Ideas for Outdoor Play Spaces

Ideas for Outdoor Play Spaces that you can easily set up in your own yard! Please share your own favorites!

With the exception of three, these photos were all taken in my own yard.

sensory garden

lemon balm

chocolate mint

lamb's ear

honesty

vegetable garden
we like to plant in straw bales topped with mushroom compost

cherry tomatoes

asparagus

strawberries

lettuce

pollinator garden

Joe Pye weed

borage

dill

swamp milkweed

peace garden

a bench for resting

nature mandala materials

digging pit

climbing tree

swing

hammock

dry streambed
photos from Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills MD... they dug a winding "stream," put pebbles in it, and the children pretended it was full of water!

bridge

fairy village
we have our fairy houses in the pollinator garden... so the butterflies can visit the fairies!

water pump
I had this custom-built out of red cedar... and the water is caught in a basin inside the water table (under the hinged lid) and recirculates through

mud kitchen

whiteboard
placed near the mud kitchen, this is a great place to write up what you are "selling" in your "shop"... or just to write a bit of poetry!

clothesline

bird nest
placing a shower curtain liner underneath helps keep weeds from popping through... add some yarn-wrapped sticks and a pulley!

tree stumps

play field

sprinkler

bamboo poles for fort building

mulch mountain

outdoor plexiglas easel
photo from Carbondale New School in Carbondale IL... shaving cream play

sidewalk chalk

child-size tools
from For Small Hands

cardboard boxes

bubbles
make homemade bubble wands using wire wrapped with wool yarn

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