Delray Beach Children's Garden

(children judging the garden designs)

Delray Beach Children's Garden has been designed and built by children. We, the adults, are the facilitators.

In September of 2014 our steering committee of 12 organized a design charette. Educators, landscape architects, neighbors, city officials and students came together to design the garden. Our panel of judges consisted of 8 children ranging in ages from 7-17. Five designs were presented to this panel for both praise and criticism. Taking these comments seriously,a local landscape architect at the event volunteered to draw up the final, professional plans which include a labyrinth made of raised bed veggie planters, a banana forest, an aquaponics learning center, a medicinal garden, pollinator beds, mulch mountain, a tree house and sand pit, a sunflower house and more.

On January 22, 2015 the city of Delray Beach approved the garden plan and the build began. The project is a community endeavor. The 1/2 acre lot has been donated as well as over 100 plants, 400 square feet of pavers, 4 truckloads of mulch and the irrigation system. To date, we have had 5 groups of students and a boy scout troup help build the garden. On any given Saturday you will find high school students doing community service, neighbors, families, religious groups and other interested citizens joining us in planting, mulching and building.

We have teams of volunteers just waiting for materials so that they can begin building. Once the funds come in our purchasing committee will order the supplies and set the work dates. We already have a regular Saturday morning work day in place. Both the pond and the fence can be completed in two days. Our goal is to have both projects completed by the end of June, 2015.                                 

The last two decades have seen Delray Beach explode from a ”Village by the Sea” into a very popular and vibrant small city. One thing that is lacking, however, is a place where children can play and learn in a natural setting.

Delray Beach Children's Garden is being built to combat the following phenomenon:

1. Trends moving more and more away from the natural world and more and more into air-conditioning and screen-watching

2. Less green spaces where children can experience the interconnectedness of all things

3. Parental fears about the safety of allowing their children to play outdoors without supervision.

Delray Beach Children's Garden will be the first of its kind in South Florida, bringing children from all economic and cultural backgrounds to work, play, learn, explore and problem solve together in a lush, natural setting.