Sometimes your garden can be a haven from the hustle and bustle of the busy world, especially in the summer. There’s nothing like coming home from work on a Friday evening, kicking your shoes off, and enjoying the feeling of the cool grass between your toes as you sip a chilled drink.

When you’ve been imagining your dream home, you might have envisaged a garden filled with beautiful flowers and a relaxing deck area. Maybe even a water feature.

Unfortunately, some of those dreams features may have to be compromised on when you have a family and a busy schedule.

Cultivating that gorgeous garden takes time, and that delicate water feature is bound to get hit rather forcefully with a football at some stage.

If you have a practically riotous family, but don’t want to give up the dream of a pleasant garden, these tips below should give you a little help. 

Get rid of the grass

When you have a young family, the garden is a great place to have a little kick about or enjoy a picnic without travelling too far. No family garden is complete without grass surely?

While gravelled areas and hard paving slabs might not be as much of an option for you if you have young ones, that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from a low maintenance alternative to grass. Companies like LazyLawn can provide artificial grass that looks just like the real thing.

Not only will you never get weeds growing in it, but your children can’t cover their clothes in grass stains or drag mud all over your house after you just finished cleaning it.

If that doesn’t sell it for you, then consider this: You’ll never have to mow the lawn again.

Fence off certain areas

Gardens can be full of hazards, especially if your children fancy themselves as the next Bear Grylls. If you have planted areas, consider installing a small picket fence to visibly mark these areas as separate to the rest of the garden. This will help your children and any pets (like a very well trained dog) to know which parts they can explore and which they can’t.

Keep the ornaments minimal

As mentioned before, if you have budding explorers for children or keen sports fans, it’s probably best to keep the ornaments at a minimum. You may be a huge fan of having replica statues dotted about the garden, however, with young children about that expensive statue will quickly start to resemble the Venus de Milo before you can even blink. Keep any ornaments small and sturdy.

Be wary of steps

Steps, especially those coming from a decked area, can be extremely slippery when wet. The last thing you need is for your child to be running around the garden and trip or slip on a hard area when they’ve gotten a bit excitable. Try to have ramps instead of steps, and make sure they’re coated in something like a non-slip rubber mat to minimise the risk of any injuries.

Final word

Hopefully, these tips have helped you to keep your garden child-friendly without having to compromise on your grand designs too much.  As the children get older, you can begin to make your true dream garden a reality.