I’ve started a bit of a landscaping project in our back yard.. By landscaping, I actually mean I’m clearing up the rat infested hell hole that the previous tenant left and trying to transform it into somewhere the kids can hang out..

It’s a small yard, 30m square at most, and I’ve just brought down the flower beds and started levelling it off..
There’s a small paved area immediately outside the back door, but we’re planning to leave that and put in a containing wall of some description and fill the rest in with bark chippings and a bench around the edge..

The problem we’ve got is cats.. thousands of the things around here and I don’t want them to fill our kids play area with shit so I’m looking for something else.. Turf is out of the question, the bit of yard receives very little sunlight and is really not worth a mower..

I’m loving the look of bonded rubber mulch, or a wet pour rubber but our budget won’t stretch to an expensive professional installation..
can anyone recommend any DIY solutions..?

Pebbles are cheap (ish), and very beach like (if you visit pebble beaches). They also make excellent everlasting gobstoppers, and provide unlimited ammo for use against cats/neighbours/greenhouses/etc.

Pebbles are a nightmare if your kids like to throw them around everywhere (like mine!) 😉

Something like these maybe?

http://www.floormats.co.uk/rubber-playground-tiles?gclid=CK2ckJilp7cCFXMRtAodWFcABw

When me son was little and we’d just moved into a house we had the same problems. As my wife wouldn’t let me shoot them 😉 I put Gripper onto the top of all the fences, just bought a big box from Screwfix.

No cat problems.

artificial grass maybe?

crankbrat is 22 months old his first complete sentence was “don’t throw gravel greenhouse” he can also count to 20 as his punishment for breaching that rule is to be held still for a count of 20 . to his credit he is a good aim and can throw all sorts of stones a fair distance.

so unless you want to spend your days recovering stones and listening to the crack of rock on glass think of something less projectile like.

We got some of these ,also available in colours I believe.We put them over the flags in part of our yard.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003E19ZQM/?tag=hydra0b-21&hvadid=9556669869&ref=asc_df_B003E19ZQM

You can get those floor mats for £15 in cost co.

Need something that drains water off or it will be puddle central.

Artificial grass may be worth a look. I am looking at theses to go under a swing/slide thing to protect the grass and prevent a mudfest. may be ok for you.

Grass Mats

we have similar interlocking mats to nick1962. have lasted better than I expected. They are layed on top of slabs which were there. Don’t seem to have a drainage issue (plenty of rain) but the slabs were already there and have a slight (1:200?) slope on them.