Elwood garden celebrates 25 years of interactive adventures for the ‘young and young at heart.’

Elwood — Twenty-five years ago, members of the Elwood-area community met at Elwood School to discuss transforming a patch of land into a learning environment in nature.

The result was the one-acre Children’s Garden Project of Elwood, which has become a tool for “education, community relations, environmental awareness, health, nutrition and beautification,” said Sheila Meyers, Children’s Garden Project coordinator.

Kim Ciuffini, green keeper, called the garden an outdoor adventure for “the young and young at heart.”

“It’s geared toward families with children to come and explore and use their imagination,” Ciuffini said. “But for adults, it’s a place to enjoy a beautiful garden.

The Children’s Garden Project is open year-round, but programming is seasonal from April through October, Meyers said.

Special programs are scheduled for the anniversary year, including a free “music in the garden” event featuring the Silverstrings Band at 7 p.m. July 12, some “yoga in the park” sessions and four-week ukulele lessons.

Other programs through the year include summer camps, garden walks, festivals, intergenerational projects and collaboration with Elwood School to incorporate science, health and art education into the garden, Meyers said.

Inside the Children’s Garden Project are smaller, themed gardens, Meyers said. These include a vegetable garden, sunflower alley (“It’s a structure and you walk through it – it’s filled with big sunflowers,” Meyers said) and a rainbow garden with flowers representing “all the colors of the rainbow,” Meyers said.

The kitchen also features vegetables along with herbs and the far garden has little tractors, a concrete Bessie the cow and straw that “young farmers” can rake and take away in a wheelbarrow, Meyers said.

Kids can play in the sandbox and then in the playhouse, which has kitchen appliances and table and chairs, Meyers said. They can sit at a picnic table and play checkers or make mud pies at the mud table, Meyers said.

“You can go over a pretty bridge and view frogs and tadpoles and goldfish. The kids love it,” Meyers said. “And the water lilies are blooming right now, too.”

The Children’s Garden Project also has a kaleidoscope for viewing the unique patterns of flowers, a schoolhouse with an old chalkboard and vintage desks, musical instruments and a space with six picnic tables where guests “can bring their lunch,” Meyers said.

“Next to that, we have two lending libraries,” Meyers said.

A hopscotch path goes down the sidewalk to Peter Rabbit’s Garden, a fenced-in garden with pots and pans and a picnic table, Meyers said.

In 2013, third grade students from Elwood School planted 53 trees with a grant from Trees Forever. Two years later, the students returned to weed, mulch, label the trees and learn about pollinators in the area, Meyers said.

Trees Forever subsequently awarded the students the 2016 Outstanding Youth Project Award, she added.

“One of the really cool things is when people come through with their young kids and reflect on, when they were kids and going to school here, they came through and planted this or that,” Ciuffini said. “And now they’re adults coming through again and remembering with their children.”

For information on the Children’s Garden Project and for a full schedule of events and programs, visit villageofelwood.com.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 23

Children aren’t the only ones that benefit from the Children’s Garden in Elwood, hundreds of native species visit the garden. The Children’s Garden in Elwood recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. Saturday, July 9, 2022 in Elwood. (Gary Middendorf - gmiddendorf@shawnedia.com/Gary Middendorf)