Child-proofing garden...

[Comacchio]

I've almost finished our garden project (new build, big ole' plot of mud behind house) after nearly 4 years at it. In that time we've had twins - they're now at toddler stage, so I need to come up with a solution to child proof the garden. When we moved in there was an 800mm rise from house to rear fence so I decided to split the garden into 2 levels - which is now what I need to defend against.






I was thinking about some form of retractable wind break style solution that could mount to the fence either side at the grass/decking side of the planters and be drawn across, but haven't seen any cost effective options so far, so thought I'd open it up to the PH masses. Any ideas?

Cheers.

[mikeiow]

I may be off-piste here, but I would train them to use the garden as you have it.
Unless there is something super dangerous - do you have a pit with knives in?
Teach them to crawl carefully up and down steps and be there with them anyway.
Maybe I sound wrong, but we wouldn't leave our toddlers on their own in the garden. Sure, they will trip and graze knees, but that is part of learning.

[Comacchio]

mikeiow said:

I may be off-piste here, but I would train them to use the garden as you have it.
Unless there is something super dangerous - do you have a pit with knives in?
Teach them to crawl carefully up and down steps and be there with them anyway.
Maybe I sound wrong, but we wouldn't leave our toddlers on their own in the garden. Sure, they will trip and graze knees, but that is part of learning.

For this summer they just wont be at the trainable stage. The problem I'm trying to solve is to allow 1 parent to be in either upper or lower part of garden with both children at once and not have to constantly run between T1 and T2 diverting them away from the dangerous drop. May be overthinking.

[sherman]

Ask your neighbour.
They have a small slide on their top level.

Other option is build a 3-4ft fence along the back of the raised bed and put a gate at the top of the steps with a lock/catch out of small peoples reach.
You can grow some climbers along the fence to soften the look.

[Comacchio]

sherman said:

Ask your neighbour.
They have a small slide on their top level.

Other option is build a 3-4ft fence along the back of the raised bed and put a gate at the top of the steps with a lock/catch out of small peoples reach.
You can grow some climbers along the fence to soften the look.

Their child is 15 months older so understands the dangers more and has 2 parents to run after at all times. I'm just trying to solve a problem for this summer really - I'm in the office most days and my wife is a teacher so is home alone with the kids most of the summer. 2 toddlers and 1 parent is pretty tough going!

[InitialDave]

For the time being, why not make a simple low fence along each raised bed? Doesn't even have to look especially pretty, it's really only needed for the next few months while you're in the garden with the kids at their current age.

It's that or bungee ropes on the kids with the other end attached to the back fence.

[sherman]

Comacchio said:

sherman said:

Ask your neighbour.
They have a small slide on their top level.

Other option is build a 3-4ft fence along the back of the raised bed and put a gate at the top of the steps with a lock/catch out of small peoples reach.
You can grow some climbers along the fence to soften the look.

Their child is 15 months older so understands the dangers more and has 2 parents to run after at all times. I'm just trying to solve a problem for this summer really - I'm in the office most days and my wife is a teacher so is home alone with the kids most of the summer. 2 toddlers and 1 parent is pretty tough going!

You could get away with 3 or 4 fence posts dependening on distance per side and nail some netting between the posts

[Evanivitch]

mikeiow said:

I may be off-piste here, but I would train them to use the garden as you have it.
Unless there is something super dangerous - do you have a pit with knives in?
Teach them to crawl carefully up and down steps and be there with them anyway.
Maybe I sound wrong, but we wouldn't leave our toddlers on their own in the garden. Sure, they will trip and graze knees, but that is part of learning.

I'm with you.

Alternatively only put them in a playpen until you're ready to let them use the garden.

[alfabeat]

Leave them to it. They will work it out. I really am struggling to see anything there they need protecting from. (Father of 3 kids, our garden had unguarded 6ft drops, banks full of nettles, a septic tank with cracked lids and all survived).

Edited by alfabeat on Monday 1st July 00:22

[Tenacious]

Claymore mines?

[wildoliver]

Sorted.

[ARHarh]

It may be because I was brought up in the 60's but there is nothing in slightest bit dangerous there. If you are going to protect your kiddies from that sort of danger they will grow up learning nothing.

[Bill]

I'm in the what danger camp, but if you really feel the need to put something up then a roll of electric fence net* will go in easily without being a pain to remove.




*Maybe use a small battery...

[dave123456]

Yep I’d train the kids and try to retrain yourselves not to worry too much.

[LimaDelta]

Evanivitch said:

mikeiow said:

I may be off-piste here, but I would train them to use the garden as you have it.
Unless there is something super dangerous - do you have a pit with knives in?
Teach them to crawl carefully up and down steps and be there with them anyway.
Maybe I sound wrong, but we wouldn't leave our toddlers on their own in the garden. Sure, they will trip and graze knees, but that is part of learning.

I'm with you.

Alternatively only put them in a playpen until you're ready to let them use the garden.

Yup. Agreed.

We did zero 'child-proofing' to our home or garden with ours. Let them learn, and if they take the odd tumble, they'll learn faster.

[Drawweight]

Buy a few foam mats or yoga mats and lay them on the slabs under the drops.

Lift them when the kids aren’t outside. I’d say that would be all you’d need.

[megaphone]

Just screw some trellis on the face of the drop.

[beambeam1]

If anything I would just find something they can hold on to as they go down the steps. Our toddler is very mobile now but also very capable of navigating obstacles... but does herself some mischief most days regardless!

Well done on managing that garden on your own!

[Dannbodge]

That's similar to our garden. Small drop onto a concrete path

What did we do?
Nothing, they'll fall and they'll learn

You could always get some of that foam matting and chuck it down next to the wall, so if they do fall it's onto something compliant rather than concrete.

[essayer]

Drawweight said:

Buy a few foam mats or yoga mats and lay them on the slabs under the drops.

Lift them when the kids aren’t outside. I’d say that would be all you’d need.

This, get a set of interlocking garage tiles and lay them beneath the retaining wall

We had the same garden arrangement for our kids and they mostly avoided falling (think there was one fall down the steps, once!)

£15 for six metres worth from Screwfix