The Garden
Children and gardens go together. To freely play out of doors is an important learning adventure for children. Natural surroundings promote improvised play and open ended educational experiences. Gardening was included in the daily activities of the original Kindergarten (german for “Children’s garden); the revolutionary educational program for young children invented in 1830 by Friedrich Froebel. Today in Germany there are about 700 Waldkindergarten, or “forest kindergartens”, in which children spend their days outdoors year-round. This type of kindergarten can be found in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Austria and Portland, Oregon.
The back yard garden at Susan’s Garden has been 20 years in the making. This garden has distinct areas; a forest, prairie plants, a sunny perennial garden, a strawberry patch, grassy lawns and children's play areas. Special care has been taken to plant many fragrant plants. All of these different realms are interwoven with curving limestone walkways. Residing in the garden are some wild animals- gray and fox squirrels, rabbits, Sparrows, Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Finches and other birds. Many butterflies make their home in the yard dining on the flowers. Child sized cedar houses, a child sized cedar picnic table, a hammock, and sand and water activities are incorporated into the landscape.
The garden is a wild and also a cultivated place. In an urban environment, it is an oasis of trees. The trees living here are: Rose of Sharon, Red Bud, River birch, Paperbark Maple, Japanese Katsura Tree, Norwegian Spruce, Blue Spruce, Cut leaf Sumac, Saucer Magnolia, Tamarisk, Japanese maples, Dogwood, Lilacs, Iron wood, Dawn Redwood,White Oak, Burning bush, crab apples, Recumbent white pine and Pear.
The perennial gardens have prairie plants- Cup plant, Compass plant, Prairie dock, River oats, Little blue stem, Aster, Wild indigo, Milkweed and Purple cone flower. In the shade there are wild flowers- ferns, May apples, Blood root, Jack in the pulpit and violets. The flower gardens includes roses, hostas, peonies, tree peonies, lilies, day lilies and sunflowers. This year Gogi berry plants, cultivated from seed are being planted.
Garden Quotes
- To plant a garden is to believe in the future. - anon.
- A garden is evidence of faith. It links us with all the misty figures of the past who also planted and were nourished by the fruits of their planting. - Gladys Taber
- A garden is the best alternative therapy. - Germaine Greer
- Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity. - Thomas Jefferson
- It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves. -Robert Louis Stevenson
- Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas. - Elizabeth Murray
- Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful universe, nothing seems to me more surprising than the planting of a seed in the blank earth and the result thereof. -Julie Moir Messervy
- All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar. -Helen Hayes
- The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses. - Hanna Rion