We all want to keep a beautiful garden however one of the biggest struggles is making sure we keep our young children safe whilst maintaining the garden. Finding a balance between practicality and aesthetics with safety in mind for young children isn’t the easiest task so in this article we are going to go through some of the easier ways in which we can toddler proof your garden.
Once your baby is walking it can be one of the most fun and rewarding places, although before then they can still crawl around if you don’t mind them getting too grubby! If your garden is relatively toddler proof then you can leave them to their own devices and get on with a pieces yourself, be it weeding or collecting some vegetables from the garden, perhaps even just hanging out the washing, either way it means more freedom for both you and your little ones – hurrah!
Don’t leave hanging baskets within reach of your children
One of the most interesting things for young children is hanging baskets or anything connected to a rope or tie. It’s almost like a magnet and they just simply can’t leave it alone. It doesn’t even matter if you tell them no, they’ll just keep on going back… that’s kids for you. The only way to make sure the hanging baskets are safe is make fully certain that they’re out of harm’s way. It’s also worth considering that they are extremely heavy and if one were to fall on your toddler it could do a serious amount of harm and not worth the risk.
Put a safety net or cover around the pond
Probably the most dangerous thing in your garden is a pond or water feature. Water is a natural attraction for young children and if they’re that young, then they may not yet understand the dangers of water. Even if they do understand the dangers of water, it’s still risky to leave them vulnerable slipping in or overbalancing. So either way, one of the best things that can be done is purchase a pond cover or similar.
Whilst a pond cover doesn’t guarantee the safety of your child, is significantly increases the likelihood of you not having any major accidents. Some choose to build a wall around the pond or similar. This is equally as effective if not more, however probably doesn’t look quite as attractive when compared to having a pond cover that’s removable.
Make a clear area of lawn with a sandpit or mud kitchen
The curve ball idea to keeping your children safe in the garden is making sure that they have something that will keep them totally preoccupied and is far more interesting than all of the other dangers around them. Personally, I’ve always found the sandpit is an amazing way of keeping children occupied and safe at the same time. They really can’t do an awful lot of harm playing with sand after all! You could also consider a mud kitchen, something that’s incredibly popular in our house at the moment. Or for older kids how about a slide, swing set or play house?
Keep all of your power tools & sharp objects locked away
It’s easy to be complacent with your garden tools; a chainsaw or hedge trimmer is extremely dangerous even without electrical power supplied to them. It would probably surprise you to know that a child could easily get their finger caught in between the blade and teeth of a chainsaw or trimmer. What’s worse, if they’re able to turn the blade slightly with their hand they can actually even trap their fingers and cut their hand terribly. This makes it essential that you keep the cover on your chainsaw at all times and keep any other tools that are sharp or dangerous locked away as well. We keep all of our tools in a locked shed away from the kids toys so there’s absolutely no reason for them to go near them at any stage.
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