Playground Ground Cover

[mom-in-alberta]

My experience with cedar chips:
They track in everywhere!! Cling to boots, clothes, etc. You will probably have to replace them sooner than anticipated if the kids are playing in them. I found that they "collected" random, gross stuff. Cigarette butts and garbage flying in the wind, bugs, etc. It was icky, LoL. And I am thinking you will be asking the little ones to spit out the pieces on a regular basis?
They sure do smell good, though!!
Can you look into surfacing it with the rubber stuff that they are using on playgrounds these days? I don't have any clue how expensive it is, but supposedly it lasts forever, or a long time anyway. Or what about clearing the grass, levelling the ground and securing indoor/outdoor grass (some call it Astroturf) over?