Family Garden Mistakes to Avoid

When designing and making decisions in a family garden, there are a number of common mistakes that you should look to avoid. A family garden should be designed with the specific family in mind, and it should be able to grow and evolve with that particular family over time. 

Here are some of the most common mistakes made along with some tips to help you steer clear of them. 

Thinking You Need a Mono-Culture Grass Lawn

There is certainly no need to have a mono-culture grass lawn in a family garden. Many parents make the mistake of thinking that an open grassy area is essential when there are young children using a garden. 

A sometimes-mowed meadow or wild lawn scheme can be just as good as a place for active play and games—and it won't be an ecological desert. Your kids will be able to enjoy an open space to play in, but they will also be able to enjoy watching and interacting with the wildlife that shares the space. 

Other environments can also be great places for kids to play. Woodland or forest glades are wonderful places for dens and nature exploration, for example. 

Hiding Away the Vegetable Garden

A vegetable garden can also be a place for fun, play, and recreation for the whole family. And when it comes to food production in any family garden, integration can be important. 

Food production can be front and center, and you do not need to compromise on other things to obtain very healthy yields from your space. 

One other common mistake often seen in family gardens is compartmentalization. Kitchen garden areas are often hidden away—thought of as separate and distinct from areas for recreation and play. 

But the best family gardens are those that have holistic designs, and bring all the different purposes of a garden together in one, perfectly functioning whole. By integrating rather than segregating, we can create gardens that work even better for all the family's differing needs. 

Accumulating Plastic Play Equipment

So many family gardens are crammed with plastic play equipment. Stuff can simply take over. It is easy to see how this occurs. 

But it is also important to recognize that family gardens can be so much fun for kids without all that plastic gear. Passing on that equipment, or better yet avoiding its purchase in the first place, can free up space to create a better family garden. 

A simple stick can be a tool for a wide range of imaginative play. We can create play structures with reclaimed wood, logs, and other found items... and make natural obstacle courses, swings, and more. Your garden likely already provides a lot of places to play and things to play with. Getting back to basics is often a great idea. 

Failing to Integrate Play Areas With the Rest of the Garden

Just as people make the mistake of hiding away a vegetable garden, so too do they make the mistake of partitioning off a certain area of a garden for play. 

Again, integration is important. A garden can be devoted to play, recreation, and productivity and feel like a cohesive whole, rather than a series of very separate spaces. 

Hiding play areas away at the back of the space is not always conducive to family cohesiveness. And with young children, can make it more difficult for parents to monitor the situation. 

Kids should have their spaces in a garden, but it is also important to make sure that the heart of the garden has spaces where everyone and everything comes together. There should be a sense that the main part of the garden is for everyone, and meets all of the family's needs. 

Especially where space is limited, multi-functionality is very important. 

Keeping Things Too Under Control

One final mistake in a family garden is keeping too tight a hold on the reigns. Especially in a busy family garden, used by people of different ages and interests, it is inevitable that some chaos will creep in. If you fight too hard to keep everything under control, you risk creating compromises that actually suit no one. 

Keep things too controlled in a family garden and the space cannot evolve as the needs of your family alter over time. Letting things grow and evolve more naturally can often provide better results than sticking too rigidly to an initial plan. 

What is more, allowing wilder corners in a garden is a great idea for wildlife, and for rewilding your family, as well as the surrounding environment. Kids should have some garden time where they can do their own thing—not only super-directed activities. So let go a little and give them some natural play time on their own, and space in which they can make a mess every once in a while.