A child's garden - Molly Dannenmaier

Until recently, children played outdoors with carefree abandon after school and in the summer. Today, however, children are more likely to spend their free time indoors, watching television, playing video games, or using a computer. But children thrive in the natural world. They love to play in water and with creepy critters. They savor hideaways, can not get enough dirt and sand, and relish climbing to great hieghts. They need movement. They want to pretend and to nurture other growing things. And most of all, they learn from everything that is new and stimulating.

Addressing these basic needs, A Child's Garden offers a wide range of innovative examples showing how to create special places in which children can experience nature on their own home turf. Here are child-friendly ponds, places for pets, and private refuges. Out-of-the-ordinary sandboxes are pictured, along with paths, mazes, furniture, peepholes, and scores of ideas for creative play areas that fit perfectly into adult gardens.

Featured throughout this profusely illustrated book are miniature paradises that parents and grandparents have designed just for the children in their lives, highlighting an enchanting variety of elements that will make any garden come alive for children.