A Childs Garden: Enchanting Outdoor Spaces for Children and Parents (Hardcover)

by Molly Dannenmaier (Author) "To thrive children need complex environments..." (more)
Key Phrases: dinosaur garden, theme gardens, Children's Garden, United States, George Washington's River Farm (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A Child's Garden is an excellent guide for parents wishing to create natural spaces in the garden where their children can openly play and explore. Stepping beyond the traditional ideas of building a treehouse or planting a vegetable garden, the authors include 60 unique ways to tailor a landscape to nurture a child's sense of enchantment and wonder. For instance, many children like to hide, and the book includes ideas for building natural caves out of woven willow branches, climbing vines, or weeping shrubs. For parents wanting to plant a good tree for climbing, this guide knowledgeably recommends the fast-growing and sturdy Norway maple as one of the best. It's filled with such information throughout its nine sections on water, creatures, refuges, dirt, heights, movement, make-believe, nurturing, and learning. Messages on safety are wisely included, along with an excellent list of resources covering everything from buying butterfly houses to visiting selected children's gardens. Through its many color photographs and warm, wise text, A Child's Garden will draw parents into their children's timeless, carefree world and perhaps back to a time when they themselves explored streams, played in the sand, studied bugs, and roamed without agenda. --Karen Karleski

Review
"[Dannenmaier] presents 60 vibrant and inspired landscape plans and innovative weekend projects designed to help motivated parents create imaginary havens that will appeal to both young ones and those who are young at heart." Carol Haggas, Booklist (Booklist )

"[Dannenmaier] presents 60 vibrant and inspired landscape plans and innovative weekend projects designed to help motivated parents create imaginary havens that will appeal to both young ones and those who are young at heart." Carol Haggas, Booklist (Booklist )

"[Dannenmaier believes that a garden made for children will engage adults too, because it will be full of secret hideaways and sensory delights."
—House and Garden (House and Garden )

[Dannenmaier believes that a garden made for children will engage adults too, because it will be full of secret hideaways and sensory delights. House and Garden (House and Garden ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684837250
• ISBN-13: 978-0684837253
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #346,934 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book for parents and gardeners, December 14, 1998

By A Customer

This book is exactly what I was searching for. I love to garden, but I also need to accommodate my two rambunctious children and a variety of pets. This book has page after page of creative ideas, safety considerations, examples, and plenty of photos. The author is clear, interesting, and very informative about both gardening and childhood development.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful way for parents to connect with their children, September 26, 1998

By A Customer

This beautifully illustrated book looks at gardens with the delight of a child from the perspective of a mother who loves her children and her community. Ms. Dannenmaier shows us how to get more out of the natural world, no matter our age or environment. She shows parents how to connect with their children in the garden, particularly urban spaces. This is a great gift book.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchantingly possible!, February 26, 2001

By	N. C. Derham "MacBeth Derham" (Floral Park, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Every page of this book has full color photos from some of the most incredible gardens for children I have ever seen, from the large elaborate planned spaces of botanical gardens, to small modest spaces that will fit any space or budget. While this is not a heavy-duty "how to" book, it is a book of ideas--and we all know that ideas lead to other ideas! The cover of this book alone is inspiring!

The author asks, "How important are the old childhood pleasures of collecting seed pods, fishing in ditches, making bowers, picking flowers, and climbing trees?...long hours of unstructured outdoor exploration are a fast-vanishing aspect of contemporary childhood." She continues, "...the environment [on her uncle's farm] was so complex--full of smells, varied land forms, and mesmerizing creatures. I remember a scooped out pond surrounded by mud in which pigs, geese and ducks joyously wallowed. The strange pungency of the air, the frighteningly gigantic hogs, the mysterious, billowy grasses...still fill my senses." The author talks at great length about the psychology of nature, and of German educational reforms of the early 20th century (but only the good ones <G>). Each page has a line fron a Robert Louis Stevenson poem, for "...you may see, if you will look Through the windows of this book, Another child far away, And in another garden play."

The book includes suggestions for water gardens, sensory gardens, vegetable gardens, themed gardens, natural sand boxes, mazes, and attracting wildlife, plus many resources for strange seeds, odd plants, and landscape designers in varied areas of the US and the UK, all geared towards making a child's space a natural one.

BTW, when I bought the book, my kids grabbed it from me immediately. They love to look at the gardens and plan ours. Oh, and there are two black and whilte photos in the book: One is of children during WWI, tending a large city garden; the other is a 1940's style playground, with the steel and concrete structures that many of us recall from childhood. My 4yo playground-lover looked at both, and declared that he'd rather explore the garden.