Article by Caroline Donald looking at how a few clever outdoor touches mean outdoor spaces can be made idyllic for children while still bearable for parents.  Includes an interview with Dawn on ideas for creating attractive play spaces.

“Dawn Isaac, a Cambridgeshire-based designer who specialises in family gardens, suggests creating a sandpit area in a deck with a cover that goes over it when the children have stopped playing for the day, or using a strong archway as a place to hang a swing that can be easily unhooked and stored away.

“Although she has three children – Ava, 9, Oscar, 7, and Archie, 4 – Isaac hasn’t converted her own garden into a mini version of a municipal playground. ‘You don’t have to have permanent play equipment for a garden to be interesting,’ she says. A hidden area in a corner, for example, can become a den; if there is planting in front of it, then the children feel that they are in their own hidden world, while their paretns can admire the flowers.”

Read more at The Sunday Times (subscription required).