Our new backyard is a little...sad....and not very inviting for imaginative play. We have really nice playgrounds on this base, but not anywhere for the boys to really dig and get dirty--so as soon as my darling husband came home we got right to work remedying the situation.......
......we also put the children to work....hauling rocks is good for kids right?
We started with these sad, flowerless flowerbeds surrounding the back porch. There aren't any rain-gutters on the very back of our porch--just the sides--why you ask? I have no idea. I'm pretty sure it's a contributing factor to the complete lack of anything growing here though, the rain just comes sheeting off the roof and would wash anything attempting to live there directly into the yard.....
I thought about filling them in with sand to give the kids a new place to dig but I was concerned about fire ants making a home in them and about all of the raccoons and stray cats using them as a potty. Then I thought, what's just as much fun as sand (and incidentally not any less dirty--and probably slightly more dangerous)? The answer--gravel and rocks :)
Chris helped me turn that thought into our brand new gravel pit......
I have no idea how many bags of sand and gravel and rocks this took, but we did have to go back to Lowe's and get double the original amount we brought home. We pretty much just grabbed bags of rocks willy nilly--I figured the more variety the better! We also picked up several random paving stones and bricks to add to the fun--I stacked up some to make little seats and the rest the boys have been using to build with and put in their dump truck and then dump back out. We moved the train table outside (it doesn't fit anywhere in the house--don't worry the trains are safely stored in the living room!) and gave the boys some old rain-gutters to add even more excitement with car and gravel races too. It's been really fun to see where their imaginations take them!
I've been reading a lot about the importance of unstructured outdoor play lately, as well as how to incorporate loose parts and irresistible outdoor playspaces into our own backyard. I'd like to have a yard set up for the kids to just go wild in--exploring.....and building.....and getting dirty.....and burning energy--ideally while I read a book or maybe nurse the baby on the patio :)
We've got big plans for putting in some shade loving/low maintenance plants back here as well to fill in the rest of the flower beds and I'd love to find some tree stumps to make a little path for climbing as well as some big pots to let the kids have their own little gardens to be in charge of. David says he wants to grow tomatoes and daisies--which I think is very cute :) I'd also like to have a bird bath and some kind of bird feeder to encourage our feathered friends to venture a little closer. I'm so excited to finally be able to start turning some of my ideas into actual backyard reality!
It looks good and it looks like it's fun for the kids. Good job! :-)
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