garden we couldn't have space for

If you have a big garden your DC can explore safely and as teens they can have some peace and quiet.
My Dc enjoyed studying outside and it made it less arduous

We spend as much time as we can outside, a safe garden is really important, you don't want to be worrying about them coming down the steps or running in and falling off something - we still shout 'don't run' even now at 8 as our sadly very expensive stone patio can be slippery at times.

I would only buy a house with a garden I didn't mind making safe for children at this stage.

ideas

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Grrr! Pinterest board

Artandco that sounds lovely!!

Having outdoor space matters, so long as there is some, you can make it work for you, perhaps with less re-landscaping than you think. FIRST: identify the plants you have and pull out or fence off any that might be dangerous. After that, a multi-level garden can work, taking it all the way back to flat might not be necessary. You would need to make the space directly outside the doors safe, replace the stairs from conservatory with a deck leading down by shorter sets of steps maybe? First set of steps safely gated! The sections below can be usefully repurposed, one might even be fenced in while they are tiny, or made into a glorious sand pit when they are a bit bigger.

Artandco, your comment that gardens big enough to play are rare surely only applies to London? The vast majority of families around the country have gardens. I'd say in the uk as a whole, gardens are the opposite of rare. Central London is a very different beast.

Very important. We live in a first floor flat with a directly accessible huge garden. Once we are outside the kids love it. Space for kicking a ball, digging etc etc. But it drives me mad that I cannot just chuck them out - it is a real expedition.

So we are moving next year to somewhere with a direct garden. As long as it is flat and a reasonable size, I will be happy.

We also use the garden a lot ourselves e.g. bbqs, growing veg etc.

I would say, very very important. But the schools and location are more important and unchangeable! So I would buy it and change the garden. The garden is fantastic for children and for you in the summer. I would say indispensable.

Just to point out that the picture I posted wasn't the actual garden. It was just to show what the grassed areas sort of look like.
A decked area is a good idea. The garden itself isn't on a steep gradient but the house itself is a lot higher than the garden, and to blend it in they have tiered the garden.
I think it could be made a lot plainer and therefore child friendly if we ripped everything they have out in iut.

I have small urban paved garden in London and 2 boys (6 and 4) and they almost never play out. I have encouraged them with bikes, scooters, football, but we find that we much prefer going to local parks where the space is unlimited. Also, I have always worked full-time, and the kids wear themselves out in school/nursery, and the weekends are for going out. Now we will be moving soon. I would love a big child-friendly garden, but could only find a house with 6m x 6m garden; it had to be in the catchment of a good schools. It is mainly grass, not overlooked and I think we will be enjoying it more than the current one, even though it is smaller. I hope we will find space for a paddling pool or a trampoline, a BBQ, a tent for the kids, perhaps some stepping stones. It is not ideal but not a deal breaker for me. And I would personally choose a smaller garden with grass rather than bigger but paved/gravelled.

Nancy - I dont think so. Both dh and I grew up elsewhere in England and yes gardens were bigger than London, but not that big. Just a bit more grass, a shed and washing line

Unless someone lives in the countryside with acres of land I doubt many have gardens big enough for children to ride bikes properly, run through as actual excercise, or play proper game of football. They still need to be taken out to larger spaces.

We don't have a garden at all. We live in a flat with our three children. It's fine.

We go to of of parks, seaside, wild camping and used to go to toddler groups with sand and stuff.

In the summer I do sometimes wish we had outdoor space but most if the time we are just fine. The kids play out on the street.

Our house ticked all our boxes esp schools and close to park. We have a big child friendly garden. In reality we don't use it much. We go for walks, go the park, go on bike rides , DC do football gym, swimming and other sports. They are in afterschool or sports clubs most days . I know several really active families who have no gardens. It's a nice to have, but not a deal breaker

I think parenting without a garden is grade than with a garden. If you are the average MNer who is a supermum that is fine. However if, like me, you are a good enough parent - even on a good day - a garden is important.