A garden that attracts butterflies, a sunflower fort, a sensory garden with the sweet smell of mint and the soft touch of thyme – these are just a few gardens with special themes to create with your child.

 

by Dawn Franzen, M.Ed.

Children just naturally love to be out in nature. When they have a garden to care for and watch grow, it makes being outside even more special. And when their garden has a theme, gardening is even more fun and interesting.

Here are some theme gardens you can easily grow while you are parenting children that provide wonderful results as the season progresses. Try one or more!

Butterfly garden

Make sure you choose a sunny area for this garden. Use a hose to make a circular outline of the garden, and cut into the grass around the outside. Amend the soil with manure, topsoil, and peat moss. Have your child help you mix in these additions with his hands and feet.

Then start planting. Plants that attract butterflies include butterfly bush, purple coneflower, yarrow, black-eyed Susan, liatris, butterfly weed, bee balm and zinnias. Place a large flat rock in the garden as a resting place for the butterflies, and nestle a dish of water in the ground for them to drink from.

Rainbow garden

This is also a sun-loving garden. Use your hose to make an arc, and cut into the ground. You are going to be planting the same flower around the arc and then planting the next color flower right next to it, so the arc looks like a rainbow. Plant these flowers in order, starting at the top of the arc: salvia (red), nasturtiums (orange), calendula (yellow), chamomile (green), lobelia (blue) and violas (purple).

As the flowers grow, they will fill in and create a wonderful rainbow of color. You will have to pull some flowers that stray into the other colors now and then, but they will quickly grow back in.

Fairy garden

Children love to imagine that fairies live in gardens, so create a special place just for them. This garden also has the advantage that you need very little space for it. Use a whiskey half-barrel or other large container to plant the flowers so your child can sit next to the garden and play in it. Plant lacy baby’s breath, thyme to make a soft bed for the fairies, candytuft and candy lilies for the fairies’ sweet tooth, and columbine, whose petals look like little slippers, for the fairies’ feet.

Sink a dish of water as a pond. You can even make tiny chairs out of twigs and twine. Turn the garden over to your child, and she will find plenty of wonderful things to do with it!

Sunflower fort

You will need a large sunny area to create a sunflower fort. Plant the seeds rather close together. Buy the giant sunflower seeds. By midsummer you will have a wonderful place where your children can hide and play.

Alphabet garden

You will need a long stretch of ground, such as next to a long fence, to make a complete alphabet garden. Simply plant a flower that begins with each letter of the alphabet: A is for aster, B is for balloon flower, C is for catmint, D is for daisy, and so on.

Buy wooden letters at the craft store and paint them bright colors. Nail them to tomato stakes and poke them into the ground next to the flowers they represent.

Barnyard garden

Children will get a kick out of a garden named after farm animals. Plant cockscomb, hen and chicks, goatsbeard, cow bells, pig weed, and toad flax. Add a play tractor and you are all set!

Pizza garden

Use your hose to make a circular garden. Then divide it into equal pie portions. Plant the ingredients you need to make pizza: green basil, purple basil, oregano, and parsley into each section. Sprinkle some hay on top to act as a mulch but also to look like mozzarella cheese!

Sensory garden

Young children especially will enjoy this garden because it appeals to all their senses.

Plant herbs, especially mints, and lilies and carnations for wonderful smells. Plant lambs ears and thyme for soft touches. Plant hen and chicks for sharp and hard touches.

Plant balloon flowers and Chinese lanterns for their unusual shape. Plant the money plant for its iridescent money-shaped leaves. Plant the obedient plant for the way it bends in any direction you move it. Finally, plant a few easy-to-grow vegetables like carrots and radishes for taste.

 

A parent and a frequent contributor to St. Louis Parent Magazine, Dawn Franzen, M.Ed., has taught with the Summer Academies and Learning Labs of the Gifted Resource Council in St. Louis.

© Photo by Maureen Rigdon | Dreamstime.com