Nature and Nurture
At the Seattle Children's Play Garden, kids of all abilities are invited to experience nature
Written and produced by Debra Prinzing
Photographed by Laurie Black
Country Gardens Spring 2013
Imagine a garden-themed playground where the most important rule is: go have fun.
That place exists at the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden, where helping boys and girls engage with the outdoor world, especially its flora and fauna, is what really matters.
If one youngster spends her summer morning endlessly making mud pies while another chooses to pick (and eat) blueberries to his heart’s content, that’s okay with Liz Bullard, a speech and language pathologist who in 2002 founded the PlayGarden and serves as its executive director.
Those activities build strength and coordination, stimulate sensory properties and allow youngsters to lose themselves in something creative — irresistible facets of this botanical wonderland’s mission.
Located on a verdant acre in a densely-populated Seattle neighborhood, the nonprofit’s goals are to “improve the lives of children with physical or mental disabilities by providing them with full access to a safe indoor-outdoor recreation space and offering inclusive programs that encourage their potential.” More than one thousand children participate annually in the PlayGarden’s preschool, field trips, afterschool programs and popular summer camps, where play is an equalizer for all children ages four to 12.
A series of photos from a day at the PlayGarden.
Bullard developed her play-centric therapeutic approach for children with physical and developmental disabilities who often have little unstructured “kid time.” She also wanted to serve siblings of special-needs kids, a frequently overlooked population.
“We want the PlayGarden to be just as fun and stimulating for typical kids as for kids with challenges,” Bullard explains. This is a place for kids on two feet, kids with walkers, kids in wheelchairs, kids who communicate differently – a welcoming place where children with special needs can play alongside their typically developing siblings and friends.
Popular features include a soft-and-safe play mound, complete with a hidden spring from which water erupts before flowing through a sinuous runnel, and a state-of-the-art basketball court that is also used by neighborhood residents.
The site is planted with equal parts ornamental and edible gardens, including an abundant butterfly border; a wheelchair-accessible raised bed; a “wild play zone”; and yes, the popular mud pond. A “planted” pickup truck provides nonstop fun for youngsters who both climb aboard to turn the steering wheel or harvest the edible berries and herbs planted where the engine once was.
The planted pickup truck is a smile generator – and a great play structure. (c) Debra Prinzing
The playground equipment is encircled by an edible blueberry hedge and chain link fencing (a safety feature) supports golden hops, Dutchman’s pipe, Chilean glory vine and other nectar sources for hummingbirds.
The PlayGarden is home to two ducks, seven chickens and three rabbits; several aquariums house insects, including a gross-looking, but popular Madagascan cockroach. Other animals appear in topiary form: life-sized evergreen bears and dinosaurs dot the landscape wearing jaunty straw hats.
According to Wendy Welch, the PlayGarden’s lead garden designer and creative director, “all of our planting choices are provocative for kids in some way — from the ‘magic purple beads’ of the Callicarpa shrubs to the 150 ornamental alliums that are used as wands.”
Sensory plants beautify the landscape and infuse the garden with delightful moments. (c) Debra Prinzing
Every sense is stimulated, with an emphasis on smell, taste and touch. Durable perennials and groundcovers withstand an errant basketball or a short-cut made by tiny feet, Welch adds. “Plus, we’ve planted huge quantities of edibles so everybody can pick and eat to their heart’s content.”
Beds and borders provides ample arts-and-crafts supplies. The children love to pick flower bouquets and baskets of veggies to ‘sell’ at their farm stand. They use flower petals as play-dough pigment, gather and build with red-twig dogwood branches and press rhubarb and Gunnera leaves into wet concrete.
On any given day, in every season, the PlayGarden fulfills its founder’s dream.
It is a community hub for children and their families, a safe place that nurtures curiosity and encourages discovery of the natural world.
Young lives are being transformed in this semi-wild place where the word “no” is rarely heard and the magic of play is celebrated as a necessary and life-affirming practice.
How to Create a PlayGarden
A whimsical topiary bunny adorns the potager. (c) Debra Prinzing
Liz Bullard dreamed of a place “where outdoor space is used to challenge kids’ development and stimulate their growth.” No one who heard of her idea thought she was crazy. In fact, parents, teachers, therapists and health care professionals all asked: “What can I do to help?”
The $4.2 million project took six years to complete, drawing on contributions from public sources, individuals, corporations and foundations. Here are some of the key steps that have helped the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden succeed:
Understand the need: “The lives of families of children with special needs are consumed with therapy, trips to the doctor, tutoring and school,” Bullard explains. “When they have a break to play, their neighborhood parks-and-rec centers are often unaccommodating.” She searched for outdoor play spaces that could nurture children with special needs, but discovered a lack of safe and accessible options in her community.
Gather like-minded supporters: In 2003, Bullard and a core group supporters formed the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden , a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit.
The PlayGarden is fun for children and adults alike, and all get involved in the fun activiites. (c) Debra Prinzing
Seek partnerships: Bullard credits Dr. Abraham Bergman, a prominent Seattle pediatrician, educator and foster care advocate, for instigating the garden’s partnership with the city’s parks department. Ken Bounds, Seattle’s former Parks and Recreation Department superintendent, agreed that children with special needs were underserved. “He told us that if we gained neighborhood support and raised the funds, then he would help us find the land,” Bullard says.
Identify key features: The PlayGarden is housed at Coleman Playfield, once a tired baseball diamond with an aging basketball court. The site met Bullard’s wish list: a mostly-level place located close to public transportation lines in an underserved area of the community.
Make it mutually beneficial for everyone involved: Planning meetings revealed the one thing missing in the neighborhood: a decent basketball court. In 2004, the PlayGarden’s first phase of construction added a fabulous new court with multiple hoops at various heights and wheelchair accessibility. The court has forged a bond between young people in the neighborhood and the PlayGarden staff and children. “It’s an awesome feature,” Bullard acknowledges. “Our kids learn use the surface to learn to ride their bikes and wheelchairs.”
A menagerie of more topiary animals populates the mixed borders and playgrounds. (c) Debra Prinzing
Bring experts together: The PlayGarden was designed by a team of professionals in physical therapy, special education, art and architecture, led by Daniel Winterbottom, a University of Washington landscape architecture professor and expert in therapeutic gardens.
Plan for accessibility and the environment: The PlayGarden is home to a renovated Field House, a new Garden House, a Family Play Plaza and a Shade Structure. Fruit and shade trees have been planted, the soil has been improved and irrigation installed. The orchard, kitchen garden, butterfly garden, a bio-swale and wild play zone are in place. This beautiful, accessible space invites children to interact with nature, to learn, to explore and create.
Details: Seattle Children’s PlayGarden, www.seattlechildrensplaygarden.org.