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A Real Garden for Real Kids

© Linda Mazar

"In a child's garden - imagination grows." ~ Gwen Frostic, motto of the 4-H Children's Garden at Michigan State University.

Imagine a garden where children are truly welcome, where they can play and interact with the plants, and where there are no 'Do Not Touch' signs. A place where imaginations can soar and kids of all ages can fall in love with plants. A place where learning takes place through the participation of the garden visitor. Jane Taylor stated the mission of the 4-H Children's Garden as: "To promote an understanding of plants and the role they play in our environment and our daily lives; to nurture the wonder in a child's imagination and curiosity; and to provide a place for the enrichment and delight of children." This was what Jane Taylor imagined, and worked for, at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI.

The 4-H Children's Garden, established in 1993, is a fabulous half-acre of fun and adventure. Local children in the MSU Laboratory School were given opportunities to suggest plants and themes which resulted in this garden bursting with fifty-six different theme areas and lots of hands-on opportunities to learn. It became a children's garden far beyond the common marigold or a sunflower patch often seen in family backyards.

Imagine fifty-six different themes in a half acre of space! This garden was well thought out and designed with great variety to appeal to a child's need for diversity, change, and spontaneity. Let's have some fun and explore these themes!

Other people have designed other ethnic gardens.

Rainbow Garden is a multi-cultural garden made up of 6 ethnic parts.
• The African-American section features food plants introduced by African Americans such as black-eyed peas, okra, peanuts, cucumbers, etc.
• The Asian-American section features plants introduced by Asian-Americans such as snow peas, Chinese cabbage, etc.
• The Hispanic-American section displays chili peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.
• A Northern American Indian section features foods which were grown by Native Americans such as corn, beans, squash, etc.
• A Pioneer garden shows what early settlers grew.
• And finally the ever changing International garden section displays plants from a chosen country for one year. In 1997 it featured Russian plants.

Unfortunately, none of these gardens are displayed on websites any more, so all the links to these feature gardens have been edited out in 2004. They only lead to error messages. You can still get some ideas on the types of ethnic gardens you could plan with your children. Maybe the real garden can still be seen in Michigan. If not, maybe some other place has created a similar idea.

The copyright of the article A Real Garden for Real Kids in Gardening with Children is owned by Vickie Ferguson. Permission to republish A Real Garden for Real Kids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.