Natural Play Spaces

Young children need places to explore, climb, and interact with nature. Not all playgrounds need expensive play structures to be successful. If you happen to like a more rustic look, and you love the idea of recycling, you can re-use stumps and tree trunks to create a lovely natural play space.

Kids 2 to 5 years old love balancing on short walls, logs or stumps. In this Eagle Rock project, we had to cut down an unsightly tree, but happily, we were able to re-purpose these stumps into a little sitting wall that can also be used as a natural balance beam.

A client was just telling me that he used to play for hours on and around a large boulder in his back yard as a child. It served as a mountain, a ship, an island. Giving kids the opportunity to explore and pretend in natural spaces is so precious these days. Why not do a little bit of it in your own backyard?