Playground Potted Plants
When creating landscaping for a public playground there are so many things to keep in mind. After all, children often do things without thought, meaning you have to think of everything before they have a chance to! While you want your playground to be safe, you also want it to appear friendly. With all of the wood chips and metal equipment, your playground can start to look rather industrial. To keep playgrounds friendly and bright, you can add playground potted plants ideas and other appropriate forms of vegetation. Here we detail the basics of landscaping a playground, including the best ways to incorporate your playground potted plants for added aesthetics and safety too.
The Benefits Of Well-Designed Playgrounds For Children
Kids enjoy some of their best memories on public playgrounds. A playground gives kids endless things to do. Plus the activity is good for them, drawing them away from the computer and television for some good old-fashioned fun. There are a number of skills children sharpen while enjoying themselves on the monkey bars, or swinging without a care on the swings. These skills include:
- Social skills
- Pretending and make-believe skills
- Motor skills
- Physical skills (jumping, climbing, crawling, etc.)
- Decision-making and other cognitive skills
How To Accommodate Both Kids and Adults
Public playgrounds attract children of all ages, oftentimes a gaggle of siblings come along, ranging in age from toddlers to ten year-olds. Everyone needs to be entertained, and kept safe. Isolate activities for smaller children on the opposite end of the playground, this helps keep everyone safe.
Add a comfortable, and preferably shaded, place for caregivers to sit and watch children play. Adults or teens may want to play alongside their children or siblings sometimes. A great way to give them the chance is to offer a few larger swings that are raised up higher. (Read More)
3 Benefits to Adding Playground Potted Plants to Your Landscape
Playground potted plants add so much beauty to your playground landscape. Both children and adults can appreciate the natural joy of nature’s blossoms. Although with thick rubber ground covering lining the floor of your playground, how are you to add flowers? Playground Potted plants make a great option for your design, offering numerous benefits.
1. Freedom To Plant Where You Please
Playground Potted plants can be placed anywhere, over any ground covering. This allows you to add pops of color throughout your playground, or wherever you please.
2. Help Protect Your Plants
Kids don’t always recognize the boundaries of a pretty patch of flowers. To prevent the destruction of your most treasured playground plants, add planters and planter boxes to your design so that kids and pets have less chance of getting into them. The extra height that playground potted plants offer makes them less likely to be trampled by kids, peed on by dogs, or otherwise obstructed.
3. Personalized Planters Provide Affordable Focal Point
At TerraCast Planters we offer the unique option to have graphics applied to your planters. This gives you the chance to include personalized planters in your playground design. Make kid friendly logos that incorporate a theme. For instance, you can have planters printed with fun names or numbers to separate parts of the playground. The options are endless when personalization is possible.
Picking The Right Playground Potted Plants For Your Landscaping
Playgrounds must be planed with the greatest attention to detail. After all, the job of a great playground is to entertain kids and keep them safe. Anything that presents the potential for danger should be avoided at all costs. While safety of children and visitors is of utmost importance, the safety of the plants you select is also necessary to maintain a great-looking park. Planting a whole lot of sensitive flowers or grass might not be the best idea. If children are continually running and playing on grass, it is likely to develop many bare patches, creating an eyesore that requires a lot of maintenance.
Trees For Shade
Large trees offer a wonderful option because they enhance beauty and provide a place to escape the heat. Trees can be planted in pots, or applied to the outer edges of your playground where there is adequate soil for deep roots. A great tree that provides low maintenance shade for playgrounds is the Silver Maple. This tree can grow in dry soil and handles full sun well; it grows in Zones 3 to 9. Another great tree for playgrounds is the Chinese Elm, which thrives in Zones 4 to 9, The Chinese Elm doesn’t mind pollution, droughts, or children hanging all over it, it still grows to a lovely 40 or 50 feet tall. (Learn More)
Pick Plants Without Dangerous Pests
According to Boston’s Children Hospital, 3% of children are allergic to bees and 100 people die each year from bee stings. Even for those not allergic to bees, a sting can be a frightful and painful experience. Help keep bees out of your playground by avoiding the plants they enjoy most, largely including nectar and pollen rich flowers. (More Information)
Building A Great Looking, Safe Playground
When landscaping a playground your most important job is to ensure all children that play on it will be safe. While you can take away some of the risks kids will get hurt, you can’t prevent every kid from falling. Instead, just make sure their landing pad is as soft as possible when they do fall. Three inches beneath the ground covering you select for your playground should be a soft rubber mat of some sort. On top of the mat you can layer a number of materials, including wood chips or sand.
Another way to keep kids safe on any playground is to make sure the equipment is not dangerous or worn. Pick durable materials that can withstand exposure to the elements so that your playground remains safe over time. For instance, wood playground equipment is prone to swelling and shrinking depending on the weather. This means that constant maintenance will be required to keep all attachment hardware securely in place. Metal playground equipment is a more durable option that better handles exposure to the elements.
With so many little details to decide on, building and landscaping a playground is a big job. TerraCast Planters can help make your job easier with our one-of-a-kind planters that will show off your playground potted plants!