I built a playground for our son in 1994. There was an unusable area covered with ivy that was perfect
for it. Getting rid of the ivy bed was real fun. I recommend rolling it up like a carpet.
I wanted a place with a lot of stuff to climb on. Gotta have swings and a sand box too. I settled on a little house kinda thing with a sand box underneath. The Swings would be held up by a horizontal ladder attached to the garage and little house.
The little house was kinda shaky from lack of lateral support, but I wanted it as open as possible. After it was attached to the garage by the ladder it was fine.
After everything was up the area was covered with landscaping cloth and covered with 30 tons of pea gravel. My wife's brother, Bernard was my go-to-guy back then. He helped me do so many things, and all you had to do was feed him and provide beer. Both of us had a wheel barrow an a shovel, and we moved it from the street to the playground. 30 tons is a lot of wheel barrow runs.
Bernard was a tireless worker who never complained and was always ready for more. I owe him a lot. He died last March form a heart attack, and I will always miss his goodhearted nature.
The kids loved the playground and used it all the time. The 6"s of pea gravel was a great enhancement, because they could jump or fall off anything and it was OK. Jumping off things was very popular.
I drove by our old house a while back and it's still there. Of course it's kinda hard to get rid of 30 tons of pea gravel.