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
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“By delving into ‘how children really play,’ the book shares stories of families who have transformed time in the garden into playtime, and features the blueprints, photos, and plants that made each garden successful."
(
Flower )
“This beautiful and informal book asks the questions: How can the healthy development of children be served by a garden—the term garden here referring to any natural outdoor space set aside for recreation, not only a place for growing flowers and vegetables.”
(
Renewal: A Journal for Waldorf Education )
"The book is packed with luscious photographs and simple techniques and structures you can use to nurture a child’s wild side.”
(
Hobby Farm Home )
“Each topic includes ideas for creating such environments as treehouses and secret passages. Also offered is a list of resources that features landscape designers, organizations, places with public children's gardens, and garden books for both youngsters and adults.”
(
Phoenix Home and Garden )
“It’s teaming with inspiration…”
Metro Parent Magazine (
Metro Parent Magazine )
"Informed, useful. Splendid."
(
Dallas Morning News )
"[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 … reminds parents to plan both for open space and hiding places, leaving plenty of room for young imaginations to grow." (South Florida Sun-Sentinel )
"A Child's Garden provides inspiration for parents who'd like to make their yards more appealing to kids, or even landscape professionals interested in the history of children's gardens, the psychology of how children play and the features that encourage learning, make-believe and exercise."
(
WestSound Home & Garden )
