A Child's Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children

by Molly Dannenmaier

Until recently, children played outdoors with carefree abandon after school and in the summer. Today, however, children are more likely to spend their free time indoors, watching television, playing video games, or using a computer. But children thrive in the natural world. They love to play in water and with creepy critters. They savor hideaways, can not get enough dirt and sand, and relish climbing to great hieghts. They need movement. They want to pretend and to nurture other growing things. And most of all, they learn from everything that is new and stimulating. Addressing these basic needs, A Child's Garden offers a wide range of innovative examples showing how to create special places in which children can experience nature on their own home turf. Here are child-friendly ponds, places for pets, and private refuges. Out-of-the-ordinary sandboxes are pictured, along with paths, mazes, furniture, peepholes, and scores of ideas for creative play areas that fit perfectly into adult gardens. Featured throughout this profusely illustrated book are miniature paradises that parents and grandparents have designed just for the children in their lives, highlighting an enchanting variety of elements that will make any garden come alive for children.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Childrens

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2008

Reviews

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, inspiring book on creating gardens and yards that entice children to linger, play, and explore. Even though we won’t undertake any of the expensive landscape-architecture-type projects in here, there are a lot of simple ideas that are easy to implement in whatever outdoor space you have at your disposal.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

9 elements: water, creatures, refuge, height, movement, make-believe, dirt, nurture, learning

Gave good ideas for specific plants and trees like grasses to hide behind and quick-growing trees to climb.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book so exciting at first, and then so disappointing.

1) A lot of the book was just about making children's spaces less aesthetically offensive to adults. Hiding them behind living screens. Making play structures out of natural materials instead of colorful plastics. The introduction had me all excited to read about natural play areas, but many of the ideas here were just as prefabricated as the structures the author criticizes in the introduction.

2) Despite talking in the beginning about how children need unstructured play time, a lot of the rest of the book was about how parents could structure play time. The book literally suggests collecting sticks with your kids and then piling them up for later play. I'm sorry. Collecting sticks IS play. Kids don't need me in their face, telling them how to play with sticks (unless it's to say they can't hit other kids -- or me). Kids know that sticks are cool and have their own ideas of what to do with them as soon as they can toddle around to find them.

3) Let's look at the subtitle. "To Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children." Most of the gardens featured here are large, public gardens or very, very expensive private ones. I can't hire landscape designers to build a three-tiered deck tricked out with antique glass. There are a few suggestions (like planting flowers that appeal to the sense of smell) that could fit just about anywhere...but that's not most of the book.

I'm beginning to wish that gardening books were labeled, clearly "For Coffee Tables Only" or "Actually Useful." The first time I read Mel Bartholomew's All New Square Foot Gardening, I remember thinking what a solid, simple book it was, and how I was glad to read it. The more gardening books I read, the more I realize that it's actually brilliant. He has six pages in his book about gardening with children, and those six pages were more valuable than all of the pretty pictures in "A Child's Garden". Mel focuses on the kid, encouraging parents to let kids pick a location (somewhere where they'll see it often, even if that's the front porch) and let kids pick what to grow. He also gives suggestions for letting kids take charge of their garden (including how large of a garden bed a child can actually reach across to tend).

My kids have been utterly delighted with having their own square foot garden. They got to decide what to plant, they feel ownership of it, and they consequently spend a lot of time in the garden, looking at their plants. I was hoping "A Child's Garden" would give me even more ideas for opportunities to let my kids interact with nature, but ultimately, these projects are really expensive adult gardens catered towards making children's footprints in the home landscape invisible and creating what adults *think* children want -- putting an unnecessary distance between kids and the small bit of nature that we can cultivate in our yard.

On the upside, this book makes me feel even better about having Mel's book as a permanent feature on my shelves. I'm very lucky that it was one of the first gardening books I read.

[Bethany Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, serving my obsession of a garden that is tactile, intriguing and amazing for kids. This year, it has inspired us to skip our regular, full-fledged garden. Instead, that space will be occupied by a bean teepee for Sophie, pumpkins, gourds, sunflowers and our standard blackberries.

I love planting moonflower, morning glory and four o'clocks as a study in time, or discussing the diversity of the 20+ varieties in our herb garden. Sophie loves the feel of lamb's ear, the scent of dill and sage and the taste of fresh mint. I've found her leafing through this book about as many times as I have, and have borrowed it from my Mom for the summer to reference regularly!

[B Casteau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book! I'm bummed I didn't see it before planting my garden. We have nasturtiums that would look amazing on a topiary scarecrow and the snap peas would have gone beautifully on a tepee. I am going to look to see if money and sensitive plants grow in Orange County, if so I want to plant those. But this book gave me information I was overlooking. The actions described by children in the book are the same things my little girl does. I just didn't think of it or also how to enhance what she already does naturally.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book falls into more of the "coffee table" fun to look at variety, rather than "actual things I could do in my yard."

The most unfeasible project that comes to mind is the landscape architect designed, 80 foot, pump operated stream which meanders through "wooded property." I'm not sure I know people who know people who have the means to pull off something like that. Kids love water, but for us, a kiddie pool will have to suffice.

[Linnae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one had some neat ideas, along with an interesting discussion of what children actually do in a garden/yard, versus what adults think they do or want them to do. Then from there, discussing how to make space for children in your backyard and garden. Plus, great photography.

My favorite: 3 ways to get down from a 2nd-story deck: slide, fireman's pole, and stairs.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fills a unique niche for many gardening collections -- the stunning photographs make this a great coffe table book -- but the author provides practical advice on "how-to" as well.

[theelfqueen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and found the pictures beautiful but it seemed to focus more on public gardens (botanical gardens, parks, etc.) than private (which is what I had hoped to find).

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful look at Gardens designed for children's enjoyment and play. Some nice tips on the plants and medium that children enjoy but no necessarily practical for ordinary backyard garden.