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Growing
Garden Structures Kids Love
by Cheryl Dorschner
 Structures
are the workhorses of the garden. They do at least
triple duty. First, as a safe place to play, they're
where the action is. They form a backdrop or support
for plants. And often they're eye-catching. Kids run
to them, adults wish they were small enough to climb
up or crawl into them. Some structures are colorful,
whimsical, and humorous to look at.
I'll
skip major construction projects like decks, swimming
pools, Victorian playhouses with gingerbread trim
at the gables, and the like, in favor of inspirations
you're more likely to try.
- Everyone
knows about bean tepees: five or more poles bound
at the top and underplanted with pole beans. For
variety, consider a tunnel: insert 8-foot poles
every 3 feet along both sides of a path; lash horizontal
poles at 2-, 4-, and 6-foot heights; and then plant
and train vines along this corridor. You can make
anything — from wigwam to dome -- with willow
or plastic tubing and then plant it with vines.
Try bamboo, angling the poles like interlocking
fingers. Instead of beans, grow gourds, cucumbers,
miniature pumpkins, morning glories, or love-in-a-puff.
- If
you have space for the well-known sunflower houses
—- planting sunflowers in a square to form
a "room"— next try corn houses. Map
the rooms out on paper first. Create walls of corn
(at least 5 rows thick per wall), leaving spaces
for entries. For windows, break up the walls by
planting peas instead of corn.
- Willow
or other bendable twigs, such as dogwood, can be
fashioned into rustic arches, walls, nests, and
free-form sculpture with the woven technique known
as wattle. Bury one end of vertical sticks sufficiently
into the ground, and simply weave twigs between
them, overlapping as you add new weavers.
- Kids
treat a simple platform placed on the ground as
a dance floor, stage, or house. If it's not too
big, it can be stored in winter. Raise the platform
about 4 feet onto in-ground posts, and you've got
a lookout. Add a coated hardware cloth arch from
one side to the other, and it's a hut.
- Don't
relegate the sandbox to a corner of the yard. It
could be a cut-away from a stone patio, a heap of
sand in a grove, or simply a deep, wide path —
the illusion of a moment at the beach.
- Landscapers
are fond of "decorating" with boulders.
Put them to use as a kids' mountain. Add a log and
stump, and it's a wild place.
- Skip
traditional scarecrows. The right clothes can make
a man or woman instead. Underneath, any stick or
wire frame will do. Mimic popular characters or
match the scarecrow to a theme garden. I helped
school children build a "ski-crow" who
appeared to be in mid-air above their garden to
honor Olympic gold medalist slalom skier Barbara
Ann Cochran. Straw is the stuffing de rigeur. Check
it periodically to make sure rodents or wasps don't
call it home.
- In
an afternoon your clan can make a chicken-wire animal
and train ivy around it for a nearly instant topiary.
Heads will turn.
All of these projects can involve and reward the
whole family and make your garden the most kid-friendly
place on the block.
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