Lily Pad Springs — planting a splash pad park from bare ground

A park like this gets used hard from the first warm weekend, which changes what you can plant and where you can put it.

The landscape had to survive foot traffic, stay clear of sightlines across the play area, and look established quickly rather than in five years.

Trees on a grid

New trees went in along the walks and through the parking islands in regular rows, which is the fastest way to make a new site read as finished. As they mature they will do the real job, which is putting shade over the areas where parents stand and wait.

Beds that take the traffic

Planting beds are held back from the splash pad edge and the play structures, and the species in them are the tough end of the palette rather than anything that resents being walked past a thousand times a day.