A trampoline or not? No regrets installing this one.
If there’s one piece of equipment we’ve bought for the garden which we’ve never regretted, it’s the trampoline. It’s something we installed in 2017 and it still gets a LOT of use.
We opted for a 10 foot (3.05m) in-ground version. A case of getting the largest we could practically fit into our garden. Although the in-ground type takes much more effort to install and it’s more or less permanent, having this type of set up has its advantages:
- Being flush with the surface meant it’s less obtrusive visually,
- There’s less risk of injury if somebody jumps or falls ‘off’.
- It’s allowed children to explore different ways of getting onto the trampoline, such as a simple running jump, running jump with somersault and jumping from a step ladder and while it was present a nearby play structure.
- Another bonus was in it not being affected by high winds. So despite many storms, it’s never blown away.
Installing it was definitely not so much fun though. It is something we did ourselves and soon discovered hand digging something like 4500 Kg of clay soil on hot summer days is not fun. A mini-digger would definitely have been useful, but there’s very limited access to the back garden, particularly for anything motorised, so it was hand-digging or nothing.
We also made an early mistake. Not digging the hole beneath deep enough to take into account how much the mat bends in the middle, so we had to partially disassemble the trampoline. Removing the mat and springs, but leaving the frame in place so we could remove a lot more soil.
Throughout the whole process though, our children and any visiting children had fun helping with the digging. It was something they asked to do. Possibly the chance to use adult sized spades had something to do with it. They might not have been able to move much soil, but they got a lot of fun out of it.
Where to put the spoil was problematic – and resolved by using it to create ‘the mound’ another garden landscape feature. This was something that also eventually become part of the design of the eventual castle play structure I created, as the drawbridge access route to it.
Our children are now much older, but they still like to use the trampoline to lounge on with friends, or mess around. It’s also used by several children as something they can bounce on to regulate themselves and/or just a place to think in the process. Others love using it to play on, particularly with a hose in the summer 🙂
We have had to replace the trampoline mat, safety mat and the springs at various times, but that’s about it.