DIY Garden Racetrack For Toy Cars.
No would could ever say we don’t love garden creations. I’ve seen Cassidy and Scarlet whip up fairy gardens, tulip patches, and garden castles – as if it’s nothing. Some people are just born to work and play outside. As much as possible.
It’s given us such great joy – these acres of New England garden, lawn and winding driveway. I love that I live with a creative husband, and that we’re raising our kids to breathe in the fresh air often. I love watching my kids imagine, dream, and plan. Every year we do at least something of a fruit/vegetable garden, and we plants trees, flowers and herbs. Cassidy and Scarlet also build up a new fairy garden every spring, after dismantling the previous year’s one and salvaging the items that made it through the long winter. Now that Des is three, I decided I wanted to build him a garden racetrack for his toy cars & trucks.
I had looked on Google for ideas, but had found mostly cardboard projects that wouldn’t survive our rain and snow, as well as complicated racetracks that could take weeks to build. We needed a family project! We needed to work together for this:
DIY Racetrack For Your Yard or Garden:
What You Need:
Step 1 – Go to a hardware store and get what you’ll need! We have a lot of garden tools as is, as well as toy cars and decorations (which would not be at a hardware store, probably) but we picked out the bricks of our choosing.
What You Do:
Step 2 – Find level ground in your yard, if possible. This will make the job easier! Rake, if needed.
Step 3 – Arrange the bricks how you will want the racetrack to look.
Step 4 – Use a trowel to trace and mark the exact path you want your racetrack to take. Then remove the bricks.
Step 5 – Use that same trowel to dig up the earth where you want the bricks to lie. You could just put them on top of the grass and it would still be a functioning racetrack, but Cassidy did this awesome job instead.
Step 6 – Place the bricks in the freshly dug-up earth and build your track!
Step 7 – Find forest fix-ins. The sky is the limit here. We had decorative tree rounds so Cassidy did the same tracing/carving job with the trowel so that the tree round would be sunken into the earth like the track.
Step 8 – The kids also found a “tree” as well as pine cones for mini trees, and rocks.
Step 9 – Time to paint the track to look like a road! You can make stencils to use as spray paint templates. You can Google how to do that easily. Also, you can make special stencils for the corner lines of the paint on the track.
Step 10 – Decorate with toys! The sky is the limit. Cassidy thought a “finish line” would be cool. The kids brought out cars and trucks, buses and VW bugs, and… plastic Easter eggs. Like I said, let them go nuts.
This is such a great idea!!!! I may have to do something like this for Shelby!
Thanks! And she’d love it!
OK, this is seriously awesome and truly an ingenious idea for outdoor play. Totally never would have thought to do this, but now so want to make one and yes excited (as I think you know) about spring and warmer weather here, too! 🙂
Thank you! At first I thought I was crazy for tackling this, but the four of us got it all done in only two hours. And it was fun! And the rain didn’t wash the paint away.
And… I need warmth already.
That is probably the best idea ever. I love it. We have a bunch of those square bricks in our yard and C needs a spot. He is trashing my garden. Thanks Tamara!
And I used to live on Advil. Loved it. I can’t take it anymore because it interacts with another medication I currently take but it truly is one of the best things I took for my chronic pain. Thumbs up to them.
haha, I love to imagine him trashing up your garden! This is really fun.
Advil is amazing. I’m sorry you can’t take it anymore!
That’s really cute and creative! I think a lot of people forget how little a child really needs beyond their wonderful imagination.
It’s true! Just some bricks and yard and paint, and they really did the rest!
The day that I decide to get back into blogging now that Madison is doing better with her Pneumonia is the day that I see this awesomeness. Cassidy is so creative, you need to send him our way for a week. I am so in love with this and even Madison as a girl would so love this!
Ohhh, so glad she’s better! I missed a few days of Facebook but just caught up. I’m glad she’s feeling better! Pneumonia can be so scary.
Cassidy would love to come to Colorado for a week!
That little race track is so cute! What a great idea! And, goodness knows, I can’t live without Advil 🙂
I know, right? I didn’t discover it until after I gave birth and then I thought, “I’ve been missing out on something that works!”
That’s really awesome! Our garden is really boring 🙁 It’s just veggies and herbs and a few pinwheels 🙂
We have pinwheels too! And that doesn’t sound boring at all.
This is so cool! My son would have loved this way back when. And kept him from pushing his digger through my flower beds. Genius.
haha! That’s like Des and his toy lawnmower. Although he doesn’t do much damage to the garden – just the driveway.
This is adorable and what a fun way to promote outside play! I love it 🙂 I actually took an Advil last night myself after an intense interaction with a Bougainvillea bush. My arms…might…never…be…the same!
Oh dear! That sounds like something that isn’t fun at all. I hope you win the next interaction!
What a fun idea! I never would have thought to do something like this and it’s seriously genius and something the kids will just love! #client
My kids love it! And the paint withstood the few days of rain. I honestly don’t know where the idea came from but it popped into my head just in time. My daughter has her fairy garden and garden castle, and my son is old enough to want his own special place.
I can’t imagine life without Advil, either!;-) Love this fun activity, looks like the kids had a blast, too!
I started Advil right after Scarlet was born. I had never had it before that. And it worked for all the crazy reasons I needed it to work then!
This is such a fun idea! We were already planning on going to the garden center today, and I have just the right spot for something like this. Looks like some bricks might be added to the list!
Yes! It can be as large or small as you need. You probably already have most or all of the supplies, and bricks are cheap.
This is so cool! I love this idea! I wish I’d known about it when Tucker was two! Awesome!!
Awww! I bet he was like Des is now. So cute.
So, so cool Tamara! The pics really help too. Cassidy is so creative!
Thanks! He really is so creative and when we work together, great things can happen.
I love that it’s part of your backyard landscapes now!
It totally is! Although it’s now under seven fresh inches of April snow! (wth??)
This is such a fantastic idea! If we did something like this it would take up half of our tiny Somerville yard 😉 (I’m sure Eve would appreciate it — our downstairs neighbor probably less so.) It sounds like you have the most magical, creative yard. I hope I get to see it in person one day!
I really hope you will get to see it in person, and I hope it’s sooner rather than later! I have high hopes.
Such a fantastic idea and very creative!!
Thanks! And it really didn’t take long at all to build.
that is so cute, the kids must love playing with it 🙂
a cool thing we did in our garden when we lived in MA was planted a big flower garden in an old tree stump that was left and made into a planter if you know what I mean…
I love that. Perhaps we will do the same thing this year!
This is awesome! Natalie would love it. Tommy might even check it out. You never know with teens.
True! And with kids. I thought Scarlet wouldn’t like it, but she plays with it just as much!
This is the cutest thing ever. My older son would have loved something like this in our yard. He would play for hours, driving cars on my bed and making “parking lots”. Such a great idea!
Aw! I love the idea of parking lots.
It’s amazing! I love that idea, and Reiko will surely love it too! He has a gazillion toy cars and trucks at home.
I think Des has over 100 at this point. It’s nuts!
What a great idea – I may try this as well – I bet my girls would love this as well with a little more girly spin on it. I live on Advil with all the screaming in my house its an absolute necessity.
haha, yup! Advil is a necessity for sure! We are no strangers to the screaming.
What an awesome idea. Kids and adults can have fun building their own little highway. You can make it as big and any shape you want. Perfect since it will last for a very long time too. My grandson would love this!!
Yes, any shape or size! Any toys you want. My kids were sad that it got buried under a layer of snow (in April!), but then they saw that the paint didn’t wash off!
This is a great and easy family project. My son would have enjoyed this when he was still a little guy!
Thank you! It didn’t take long at all, and the benefits have been wonderful so far.
Wow! If we had a bigger garden… (and BTW – what a great husband you have…)
Right? He was so amazing that day. And many others.
I love it! Makes me wish my little guys were still little. This would have totally kept them entertained while I gardened and weeded all those years.
Good point! Gardening and weeding is so in our future.. although we just got a fresh layer of snow again. Sob.
I absolutely adore this idea! It turned out amazing, and man would my sons love to have this in our backyard! Great idea!! 🙂
I appreciate that! In my head, it was a bit foggy, but my husband and kids helped to make it real.
This is too cute! Can my son come over and play?! I will have to look into making this – just perfect!
haha, yes he can!
This is a fabulous idea! I could see it keeping my son occupied so I can weed and pick veggies this summer! I can’t wait to do this!