When we build a cottage, we think about ourselves. About his family. About small children. How to create a garden for a child? How to create a garden that will please him at 10 years old, and at 20 will become a reminder of the love of his parents? You just need to plunge into the world of classic childhood — not dictated by today, but the classic happiness of a small person.
Let’s remember ourselves and think about what in the garden can be both joyful for a child and a reminder of childhood for an adult? A swing on an old walnut tree, a bench behind the house?.. A sandbox built by my grandfather?.. I offer a minimal set, and you complement it with what is close and interesting to your children.
Caches
Who among you didn’t create caches and secrets? I did it this way: I dug a hole, put daisies there (for some reason it was white and pink daisies that grew in our yard under our feet, and it was a joy to hide them), covered the flowers with a glass. And … covered it with earth. I only showed these caches to trusted people. Finding your forgotten secret was fun, and how I laughed and rejoiced if I found someone else’s secret!
In garden concrete paths, in flower beds under mulch, leave space for children to create. They’ll find something to hide. A small soldier, coins, buttons, bottle caps, a spider made of plastic … the secret Can be laid on a cellophane base so that it does not get dirty. And only he — the owner of the cache – your child will have the right to change the content. Until he gets bored and forgets.
Dangerous and scary places
I always went behind my grandmother’s barn. There was a lot of web, and spiders crawled on it. The sounds there seemed muffled and full of vague meanings. There might have been planks falling on me, I might have been transported in the coal, and there was something there … that my grandmother didn’t tell me about, only hinted at. I remember this and another important place in her garden. There was an old, tasteless plum growing there. It was covered with terrible moss, and there was a hollow in it…
Why am I remembering this? A scary place is a very important element of culture for a child. A thicket of brambles where someone might live … a Place behind a rickety barn…
Why do children like to go to dangerous and scary places? Ask yourself. Remember. And make them such a corner. Let the myth that the child created with you live there. You can decorate this area with scary masks, figures made of twigs and stuffed animals. A Scarecrow dressed in leaky fluttering clothes will look great not in the garden, but in a secret, dangerous, scary place at dusk.
Children’s collection
No, I’m not talking about clematis and hosts. I’m talking about a place where you can store your treasures. Cottage is a very suitable space for imagination. Teach your child to collect, for example, driftwood as he likes to collect corks and Souvenirs.
Have you seen children playing with shells and pebbles? Maybe we can organize an exhibition platform for them. At least on the manhole cover, at least under the dining table, at least on the inside of the gate. The child will honor this place and understand that its collection is a value for you and a garden decoration. He asserts himself through the possession of things that may not seem valuable to him. But one by one. Finding an unexpected joy is a huge success for a child. He will play enough “stuff” and put it in his collection. Teach him to collect.
Building a “headquarters” or your own house
When I was little, these houses accompanied me everywhere. At home, I made them from pillows, in the courtyard of a multi — storey building-from cut branches in the spring, and my grandmother had the best in the garden — a mixture of a wild hut and household utensils.
Help the child to arrange his own house. There he can think, sleep, receive his guests, eat, drink, and draw. The main thing is safety. And security is the absence of adults on its territory. You should have a rule: do not plant near the child’s shelter those plants that need to be actively cared for. Not because he will remember them and trample them, no-because you are engaged in weeding and watering, do not have to spy on his mysterious life.
Children’s flower garden
Give the child 2 meters of land. Dug up with him, fertilized, in which he can sow seeds and watch how his personal flowers or vegetables grow. He will love beans and carrots more if he grows them himself. He will understand what a seed is, and what energy is hidden in it. He will learn to distinguish what is planted from weeds, to water and dig, in General-to rejoice.