Are you looking for garden playground equipment? Perhaps you want to encourage green-fingered pupils to learn to grow plants, spend time in nature, and perhaps even harvest their own fruits and veggies. Maybe you just want to enhance the aesthetic of your school’s outdoor space with some healthy plants and attractive planters.
Whatever your reason for searching for garden playground equipment, what we do know is that any money spent when you’re at school, has to be spent well. You require durable, strong, high-quality and cheap interactive play equipment in return for your investment.
With that in mind, we’re going to help you get one step closer to making the perfect selection, with these 5 tips for buying garden playground equipment:
- Safety Matters
One of the most important things you can do as a school purchasing garden equipment for your playground, is to buy from a reputable, experienced EYFS playground equipment company. This ensures that the equipment that you buy has been designed with children in mind, and not just made to suit any domestic garden setting. Expect quality craftsmanship, smooth materials, weighted designs (preventing tipping), and reinforced structures.
- Room For Putting Your Own Stamp On It
Most garden equipment for playgrounds comes constructed so that you can fill the items with soil and your own choice of plants. This is useful as it means that the planter can then be designed to suit your needs.
Perhaps you’re running a ‘grow your own’ programme with pupils so they can learn about healthy eating. Perhaps you want to plant flowers that match the school’s colours.
It’s handy to have a blank slate, and it is important to check the equipment and overall package you choose if you indeed want that blank slate and/ or don’t want to pay extra for plants and compost.
If you would like a little extra help from the planter you buy without it coming fully planted, consider a Ready To Grow Garden Planter, which comes with trellis and plant pots, so all you need to do is pop some plants and compost in with your pupils for stunning results in a short period of time.
- Space & Design
It’s important to be aware of size in relation to the surrounding space, as a planter too large could look distracting and out of place, but a planter too small may look odd.
A large rectangle garden planter is fantastic for making an impact in a school drive, or to help break up the playground space. Certain planters, like a planter with vertical space for growing, are particularly handy for very limited outdoor spaces, or small ‘green’ areas where floor space is at a premium.
- What It Says To Pupils
Some planters are designed to display their purpose, which can enhance the overall vibrant and healthy feel of a playground space. This kind of labelling and design is also helpful for children as it encourages them to make connections with words, actions and the natural world.
A planter labelled ‘herbs’ which you pot up with herbs, is an easy way for children to learn all about what these plants are. This can then be built upon further by encouraging picking and smelling the herbs, perhaps in areas of the curriculum where the children might be making their own food. A great example of this is placing basil on homemade pizza. It’s a basic connection, but kids learning about where their food comes from, whilst gardening and interacting with nature and enjoying the flavour of the herbs, can only be a wonderful thing.
You can also get planters labelled with words like ‘flowers’, and ‘garden fun’. There are even ‘Grow Me’ stations for sunflowers, which can be a lot of fun for preschoolers and younger children. They have a measuring print on the back to let you know how tall the sunflower is, so the growing of the plant can be an exciting class project that is able to incorporate all kinds of extra learning possibilities like maths, science and art.
It is also important to understand how important planters can be for pupils when it comes to indicating different zones of the playground. An L-shaped planter, perhaps with benching, can encourage children to socialise, and can even be useful as an outdoor lesson seating structure.
Planter boxes and square planters can also clearly display playground boundaries, meeting zones for different forms, and help to decorate an otherwise empty-looking area with vibrant plants and attractive equipment.
- Pupil Age
It’s important to consider the age of the pupils who use the outdoor space when purchasing planters, not only for the safety aspects we mentioned above, but also for the general look of the space.
Cute planters with pictures and words on the front will look wonderful in a bright and beautiful nursery or preschool playground. However, in a secondary school, plain planters are much more appropriate for the outdoor area, so that older children can enjoy a pretty, natural decor in a way that fits more in line with their age group.
“Not all classrooms have four walls.” – Margaret McMillan
As well as the tips mentioned above, choosing a fantastic playground equipment company is the most important step to take when you’re looking to add any furniture or features to your playground. That way you can trust in the value, build, design and durability of everything that you purchase, safe in the knowledge that your playground garden equipment is of the finest quality for your pupils to enjoy day after day.