One of the things people miss most when they move to a big city is the lack of green space. Just a small patch of outdoors to place a tub of herbs or lie out in the evening sun with a chilled glass of Chardonnay makes all the difference when you’re competing in the day-to-day urban rat race.

When families are looking for homes, the garden is one of the things they are least likely to compromise on. Having somewhere handy and safe to make sure the children can properly wear themselves out is a priceless necessity to many parents.

But it looks like the garden’s days are numbered…

Government forecasts say that 2.6million homes will be without gardens by 2020 as developers shift towards building flats to accommodate the rising population of singles. Even properties that come with a garden as standard, tend to boast a much smaller area than the grand houses of yesteryear. So, before the ground collapses beneath our very feet, here are a few ways to make the most of our gardens right now.

Your garden as a sports field

Summer, kids and sport go hand in hand. Suddenly people decide they’d like to take up tennis or have a go at cycling into work every morning. Sales of Frisbees skyrocket and previously couch-committed dads decide that joining the local golf club would be a pleasant and productive way to pass the summer. Keep sporting pursuits close to home by turning your garden into a sporting arena:

• Badminton with its damage-defying shuttlecocks is great for older children and you don’t need a huge amount of space to have a really good knock about.

• Fix a netted ring to a wall and create your very own basketball or netball court for impromptu sibling one-to-ones like they do in American movies.

Major sporting events can boost the popularity of a sport among the masses. In 2012 it was all things Olympic and the following year it was tennis as Murray landed his first Wimbledon title.

This year it will be cricket. In June, England claimed an unexpected victory over New Zealand in a five-game one day international series. Now bookmakers will be considering the odds for the Ashes against Australia in July. As these two cricketing titans clash, there will be wickets falling in gardens across England with dads crying “Howzat!” as they pretend to channel their childhood cricketing heroes.

Your garden as an imaginarium

Cast your eye across a family garden at the height of summer and, chances are, it will be festooned with all manner of rainbow-coloured balls, bikes and buckets. But even the best, and most expensive, garden toys can lose their appeal when you’ve been playing with them every day. The only thing that doesn’t run out of steam is a child’s imagination. Spark it, and it will stay alight forever.

Source: allaboutpartybags.co.uk

With a little bit of planning, these garden games will prise your kids from the TV and get them outside enjoying the fresh air. And you don’t always need to confine your imagination to the garden – many of the ideas are easily adaptable for the park or playground.

• Chalk art - Give your kids a colour palette of chubby chalks and unleash their inner Van Gogh. Let them use paving stones, brick walls, fences, gates and garden sheds as their canvass and they’ll be occupied for hours. Once they’re done they can grab the garden hose and help with the clean-up, or simply wait for the next rain shower to do the job for you.

• Play Pirates - Secretly hide “treasure” around the garden. Bury things in the sandpit, under stones or beneath the gravel and set your little landlubbers the task of unearthing the loot. Make it more exciting by imposing a time limit and insisting they dress up. You can hide real coins or balls of silver foil, wrapped sweets or even clothes pegs.

• Camping - What kid doesn’t love a den? Making one outside gives this go-to indoor game a new lease of life. Start with a big box and an old towel and blanket and your kids will probably take it from there. Once they get tired of playing house, they’ll convert the property into a boat, a castle, a car or a shop.

• Sports day - This is great if you’ve got a big family or are having friends round for a playdate. It’s also easily adaptable for the park – just be prepared to let a whole load of other kids in on the action, too. Set up a whole range of traditional sports day races from plain old running competitions to sack races (with a bin bag) and egg and spoon races. Three legged races will have them falling down in giggles. For more adventurous youngsters, devise a garden assault course where contenders are required to jump over, climb under, run around and slide down anything and everything within reach.

Your garden as a natural world

Whether you’re an avid gardener or just someone who keeps the grass short and trims the hedges once a year, there’s no excuse for not mucking in and showing your children the wonder of nature right outside their back door. Literally. Helping to water the plants is a good start, but it doesn’t take much more to really begin to nurture a burgeoning love of nature.

• Start with planting a seed in a toilet roll tube. That always gets a laugh. Once it’s germinated, stick the whole thing in soil outside and watch it take off. Peas or sunflowers are particularly good for this quickie project.

• For something a little more creative, challenge your child to think up weird and wonderful things that could be used as plant containers. This really gets conventional brains thinking out of the box. Suggest old hats, bags, wellies or teacups and watch their eyes widen in incredulity.

• Encourage feathered friends into the garden with some homemade bird feeders. Smear pine cones with nut butter and roll them in birdseed mix until they are completely covered. Hang with string from sheds, trees or play equipment to give visiting birds a tasty treat.

• One of the most rewarding things you can do in the garden with your child is create a butterfly haven. There are more than 50 varieties of butterfly in Britain but they are becoming rarer and rarer. So providing them with a sanctuary is an environmental gift as well as a personal joy. You don’t need much space – even a strategically chosen plant in a well-positioned pot will reap rewards. Choose a warm, sunny spot with plenty of shelter from shrubs and trees and make sure you plant flowers that will attract hungry insects.

Here are a few to try:

Lavender – a very common, easy to grow shrub that yields highly fragrant flowers in mid summer. Pick from white, pink, blue or purple lavender varieties.

Honesty – a tall plant with heart-shaped leaves and flowers that bloom in either pink or violet. All varieties are sweet smelling.

Buddleia – the granddaddy of butterfly-attracting plants. This shrub bursts into bloom in the middle of summer with cone-shaped clusters of tiny flowers in colours ranging from pure white to deep purple. They are like catnip to butterflies – totally irresistible.

Your garden as a playground

You only have to browse a couple of catalogues or watch a few TV adverts to know it wouldn’t take much to create your very own playground. Outdoor toys never lose their appeal, hold their value and will see plenty of action when you’re tots are little.

• Climbing frames – In the old days, children used to climb trees but the modern version of that high risk outdoor pursuit is handier, safer and can be designed to your own specification. As well as the basic tower and ladder combo you can add on a fireman’s pole, a lookout or a rope ladder. You can accessorise with a ship’s steering wheel or a periscope and challenge the more athletic child with climbing stones or a clambering slope. No wonder climbing frames are one of the top selling outdoor products.

• Playhouses - a small property in the garden can turn out to be quite an investment, especially if you choose something that will grow with your child and continue to provide interest and amusement well into his or her teenage years. Experts advise setting a budget before you start to look to avoid falling in love with a gorgeous little cottage that you can’t afford. So far, so Kirstie and Phil. Consider what features you’d like such as a slide and ladder or double doors as well as where you’re going to put it and what size it should be.

• Trampolines – there’s been a bit of a boom on trampolines over the last few years and it seems every home should have one. If you think a trampoline is for you, make sure you do your homework and get one that is good quality and will stand the test of time. The fact is that children never seem to grow out of their enthusiasm for bouncing, so you need to ensure you won’t be replacing nets, bars or other fixtures that cancel out your apparent high street bargain.

A final word on garden playground equipment: the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is a great source of safety advice. Falling from a 13 foot tower or getting jumped on by a crowd of bouncing friends is no laughing matter. Find out what’s safe and impose House Rules in the garden for your children and their friends.