In 1914 at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens in New York, Miss Ellen Eddy Shaw established the world’s first children’s garden. Miss Shaw hoped that all children in Brooklyn might have gardens and believed children’s gardens could be a ‘living opportunity for a child to learn lessons of nature and observe how nature looks out for herself’. In the year 2004, when children live in a world where food is genetically modified and where play for some equates to television or computer games, the garden is a wonderful place to return to and reconnect with the natural world.
The Ian Potter Foundation Children’s Garden opened at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) in October this year. Two years in the making, this sensory garden is a wonderland for children of all ages to explore. Gary Shadforth, the RBG Education Manager estimates approximately 2,500 school children have visited the Children’s Garden already. From kindergarten to tertiary, the RBG education program provides interactive and experiential learning experiences. Digging and planting are not normally encouraged in Botanic Gardens but they are here. Gary says, ‘It’s different to being in a classroom. Hopefully learning in this hands-on garden is an experience the kids will remember’.
The education program integrates horticulture with art, science, technology, geography and history. Sitting at the base of a 10,000-year-old fossilised River Red Gum tree dug up from a sand quarry in Albury, children listen to stories of the prehistoric and learn about the impact of humans on nature. In the kitchen, garden fresh food is the focus. Children plant and harvest vegies like beetroot, carrot, turnip and capsicum and smell and taste fresh herbs. Sustainability is a key philosophy underpinning many of the lessons. Children gather near a shallow rock pond to learn about the significance of water to life and nature and to the ecosystems it sustains. In the Discovery Shelter, an open air structure with a roof and two walls, children consolidate what they’ve learnt in the garden and explore further, looking at plants under microscopes or creating wind chimes to learn about nature’s elements. Gary says, ‘The only complaint we’ve had so far is from children who don’t want to leave’.
While the Botanic Gardens might be an obvious location for a children’s garden, a less obvious location but an equally magical environment is the rooftop of Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital. The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Horticultural Program began ten years