play bark in the back garden

[samjam]

we are currenlty thinking of put the climbing frame etc on play bark as we are fed up with all the equipment killing the lawn. One friend has said that the play bark never dries out and is horrendous - does anyone else have any opinions or good alternative suggestions?

i have just had this done to my garden easter weekend,and so far it is fab,we have swings,seesaw,climibing frame,slide and trampoline out there and the grass had such poor drainage,the kids dragged mud from one end of the house to the other,now they bring in bark stuck to their clothes but it is so easily swept up so i would say yeh go for it.

We are thinking of putting this down in a bit of our garden, where is the best place to get playbark from? I looked on the B&Q website and couldn't see any - is there a specialist supplier?

Do cats and foxes poo in it?

we used to have play bark in the garden. it was only over a small area but i had to cover it in pond netting when ds wasn't playing in it as unfortunately the cats loved it to poo in (yuck).

well i have my own cat and she has her own bit of the garden which she uses and because of her scent being around other cats dont tend to come in and use our garden!!

Anywhere near Crews Hill, North London ?

www.thompsonsofcrewshill.com sell several types of bark. Single bags or 1T bags delivered (any size order for a tenner in a surprisingly wide dleivery area.

bark chips won't dry as fast as decking, or rubber etc. because the bark is absorbent, but I don't think wetness should be an issue.

If there is problem wetness I would guess it is because there is inadequate bark thickness or that the underlying soil (probably quite clayey) has become compacted.

I would suggest the 'best practice' way to do this would be to ammend the underlying soil: Add grit etc. to make it more free-draining. Then use a landscape membrane sych as Mypex to separate the two substrates (soil and bark). It allows water to drain through. Then add more bark than you think you need: At least 3, possibly up to 6 inches under a play area where kiddies might fall. This might mean some excavation under the climbing frame is necessary if you need to maintain perfect levels.

A permanently wet patch in the garden would need more radical trenches / perforated pipe drainage system etc.

HTH

Message withdrawn

and woodlice LOVE to live and breed in it - well, they do in my garden anyway

cod - I think it only gets dusty from people trampling muddy shoes onto it. The mud subsequently dries and goes dusty. In Winter, I think the same happens but the mud doesn't dry, so the bark goes muddy, and this is why it sometimes looks nasty in parks.

It shouldn't be a problem in a domestic setting if access is from patio / lawn / path which is not muddy, and kids don't trample through flower beds...

is there a national supplier of this? B& Q did it last year but not this year apparently...

We did this in our garden a while ago and it's fab.

Dries out well and isn't mucky at all. Dh put a membrane thing down first so the weeds can't get through and so the stuff won't get clogged with mud.

The only thing I will say is that if you have a dog/cat the you really need to do a poo check everyday because the poo is very easily disguised.

Oh and another thing once it's been down for a few weeks it will settle and you'll probably need to buy some more to have a nice thick layer.