This year for us is the “Year of the Garden” and we have been doing lots of work to make it a more useable space.
We have lived in our house for 11 years and the garden has always taken a back seat as we concentrated on renovations in the house.
So far we have demolished the huge rotten shed and replaced it with a spangly new one and painted it like a beach hut, taken all the ancient broken plastic toys to the tip, got the slabs ready to build a much-needed patio area in the next couple of weeks, plus Eliza has been busy building a fairy garden and Isaac has built a bug shelter for all his animal investigations
Our metal swing, despite being just 3 years old, was not coping now the kids were getting bigger so that had to go too, much to their disappointment, so when Asda offered us the chance to review the Little Tikes Riga Swing Set they were over the moon.
This family-sized swing set is made from solid treated wood sources from FSC forests and comes with two adjustable height swings and an exciting climbing rope ladder. The sturdy frame and durable one piece swing seats give extra peace of mind that this swing set is built to last, and with a 10 year warranty on wood we’re sure to continue getting plenty of use out of this swing set as the kids grow.
The set arrived last week and came in two parts – a box containing all the swings and attachments and the wooden poles. Be warned it is extremely large, very heavy and the delivery driver refused to take it into the garden, meaning I had to put up with it taking up the length of my hallway until hubby came home from work as I couldn’t lift it.
The wooden frame comes with dark green powder coated metal parts that blend in seamlessly with the greenery in our garden and is surprisingly easy to put together. I assumed Hubby would be building the set all day, but it was up and ready to use within an hour.
We did have an amusing incident trying to put the frame upright. I am only 5ft 3 and couldn’t reach to help bring it down to the ground, so hubby had to walk up the see-saw to push it all the way over – health & safety would have frowned upon that move but it worked!
Once the swing set was upright, all that needed doing was to tighten the bolts, attach the side supports and the swings and secure it into the ground with the metal stakes. We had planned to concrete it into the ground but even with three children on it, the frame does not move at all just with the anchor set in place.
We kept Sebby’s Little Tikes swing seat from our old swing set as he is not confident on a big boy swing yet. It is really easy to switch it over with the other swings by unclipping the one that you don’t want to use and clipping the other one on.
Swings are fantastic for developing balance and co-ordination, as well as getting little arms and legs moving and I had been expecting cries of “Can you push me?” but they seem to have mastered the art of doing it themselves, despite me trying to teach them for what feels like years.
The rope ladder is the star of this swing set and is perfect for physical play and imaginative role play – are they a fairy, a firefighter, a pirate’s look out, a heroic knight or a circus act today?
I am confident that the Little Tikes Riga Swing Set will last years as the sturdy frame and durable one piece swing seats give extra peace of mind that this swing set is built to last. Best of all is it is great value for money – it costs just £100!
This could be the answer we have been looking for. We currently have one swing and one slide which constantly cause arguments because there isn’t enough for them all to play on. The garden is our focus this year so will check it out
Love the rope ladder! This looks like a brilliant set and something that we grow with them for a few years. We just have a trampoline but something like this would be perfect. Little Tikes stuff is always amazing quality as well. x
The swing set looks fab I miss having a garden and I know my son would just love something like this when he is a little older.
This looks fab! I’ve been looking for wooden swings for our garden. We’re lucky to have a few trees with branches that are strong enough to hold them. But this looks great too! Will check them out. x
wow your garden looks fantastic 🙂 well done you .. sadly even thou we have a fairly big garden its on a slant so were limited on what we can do, we brought a pool one year and put it up but all the water kept running to one end of it lol so ended up getting rid. x
I love that this looks so much more sturdy then the plastic looking ones you can buy x
Loving these swings – my daughter would go nuts to have this set in our garden. Hours of fun!
What a fabulous set!? That is a great price too, my daughter would love one in our garden but the boys love the space for football, so the debate goes on. It sounds like you are going to have the perfect garden for summer
My neighbours have just put up a wooden swing set and I’ve been really jealous (luckily the fence is high and my kids haven’t noticed it yet. We had to get rid of our metal one because it just wasn’t taking the strain anymore. This one looks so much nicer and I can’t believe it’s bigger than our old metal one and only £20 more to buy, that’s a bargain!
To be honest I am impressed that you managed to get the frame up because it looks pretty difficult! I love the swing set x
I love the delivery and construction part of the story
This is the year of our garden too. We are working hard to get it done nice.
That looks like an amazing set that will last a lifetime. I have to admit that we bought a little tykes slide when Maxi was two and it is now in my best friends garden.
Ooh it looks fab! Wish our garden was big enough for something like that – Syd would love it!
What a great set! I’d love that for my garden, not so sure my daddy would like it on his new lawn though 😉
That looks really sturdy – just what I’d want if my two were3 younger x
That’s really good value for £100! I love the Little Tykes stuff, it always seems really sturdy.
I love this set, it would be such a big hit with my girls. I love the rope ladder too
It looks like great fun for the little ones. I can’t believe it’s so cheap!
That looks like brilliant fun! Wish we had room in our garden for such a thing x
How amazing is that, your little ones are never going to want to be indoors! I so wish we had a garden for little E x
This looks great, love wooden swings as I think they look much nicer then the metal ones. Next year we will be concentrating on the garden too as we are hopefully moving in the next few months, I think I need to invest in something like this then for my own children. I love Eliza’s outfit – so cute ! x