What Kind Of Trees Are Best Suited For Being Close To A Playground

By Author: Laura Dudley
Total Articles: 21
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When constructing an outdoor playground, various problems factor into the final design of the play area, from the density of the soil to the surrounding vegetation that can cause some concern. For park planners, one key designing dilemma they try to help deal with is offering enough shade for kids, especially during the summer months where the temperature can reach record highs in some areas of the country. The sun can bake the metal bars and plastic slides that make up a playground, and for small kids, the blistering heat can make it hard to play on, making shade a great ally of any outdoor play area. Planners may want to avoid specific trees and instead invest in plants that grow steadily and offer lots of shade during the summer months.

What to Avoid

Never do you want to plant a fruit tree or any tree that discards sap close to a playground, as you’ll only be compounding the amount of maintenance needed for your outdoor play area. Stay away from any tree with small needles, such as pine trees; while they may provide decent shade, the needles, sap and pine cones will blanket your playground and make it a daily ...
... hassle to clean up. Fruit trees pose another headache: they will entice unwanted pests and animals, such as raccoons, squirrels and even wasps, to your commercial plastic outdoor playground ; this can make for a real danger for youngsters.

What to Buy

What you do want from a tree is one that will blanket the playground with a decent amount of shade and require little maintenance to stay alive, but also one that can mature quickly. The best example of the ideal tree for an outdoor playground for schools is maybe the European Alder, which grows quickly and can blanket an entire playground with shade. Its oval figure and lush green leaves will keep the sun out from your playground and kids will have tons of shade, especially if the tree is a standard size. Next up is the Willow Oak tree, which, like the European Alder, matures fairly quickly and can mature in almost any part of the country, making it the perfect companion to an outdoor playground. Other plants that demand little maintenance and mature just as fast as Alders and Oaks are Golden Raintrees, American Beeches and Elms. Once these giants mature, your playground will be kept cool during the sweltering months of summer, allowing slides, chain link railing and metal bars to stay at bearable temperatures.