Setting Up (Tiny) Spaces to Nurture Wonder & Curiosity in the Garden

"Please Touch the Plants" urge these tiny garden labels from inside the pots of our succulents last year. I have spent a good few seasons now trying to make our outdoor space a living room for the whole family--shorter members included. And when it comes to setting up a home garden, a play garden or even an outdoor classroom, tiny little installments within your space can encourage huge amounts of exploration from your youngest explorers.

I love to incorporate elements into our space that remain in the space (as opposed to activities or materials I may bring in and out) that appeal to all of the senses. I may use similar materials (or even the ones set out) in directed activities, but the difference here is that the materials are always out and available to be used as the young horticulturalist sees fit while in his garden laboratory.


In designing and implementing these elements of your outdoor space you do need to consider space itself (how much or how little, whether it's a space where children can roam and play freely and without risk of harming your edible garden or flower beds, etc.) as well as protection from the elements (especially moisture and heat).

Here are some ideas you may incorporate:

Tools to Encourage Observation:

 Tools and materials to encourage taking a closer look, documentation, observation and a little bit of fun and wonder fill these plastic caddies in the front play garden and in the back. For items that need waterproofing, I love plastic pencil pouches (available super inexpensively during the back to school season, which is when I stock up).

Some items you might include are:

• clip boards
• cloud viewers
• a nature journal or notepad
• ink pad
• colored pencils, pencils, markers (I avoid crayons that might melt)
• a tin of clay
• laminated paint samples for color scavenger hunts
• magnifying glasses
• magnifying boxes
• scissors
• masking tape or double sided tape

Ok, there are definitely some bubble necklaces in there, too--you never know when you might need one of those!

A designated dry erase board or chalk board can make for a wonderful vertical surface with a tin or waterproof pouch or box containing markers or chalk. It's a great place to draw, write garden messages and/or observations. Also a wonderful location for magnetic poetry or pictures if it happens to be magnetic as well.

Caddies or totes intended to encourage exploration of wildlife and taking a closer look outdoors might include some of the following:

• critter cage or butterfly net
• magnifying glasses
• prism lenses
• prisms
• binoculars
• large tweezers
• bug/butterfly nets
• small field guides protected in a waterproof pouch or laminated cards/pictures

Elements of Sound:

I live with two little boys for whom everything is a drum. I'd love to have a sound wall outdoors but I also love not being homeless and evicted from my apartment. Our "quiet" xylophone resides outdoors now inviting my youngest musicians to grab a stick or even a spoon or garden tool and tinker out a tune--not too loudly--in our play garden. Aside from that, there is plenty of using our outside voices outside...

And kudos to that neighbor who used to send her daughter outside to practice her recorder last year! You are my hero!

Sometimes the element of sound is observed as we listen to birds chirping, neighborhood sounds, buzzing bees, barking dogs, children playing...

Elements of Touch:

Gardening is a hands-on experience when it comes to digging, sowing seeds, harvesting, pulling weeds... But a lot of the time we find ourselves telling the bodies attached to the smaller hands in our family not to touch the plants, not to pick the flowers, not to step on the grass...

So finding elements that children are encouraged to touch and manipulate is a must! Many plants can withstand a child's touch and furthermore, learning how to touch and move their bodies around plants and flowers and wildlife is an important lesson for children to learn even early on. We've had our share of mishaps---like a watermelon plant removed from its roots, some toppled and trampled mammoth sunflowers and even some prematurely plucked green tomatoes. It's all par for the course. If we cannot fail in the garden, where can we grow?

I really like to find ways to get to YES in world full of NOs. Elements for mixing, concocting and sensory play are abundant outdoors and need very little added. Three of my very favorites are dirt, sand, and water. Having access to those can lead to a plethora of play and learning opportunities.

Succulent plants do quite well to be touched and tickled. They come in a variety of textures (do avoid very sharp cacti with young children) and colors and sizes. Our Please Touch the Plants garden is finally back outdoors and adjusting to its preferred habitat after a winter being cooped up by our dining room windows.

We may not want the children cutting flowers or plucking veggies out of our own garden beds, but having a space or a pot that is their very own can make this activity one that is available to them. Our snipping garden is merely an old window box with small violets, pansies and hostas. I choose inexpensive plants or parts of my own plants to place in the box as needed. Herbs would also be a lovely addition. Sometimes S likes to gather some flowers to put in a small pale or vase of water. Sometimes the boys pluck or cut blossoms for mud and water potions and concoctions. They know that this is their plot for cutting and plucking and that other pots and places require permission first. Cutting the grass is also always a popular activity and identifying weeds with my assistance allows for additional gathering and foraging opportunities.

Elements of Scent: Herbs, herbs, glorious herbs. Long before the flowers are blooming and the fruits and veggies are ready for harvest, starter plants are in abundance at garden nurseries, hardware stores, grocery stores and farmers' markets. Early on children can be shown how to gently rub their hands over the fragrant leaves to release the scent or even how to pluck one or two leaves and rub it between their fingers. A mortar and pestle can introduce a whole new level of grinding and crushing and smelling these fragrant wonders of the kitchen garden...

These are the earliest lessons in the season of harvest to table. Mint leaves come in to be steeped in hot water for tea. Chives are pulled and tasted right from the planter! Rosemary and lemon balm are finely chopped and added to a batch of homemade melt and pour soap to scrub our gardeners' hands clean when we do finally come inside.

Elements of Taste:

One of the greatest reasons to garden and grow things is to eat things that you grow! Year round, microgreens can be quickly and easily grown indoors. Thinning out early seedlings is a lot less emotional for the attached gardener if you can harvest and enjoy the tiny sprouts, like with the beet sprouts pictured to the left.

One of the harder parts of gardening to grow your own food is, well, waiting for it. Having plants that are in various stages of readiness is helpful for me (and the younger gardeners here). Earlier cold weather crops like lettuces, greens, and broccoli help tide us over while we wait for the first harvest of quickly growing crops like radishes that can be planted in rotation throughout the season. Buying starter plants can speed things along once the season has begun (especially if you didn't start seeds indoors). And when it comes to choosing what you'll grow to eat, I'd suggest choosing what you like to eat. Perhaps save the farmers' market for trying something altogether new and avoid that issue of bringing up a crop of hot peppers nobody likes.


I also like for the boys to have some plants that are their very own. Last year, for S this was a beloved strawberry plant that overwintered beautifully and has returned to flowering this spring! We also planted new strawberries with each of the boys as soon as starter plants came out. Nothing is sweeter and more exciting than a big, juicy, red berry plucked fresh from the vine, no sharing!

There is truly a sense of wonder and reverence for something you've grown, nurtured, loved and harvested yourself. This year both of the boys are old enough to participate in this process. They would likely choose every plant in the nursery if it were up to them. S was enamored with a giant horseradish plant last year but alas, I had to quell his thirst for it because we simply didn't have the space. And I also knew he wouldn't eat it! Y was enthralled by every plant and shrub and tree on our recent nursery walk and really wanted a cherry tree for our yard. I sadly did have to decline and settle for some broccoli starters (they are like tiny trees!) because we cannot plant a cherry tree in our apartment yard...

I would also go completely insane purchasing plants if left to my own devices. And maybe then, I'd have so many that no one would notice if half of them are dead!  But the garden when set up as a place that nurtures wonder and curiosity also encourages us to slow down. To breathe in the scent and taste the flavors of the season. To hear the sounds and feel the textures and the breeze. We slowly observe the world around, and above and below...and we cannot help, even as adults, but return to that coveted place of playfulness.

Elements of Playfulness:

Everything I sneak and stash in my garden is to invite my children and myself into a world of play. Tiny fairy gardens, mud kitchens, tools for scientific exploration and discovery, baskets of nature's loose parts, cooking accessories, toy barbecues, ribbons and pinwheels for blowing in the wind and weaving, sticks for stirring, casting magical spells or walking, silk flowers for "planting," real gardening tools for digging, chalk for drawing and rocks painted as bugs, animals, favorite foods, or labeled with letters and words spark a sense of wonder in players of all ages. And, of course, your more "traditional" outdoor toys--for riding, rolling, throwing, catching, driving...

A garden is a space that nurtures wonder and curiosity on a grand scale, but it doesn't need to be a grand space and nor do we need to stock it with large elements for play. Very tiny spaces can be enormously enhanced by small scale additions, stored and tucked away in creative ways to draw in interest. With that in mind, our garden is not a place we visit to escape or even a stop on our way indoors. It is, rather, the destination itself. It is the place we go to reside until we are hauled in under an arm like a football, kicking, screaming, protesting and covered head to toe in mud.

Happy Playing!