Where I work in the parks under playgrounds we use :

http://www.totturf.com/safety.html

What about clean playground sand ?? You may have to rake it and weed some but it will save a lot of cash.

Good Day ...

Ummm...playground sand and a cat? ONE big kitty litter box. I wouldn't use sand.

If I had the money I'd be tempted to spring for the playground tiles. THAT said--when my kids were little we just had a combination of grass and mulch. My guys are still alive.

Did you see the thread linked below? It is mostly about mulch and pea gravel. I love my kids but $4k and $2k would be more than I could justify.

- Brent

Here is a link that might be useful: HELP! Ground cover for kids play area????

Thanks all for your suggestions. I did read that other link, actually, and I had ruled out pea gravel because it's essentially just rocks, not fun to fall on, easy to dig into and carry around, and hard to get rid of. I agree that even $2K is way too much, so I'm kind of considering wood mulch now. Does it mold? How often do you have to replace/refill?

Also, does anybody know anything about waterless grass? I'm intrigued by the idea....

The higher end fake grass substitutes are not cheap to install either... I'd suggest that bark mulch is the most practical, and if you lay it over compacted earth sloped to drain as if for a patio, with weed fabric on top and 3 to 5 inches of bark it should work fine. You will have the incidental bark mulch getting tracked into the house, depending on the coarseness of bark you choose. You probably will only need to top of with new every other year or so. If this mulch is in a full sun location, no need to worry about mold, unless it doesn't drain well.

My experience with wood mulch for a playset is that you will have to add a 3 to 4" layer every two years. I have not had a problem with mold...but I have had some rather stinky mushrooms pop up. Oh well...penis shaped mushrooms will give the kids something to laugh about! Google "stinkhorn mushroom" for more info.

- Brent

Wood chips can often be gotten for free.
There are also "mulches" made from crumb rubber which is basically little crumbs of rubber. Some people even amend soil with it in high impact areas at golf courses, etc. just to mitigate compaction. Any mulch will have to be replenished at some point due either to decomposition of the mulch getting spread out. Sand is what was used for us kids back in the ancient days of the 1970's and it worked out o.k.

I am also reading through all the threads on play area ground cover. My issue is that I live in Phoenix, and well... that myth about frying an egg on the ground in the summer isn't that far off. I plan on putting some kind of shade cover over the top of the area, but I still want to make sure that I get something that won't get too hot.

Don't know if this EcoLawn is what you mean with waterless lawn, nor whether it will work in the climates in question.

KarinL

Here is a link that might be useful: EcoLawn