Creating Gardens for Children to Grow In

Here I go again, reminiscing about childhood experiences of gardening! I believe that gardens are a wonderful space for children to experience nature in, especially if they're deliberately crafted to foster childhood play and exploration. From my own experience I could go on for pages about the memories of experiencing childhood wonderment in my grandpa's garden.

Along with a photo of the blue and gold domed Reading Room in the London Library, in my office is an old photo of my grandfather's garden in Spring. Despite taking pride of place on my office wall, I don't need this photo as a reminder because it is imprinted in my mind's eye; the sight of freesias colouring a lawn in Spring, framed by a Wisteria smothering the front-fence with purple. Along one boundary of this lawn, Azaleas, seemingly enormous, provided secret places to hide inside. And all this from the vantage point of a wrap-around verandah with wide stone steps that led back into the garden.

Seeing a garden through the lens of a child's wonder is a joyous thing to experience by any measure. But being able to guide that child's experience so that they're free and safe to explore a garden is very precious. And what an opportunity to impart little pieces of gardening lessons and wisdom when a child is at their most open to learning.

There's such delight in sharing the wonder of little-known gardening secrets, such as the charming sight of a clematis leaf grasping a support, much like a hand, enabling its tendrils time to grow long enough to wrap around and climb. Or how a daisy folds its outer petals in to sleep as the daylight ebbs away, only to open up wide again in the morning sunshine! Or even how a tight bud begins to unfurl into a large bloom filled with petals.

And a garden lends itself to endless imaginative play. Like games of hide and seek that require a disguise of large leaves and a flower crown so as to blend in with the flowers! Or scattering large stones (mysteriously painted with paw prints) that represent endless incarnations of dinosaurs and monsters. It's interesting how children can so readily see the intention of red and white painted upturned pots as toadstools, whereas an adult sees them merely as upside-down terracotta pots.

And so, as I continue to plan our new garden, designing spaces for garden treasures such as heritage and rare roses, or weeping mulberries to hide under and gorge on fruit, I remind myself that this garden is not just for me to enjoy, but visitors such as our grandchildren to delight in. My hope is that this garden will not only provide places for them to run around in and have fun but will fill their memory bank with little joys and wonders that help to nurture their love of nature and the natural world.

And if for now they believe there just might be fairies at the bottom of the garden, who am I to say otherwise! I can almost see them myself.

So, if you're creating a new garden yourself, or maintaining an established garden, remember that you're providing so much more than a garden to add value to and decorate your home. Gardens are places where nature wraps around our homes and provides safe nurturing spaces that feed and shelter us, and many other creatures, as well.

Enjoy xx

Lillian