Easy DIY Backyard Dig Pit in 4 Steps for Kids

Digging, what toddler wouldn’t love a dig pit in their backyard. Do your kids love to use their shovels and big trucks to dig in your garden? Tired of putting mulch down just to have it dug back up by a truck loving toddler? Then this idea is for you!

Updated: January 2024

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My 3 year old loves all things dirt, digging, truck, ect. As much as I love his love for all things dirty, digging and trucks, I don’t love when my freshly mulched garden beds become his latest spot to dig with his big trucks. So I decided to make him his own spot to dig with his much loved trucks!

Step 1: Find an area for dig pit and clean it out

We have garden beds that go all the way around our house, which for me is too much to manage. I want to be a master gardener, but that is just not something that is in my skill set. So it was an easy decision to take and clear a part of these beds and make it a permanent spot to make our dig pit with big trucks. (Yes we have a sandbox, but it is just not big enough for the BIG trucks) We got most of our trucks second hand, but here are few good option from Amazon.

Step 2: Put down a weed barrier

For this I used some weed block that I have left over in the garage, but you can use old newspaper, or cardboard too. This just helps keep all the weeds and plant life under your dig pit from growing in your dig pit. Just make sure you water the paper or cardboard to help keep in in place.

Step 3. Add some edging

This does not have to be fancy at all! We used old blocks from another part of our yard and added to the end of the weed barrier to help keep the mulch in and the weed barrier down. You could get fancy edging from your local home improvement store, or just use whatever you have on hand ( blocks, bricks, wood, ect) The goal is to create a space that helps keep you mulch in.

Step 4. Add Mulch and Trucks

Now all that is left to do is add the mulch and let the digging begin! We did use black mulch to match the rest of the mulch around our home. My son loves this area! He will play here for almost an hour just digging with his big trucks. So this is little project was a win win. My garden beds are safe and my son now has a spot to dig!

Things to Consider

Since we went with black mulch to match the house, I knew it was going to be very dirty at least for the first few plays. So warning if you don’t love your kids to have black stained hands, but ours cleaned off with just some soap and water and a good scrubbing. Another option would be to use stones. For me I know that even with the edging that stones would end up in the grass and would go flying when we cut the grass. Mulch was the safer option in my opinion.