Botanical Garden Redesigned to Encourage Play

Idaho Statesman – May 26, 2008
By Erin Ryan

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it is one of the qualities that makes children so utterly alive. With no regard to grass-stained pants or muddy shoes, they fly through landscapes with eyes wide, hearts pounding, fingers ready for anything.

Julia Rundberg has seen the benefits of allowing and encouraging young people to explore the natural world. She is executive director of Idaho Botanical Garden, and she and her staff agreed that the garden's existing children's area needed to grow.

"It wasn't a place where kids could go and play and explore on their own. The new garden is an attempt to give them the opportunity," Rundberg said.

She mentioned Richard Louv, author of "Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-deficit Disorder." In exploring the mental, physical and societal impacts of our increasingly wired culture, Louv suggests children need wild, untamed places.

"Many of us grew up with those kinds of places," Rundberg said. "What the botanical garden is trying to do is create a planned garden for children that sets the stage for outdoor adventure and exploration."

While more research and fundraising are necessary before a real timeline can be set, Idaho Botanical Garden is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday to celebrate its vision for the future. The Children's Garden will be built on more than an acre of land, including the current children's area and a chunk of reclaimed parking lot. It will offer lush landscaping, bamboo shelters, a tree house, a castle wall, a simulated beach, water features, a party room and a "kitchen garden."

The point is to expose kids to nature, if carefully drawn. It may not be as wild as the woods Louv speaks of, but it will be similarly without rules.

"It will be a place where they don't have to stay on the path," Rundberg said. "Kids need direct contact with nature and the land around them. There are wonderful nature centers and wild experiences in this area, but we don't always live in those wild places. We need to have some of that in an urban setting."

Children are even involved in the design process. Students from the Lolly Wyatt Head Start Center in Boise interpreted the planned garden through art, and selected pieces became banners, thanks to project leader Anne Cirillo and a grant from Idaho Commission on the Arts. The banners will be revealed by their young artists at the groundbreaking along with plans and walking tours.

When the Children's Garden is completed, Rundberg said, it will be both an outdoor classroom and a free play area for the 10,000-plus kids who utilize Idaho Botanical Garden's education programs each year.

Her administrative team worked with the Idaho Ronald McDonald House and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to establish free admission to the Children's Garden for families with children in foster care, making it possible for even more children to take advantage.

"We hope it will be a place for all different kinds of kids from all different places in life," Rundberg said. "We are planting the seed, so to speak."

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