Eight Ways to Play with the Little Garden Designer Wooden Playset
Some toys invite children to follow instructions. Others invite them to imagine whole worlds.
The Little Garden Designer is firmly in the second camp. Inspired by all sorts of gardens, from wildlife-filled havens to formal outdoor spaces, this open-ended wooden play set allows children to design and redesign their own landscapes again and again. With 64 solid wooden pieces, including trees, vegetable patches, ponds and pathways, anything is possible.
So many children love this kind of free play and that’s what makes wooden toys for 3–6 year olds so powerful. At this age, children love to line up, stack, sort, build stories and create scenes. The Little Garden Designer adapts beautifully to all of it, whether they’re creating a perfectly symmetrical formal garden or a messy, wildlife-friendly, flower-filled paradise.
Eight Ways to Play with the Little Garden Designer Play set
There is an obvious way to play with this set: tip out the pieces, then arrange and rearrange them into the garden of your dreams. But why do things the obvious way? Here are some ideas for other ways to play with this imaginative toy.
1. Level up
Make a garden on two levels, building part of the garden on top of the upturned box.
2. Let’s farm
Create a farmer’s field, filled with crops, to play with alongside farmyard toys, a barn, animals and vehicles.
3. Perfect patterns
Build patterns with the solid wooden pieces – can you make a symmetrical design?
4. Grand designs
Set up a design next to a dolls house to create a garden for your dolls.
5. The tallest tower
What’s the tallest tower you can build with the pieces from this set? Can you balance a baby bunny on top? Careful… it might wobble and fall!
6. Go wild
Add more wooden trees and animals like wild birds, squirrels and hedgehogs to build a wildlife-filled woodland. Add real twigs, leaves, daisies and dandelions to make your creation look truly rules by nature.
7. Water features
Use playsilks or shiny tin foil to make streams, lakes or a swimming pool for your garden.
8. Snip and stick
Print, cut and pin a beautiful windmill that really spins, then add it to your garden! Find all the instructions on the Wonderful Windmills printable LINK
Feeling inspired? You might like to read about how Noah and his mummy played with the Little Garden Designer set Noah built a long path from his Threadbear Barnyard all the way to the cabbage patch in his garden for his animals to follow when they got hungry!
A Wooden Toy that Grows With your Child
What makes the Little Garden Designer so special is its ability to grow alongside the child using it. One day it’s about lining up paths and stacking shapes; the next it’s a story about rabbits hiding in hedges, or it’s being made into track-side allotments, ready for a train set to whizz past as it leaves the city.
This kind of flexibility is what makes wooden toys for 3–6 year olds such a worthwhile investment. Rather than being played once and set aside, the Little Garden Designer remains relevant, adapting to new ideas, new skills and new stories as children grow.
Little Garden Designer FAQs
What age is the Little Garden Designer suitable for?
The Little Garden Designer is designed for children aged 3–6, but older children can also enjoy creating complex garden layouts. Its open-ended pieces allow younger children to explore simple construction, while older children develop stories, balance and creative design skills.
Is the Little Garden Designer an open-ended toy?
Yes. Children are free to build, redesign, and imagine in any way. There is no single “right” outcome, which encourages creativity, problem-solving, and independent play.
What skills does the Little Garden Designer support?
It encourages imaginative play, fine motor skills, spatial awareness, problem-solving, and creativity. Using the wooden pieces in different ways helps children develop hand-eye coordination and storytelling abilities.
Can the Little Garden Designer be combined with other toys?
Yes. It works well alongside dollhouses, farm sets, train sets, and wooden animals, allowing children to integrate it into larger imaginative scenes.
How do you store the Little Garden Designer?
The set comes in a beautifully made plywood box with a sliding lid, keeping all 64 pieces organised and ready for play.
What other open ended playsets do you have in the range?
