Forced creativity

Last fall our family moved from a house with a giant play set for our two daughters to a house with a very small, and adult-centered, backyard. My oldest daughter, "The Gardener", laments the loss of the play set, to put it mildly. So, I've been forced to be creative. I'm now at the start of an exciting journey of discovery: how do children really play outdoors? What activities, ideas, and objects engage them the most? After reading a couple of books and doing a lot of internet searching, I came up with a plan for our backyard. The Gardener is still skeptical but I think she'll come around when she helps to create my vision.

The plan is to have a big sandbox, a sunflower house, a trellis tunnel, a mud pit (what in the world am I thinking???), and a small veg/flower garden that the girls will tend. I would also like to find a large dead tree branch, maybe some stumps, and a couple of large stones that children could use as: a balance beam, seating, a place to make fairy houses, etc.

I spent a couple of hours in the rain on Saturday, May 10th, laying out, digging, and preparing the bed for the sunflower house. I used U-shaped bamboo plant supports (the curved parts touching in the middle and the open ends fanned out) to create a nice circle shape. The Gardener helped plant two varieties of sunflowers: Arikara Sunflower (Seed Saver Exhange) and Autumn Beauty (High Mowing Seeds). Once the sunflower sprouts come up, we will plant some Blue Lake Pole beans (High Mowing Seeds) and some Mammoth Melting peas (High Mowing Seeds) between the sunflowers that will create a green wall ensuring a cozy, "secret" spot. I know I would have loved a little spot like. Hey, I might even hang out in there myself.

Here is what it looks like today.