Special spot for children takes root at city gardens

By Libby James
Correspondent

Scarecrows on stilts? An 8-foot high watering can and another, almost as big, spewing a flowery blue waterfall from its spout? A shelter whose roof has its own drip irrigation system and grows sedum, yarrow and snow-in-summer? No. Not a faraway wonderland. It's right in Fort Collins on a half-acre of land set aside for a Children's Garden at the Gardens on Spring Creek, a half-mile south of the Hilton Hotel.

Passersby of all ages keep tabs as construction progresses. Originally envisioned six years ago during the early planning stages of the Gardens on Spring Creek, physical work began last fall and will be completed late this summer.

Between the vision and the reality lay years of fund-raising, planning and design. The city owns and operates phase one of the Gardens, which includes a community garden, parkway strip designed by local author and gardener Lauren Springer, and a spacious building with greenhouse, classroom and office space. With the exception of some fencing, no city funds are being used for the Children's Garden. The $450,000 needed to complete the project comes from Great Outdoors Colorado ($200,000), the four Rotary Clubs of Fort Collins ($100,000), the Bohemian Foundation ($25,000) and various smaller cash and in-kind donations. Fifty volunteers will plant hundreds of trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables.

Jim Clark, director of the Gardens on Spring Creek says its mission is "enriching people's lives and fostering environmental stewardship through horticulture." The interactive Children's Garden is a means of fulfilling that mission. Clark describes the garden as "fun, whimsical, educational and unique--there's nothing like it in Colorado."

Herb Schaal of EDAW, an international landscape design firm, created the plan for the Children's Garden. Schaal has worked on 20 children's gardens across the country and took special delight in designing a garden in his own back yard.

Sixty trees, 160 shrubs and countless hundreds of plants will bring to life a sampling of nature's incredible diversity. Kids, families and school groups will touch, smell, dig in and learn about specific areas that represent aquatic wetlands (complete with native fish, frogs and crawdads), xeriscape gardens, prairie wildflower meadows, bird and butterfly gardens, foothills and montane perennial gardens, and an area filled with annual plants for cutting. Children will water and tend plants in specially designed raised beds.

A sundial garden will allow youngsters to use gazing balls and their own shadows to observe the movement of the sun and the passage of time. A blue annual garden will carpet the ground below the smaller watering can, simulating a watery surface with blue flowers cascading from the spout of the can.

To symbolize care and nurturing, watering cans were adopted as an appropriate image for the garden. Small watering cans will be available for children to use as they care for plants.

Local welder and artisan Rick Upham designed the big watering cans. Under the Art in Public Places program, Denver sculptor Andy Dufford created intricate pools and channels in the large rock below the largest watering can, allowing water from the can to travel in interesting patterns. Children can scoop water for use on plants or simply play in it. At a recent Earth Day celebration sponsored by EDAW, a small child plopped into one of the tiny pools. "That was an unexpected use," Clark said.

A circular path through the garden features 12 individual pavers representing the months of the year and etched with information pertaining to each month. Fat sidewalk chalk is provided for kids to make their own comments and perhaps write their names by their own birthday month. Impressions of animal footprints dot the path.

An intentionally overgrown shrub area will hide a play fort, give a sense of enclosure and the chance to get a little lost. Future plans calls for a tree house in another area of the garden.

Summer hours at the Gardens on Spring Creek, which strive for hands-on opportunities and environmental awareness, are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. It's hard to imagine passing by on foot, by bicycle or in a car without pausing to ponder goofy-looking scarecrows, a sprouting shelter roof and oversized watering cans that beckon kids of all ages to come on in and play--and learn something as well.