Endless days of summer play exploring gardens and outdoor spaces form solid memories and strengthen confidence in children. Today we often ask parents to turn off the television, unplug the computer games, and march outside with their children to seek a different form of entertainment—imagination. Every child is born with the fertile soil of creativity just waiting to germinate lush imagination.

“As from the house your mother sees
You playing round the garden trees
So you may see, if you will look
Through the windows of this book,
Another child, far, far away
And in another garden, play”

Author Molly Dannenmaier borrows from Robert Louis Stevenson’s "A Child’s Garden of Verses” to introduce her book, A Child’s Garden, Enchanting Outdoor Spaces for Children and Parents. Enchant me she did. Creative design features for children in gardens of all sizes and types inspire me to re-examine not only my home garden, but the outdoor space I manage professionally.

Ms. Dannenmaier rejoiced in the 1990s as she observed a movement among educators, horticulturalists, and playground designers that led to creating public discovery landscapes for children. She was simultaneously dismayed discovering this movement did not extend to homeowners and residential landscapers. Books did not introduce them to the joys of a child's garden that accommodated natural inclinations to poke, jump, hunt, hide, climb, nurture or enjoy. Neither were books offering insight into needs for outdoor play. This book is her attempt to address some these gaps. This book attempts to guide parents to help children enjoy unstructured outdoor explorations on long afternoons at the end of school days, on summer mornings, or lazy outdoor fall afternoons.

Children need more than wild spaces, they need safe environments but also risk. They need access to some “elemental considerations” that Dannenmaier defines as nine elements: water, creatures, refuges, dirt, height, movement, make-believe, nurture, and learning. Young children use the natural environment to become familiar with the mechanics of their own bodies. Can you create a fantasy world of magic and mystery on a city lot or a quarter acre? Can this satisfy both child and adult requirements? The author responds to this question with a solid yes and the first 32 pages introduce readers to why, the rest provides how.

HOW

Rather than providing details on how to build a pirate ship or a woodland cottage, we instead see profiles on how others combine elements to create inspirational gardens or backyard woodlands. Some ideas come from public gardens and parks, some from private backyards. Each chapter is built around one of the nine elements and each shows how children really play. Simple features impressed me: vegetable bowers and vine arbors formed vegetables caves, tunnels, and hiding places; peepholes in brick garden walls and fences; tiny garden chairs for favorite outdoor spaces; sculptures of dinosaur bones and topiaries; and grass screens that hide the city. Complex features that include small streams and waterfalls provide food for thought (and budget needs).

An enchanting tunnel made from living willow defines a secret passage when covered with leaves, but an imaginative passageway when winter bare. Simple instructions on what to use and how to form it allows just about anyone with a yard guidelines for creating this or a willow nest. What fun!

Last night I listened to hundreds of children at the opening of a new children’s exhibit. The exhibit was a castle, with hidden tunnels, a passageway with an escape down a spiraling slide, and balls that bounce down a variety of pathways. The exhibit was inside, next to a small river boat, also inside. There were a lot of well thought-out lessons and activities that stressed physics and machines. Some very smart people put this together but perhaps this author would have a few comments about the exhibit and how children really play (and learn). They didn’t do anything with the exhibits, but listening to their combined imaginations was sufficient entertainment for this educator. They were in a completely different world and they couldn’t have been happier. They were exploring medieval adventures, they were pirates, they were in the circus, they were performers, they were jugglers, and they were having a terrific time. We built it, they came.

A Child’s Garden came from a library 35 miles away, and it, along with several others that I discovered while researching this author, will help me create an appropriate outdoor play space to foster active imaginations. Many of the garden profiles come from well-designed children’s gardens. There are more than 60 ideas from which I’m certainly going to glean at least 30 for implementation. The author’s tools for designing go beyond some pictures and descriptive text. Features include natural play structures, magical beanstalks for climbing, but also plant recommendations, some landscape plans, and rock recommendations. She reminds that both openness and enclosures have their place. If you create a small stream through your property and surround it with a woodland, place broad flat stones along the banks for small children to rest on while they splash (and they will) in the flowing water. My potential play area would be perfect for a bamboo forest. There’s no place for the bamboo to escape since we’re surrounded by cement and buildings. Bamboo grows fast enough to quickly provide a forest of mystery and intrigue.

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

Many ideas, potential imagination adventures, and reminders of how children play should encourage parents to establish wild spaces without jeopardizing precious vegetables, roses and peonies. While you work outside in your space, they’ll be off enjoying their space. This book of miniature paradises and wild spaces/play spaces encourages children to exchange the computer or television for outdoors (at least for a while) building their confidence and knowledge of their natural world. I remember playing outdoors on long summer evenings arguing with my parents when they said it was time to come in. The two-seated bench swing in the back, under the grape arbor, became ever so much more intriguing after dark when the bats flew and the lightning bugs flashed.

This review is a contribution to laurashrti’s National Library Week Write Off. Libraries, or book gardens, are among my favorite places. I live in east central Illinois, in an area supported by one of the best library systems I’ve ever encountered. The Lincoln Trails Library System serves a network of 122 libraries: seven university, 53 public, 45 school, and 17 special libraries in nine counties. We can request books online and pick them up at our local library (two blocks away) by merely providing our library card number and a password when placing requests. Not only do we have quick access to a plethora of books, but we really get to know our librarian. I completely support this library system, which is a fabulous resource. http://www.ltls.org/about.html



Recommended: Yes