29 Family Garden Ideas: How To Design Family Gardens

Family garden ideas

First category: design a play area

Play garden

A play garden is a space dedicated to playing that can also be planted. Climbing structures like rope swings are always popular; they can also be used to support climbing plants like clematis. Adults and children will also enjoy the brightly colored perennials surrounding a play area.

Playhouse

playhouse is one of the most beautiful family garden ideas, which provides a safe haven for kids to retreat into their own world. It is better not to have a playhouse near the main house surrounded by bare lawn as children do not feel particularly private, and it is unlikely to be used, but if the playhouse is buried among plantings, it fades into the garden and becomes a considerably more attractive location.

Maze of flowers

Mazes and labyrinths entice kids to return repeatedly, and they make a great point of focus for a large lawn or patio. Mazes have multiple paths to the center; labyrinths only have one way to follow. Both appeal to adults and kids in equal measure. A labyrinth or maze can be a permanent feature created by pavers or gravel-filled channels in the grass. However, they can also be temporary, such as daffodils that fade later in the season, tall grass mown, or even rope for a specific occasion like a birthday party.

Sandbox

When the small children go to the garden, the sandbox takes the role of a pool. This location is ideal for calm play if sweet-smelling herbs like lavender surround it.

Second category: design outdoor living features 

The most successful family backyards offer space for everyone to enjoy: a place for children to play, somewhere to cook and eat outside, and an area to unwind and relax in the evening. 

private hideaway

Create a space where you and your children may unwind and talk or read. This pretty arbor seat is an ideal place for all family members to enjoy the sights and sounds of the garden.  

Outdoor fireplace

This bright yellow outdoor fireplace serves as a great focal point. It offers a warm, inviting ambiance for nighttime gatherings while giving the garden a striking, modern appearance.

hammock

A hammock is a relaxing place to read alone in a shady spot in the yard, but it can also be fun when used as an impromptu piece of play equipment. Everyone in the family will like it.

Barbeque

Barbeque is one of those features and family garden ideas necessary for any family yard. Without a place to cook outside, no family garden backyard would be complete. A brick-built barbecue must be in the corner of a patio that is always ready.

Third category: encouraging wildlife 

If your family garden backyard is a home to wildlife as well as your family, it will be more enjoyable. The movements of birds and other animals are intriguing, and a child’s garden teeming with wildlife may inspire a lifelong love of nature.

Ponds 

Ponds are usually buzzing with life. They provide homes and breeding grounds for frogs, newts, dragonflies, and a variety of other creatures who come to visit and use them at different stages of their lives.

Nest box for birds

A nest box, placed against a tree or wall in a secluded place, provides a safe haven for birds to raise their chickens. The same breeding pair may visit you for several years if you are lucky, and there will always be a succession of young birds utilizing your yard. If you put them near a food supply or in a wild planting area, the parents and fledglings will never have to go far for food.

A path through the tall grass

A wildlife garden does not have to be untidy. If the prospect of leaving grass long bothers you, mowing a defined edge to an area will make it look neat and elegant.

Bath for the birds

Birds require food and shelter, but water is sometimes ignored. Birds may be in scarce supply during the summer heat and winter frosts, so have a year-round supply to ensure year-round visiting. A water-filled birdbath is a lovely family garden idea.

Wildflowers

There is nothing more charming than a nectar-rich meadow filled with pollinating insects. Plant beautiful and colorful combination of natural wildflower to create  a lovely family garden.

Fourth category: sensory family garden

Family garden sensory features can create a unique experience for kids’ senses. Family yards with a lot of detail appeal to people who have trouble with their vision or hearing. Wind chimes, seed heads, furry plants, and herbs are some of the sensory family garden ideas which can be used to design family yards.

Windchimes 

Plants with knocking or swishing stems and simple wind chimes are examples of audible garden features. Metal chimes provide a tinkling sound, but wooden chimes produce a more delicate and earthy tone.

Herbs

A herb garden delights the senses, especially the sensations of smell and taste. The aroma is released when you brush against herb chairs and borders as you walk. Many herbs may be eaten raw, and while you wander around the garden, you can enjoy their pungent and zingy flavors. Herb garden is the best place to do gardening with toddlers and children.

Furry plants

Many plants are pleasing to the touch at some point during their life cycle. Clematis tangutica is grown for its showy yellow flowers, but it also boasts a smooth, silky seedhead display.

Seed heads

Some plants are specifically designed for use in the sensory garden. Scabiosa stellata seed heads are not only distinctive in appearance, but they are also tactile and auditory, generating a pleasing papery noise when touched.

Fifth category: creating a private environment

There are moments when you need some privacy, no matter how much you love your family or how pleasant your neighbors are. A family yard is more enjoyable if it gives the impression of being a place where you can disconnect from the rest of the world. In the section, we review some family garden ideas and features available to create privacy in the garden.

Summer house

A summer house is a large construction in the yard that creates a separate indoor space from the main house. It could be utilized as a quiet and private office or studio where you can work away from the noise and bustle of family life. It can also be a place where kids can find the privacy they want. If you do not have any other plans for your summer house, it makes a great place to sit and enjoy the yard during rainfall.

Hedge divider

There is no mystery in a family garden with no internal divisions. Everything and everyone can be seen at a glance. But there are some family garden ideas which help create such mystery paths in the yard. You can create an atmosphere of curiosity and enable yourself to become lost by placing a series of hedges across the yard. While this works well on a grand scale, it is also appropriate for smaller yards and would be a perfect solution for establishing several little garden rooms in smaller urban gardens.

Creating barriers

Family garden yard is likely to be seen from your neighbors’ windows in many urban regions. Even a simple umbrella can act as a small barrier, preventing you from feeling as if everyone is watching what you are doing.

A more permanent solution to this problem is a pergola heavily covered in climbing plants. Similarly, planting trees with limbs that will eventually arch over your yard can make it feel much more private in the long run.

Hiding place

A floral pavilion can be made out of a simple cone of climbers, which is ideal as a hideaway for any child. This version uses cone-shaped supports planted in the spring. Still, you could create a similar, albeit more permanent, version in the winter by inserting willow stalks into the ground in a circle and tying them together at the top. They will spring to life in the spring season, and the structure will be clothed in greenery.

Sixth category: the veggie garden

Benefits of children gardening and family gardening are numerous. As result, encourage your family’s interest in vegetable gardening. Having a vegetable garden or plot ensures that your children are getting the freshest vegetables possible and plenty of them.

Vegetable garden

A well-stocked vegetable garden can be an incredible sight. There is no reason why vegetable gardens cannot be as lovely as ornamental gardens: the textures of crinkly lettuce leaves and feathery carrot tops contrast with the blue-green of a brassica leaf and a splash of color from an edible flower to create a tapestry of textures and colors as beautiful as any ornamental garden.

Fruit trees

A fruit tree should be in every garden, no matter how tiny. Many fruit trees thrive when they are taught and pruned into appropriate shapes for a small garden. Apples, pears, cherries, and peaches may all be trained against a wall and take up very little room. The tighter you prune fruit trees and the less energy you give them to grow, the more they will focus on producing a lot of fruit year after year.

Herbs

Culinary herbs are small and attractive, and they can blend in well with ornamental plants and vegetables. Some, like chives, make excellent vegetable bed edging plants. Put a variety of often used culinary herbs, such as basil, oregano, and mint, in containers near the kitchen door to get to them quickly, even if it is pouring or chilly outside.

Plant lists

Make a note of all the veggies your family consumes regularly and learn how to grow them. Some may be impossible to grow in your climate, but others, such as tomatoes, are reasonably easy to cultivate and will yield all the fruits you can eat. Start with a few simple crops like tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce to see where your passion leads you.

Seventh category: play facilities 

Toddlers are not the only ones who can have fun time in the yard. The family garden should be a location where all family members can get some exercise, let off steam, and release tension, regardless of age.

Treehouse

It may be hard to convince some children to exercise, but it is usually simple to get them to play. A treehouse may be the ultimate hideaway and the ideal location for imaginative play, but simply getting into and out of it will help children gain fitness while they are unaware that they are doing so. Concentration, balance, and steel nerves are required to climb a ladder to a height. With the addition of a rope walk and a rope swing, an hour or two of play becomes a significant mental and physical workout, all while being outside in the fresh air.

swings

Even the most advanced piece of play equipment will lose out against a natural feature like dead tree. Tree climbing should be a part of every child’s development, yet there are few possibilities for this enjoyable, natural activity.

Ropes and swings suspended from a tree are wonderful family garden ideas. A willow den for private activities and a hammock for young children to swing in as well as older children and adults to relax are also other family garden ideas that can make the yard more exciting.

Chess

A giant chess set provides a dramatic feature. The black-and-white sculptural pieces are ideal for a modern or minimalist yard with abundant hard landscaping or a square of a well-kept lawn. Although chess is not an apparent party game, there are numerous other large yard games that have been built specifically for outdoor gatherings. 

Wooden logs

To keep the kids entertained, you do not need to acquire a lot of pricey workout equipment. Wooden logs can serve as a simple obstacle course for small children to enjoy, as well as a beautiful natural feature in the flower garden. They can be chopped long, and a portion of their length can be buried for stability. 

Conclusion

To wrap it up, the family garden is a fun and relaxing place for family members to spend time together. It may be a haven from the outside world, but it is also a place where the entire family feels at ease. It is critical to design the family yard in such a manner that all family members enjoy spending time there while also taking advantage of the benefits of family yards. In this article, we reviewed 29 family garden ideas and items which can be used to design an exciting, lovely family yard.