By combining building projects for children's play structures with tips and ideas for creative landscaping, this book goes much further than any other to helping readers create a fun, safe, and interactive outdoor play area for their children in an environment that is useful and appealing to adults. The projects in this book include a broad range of designs, for toddlers to teenagers. The play structure project is the classic, timber-style set found in many gardens and can accommodate several accessories and future modifications. Playing in either of the two tree house projects, kids will find adventure, privacy, and a connection to the outdoors. The climbing wall project provides kids-and parents-with a fun way to develop strength and concentration. There are also projects for playhouses and a fort that kids can help build and several plans for child size outdoor furniture. Where appropriate, projects are designed for adaptation to a different use after the child outgrows them. For example, the sandpit project is a decorative sandbox that can easily be adapted into a garden bed; the playhouse could become a garden shed in later years.

In addition to the projects, there are dozens of tips for using trees and other plantings to create private, natural places for kids that are integrated with the general landscape. This book focuses on the trend of parents encouraging outdoor play for their children while, at the same time, keeping them close to home.