A Most Delightful Nature Learning Experience. For Kids!

In 2018, we partnered with Wing Haven and local Scouts BSA Troops to provide materials and guidance for scouts to compete needed projects at Wing Haven’s new Student Environmental Education and Discovery (SEED) Wildlife & Children’s Garden. By completing these projects, scouts fulfilled the requirement to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. To make these projects appropriate for youth and adult volunteers, we pre-cut and delivered all of the components for ten 4’x8’ cedar garden beds. These cedar raised beds were successfully assembled by scouts and adult leaders, and and then filled with premium organic soil. This project launched the first phase of the new S.E.E.D. program, and soon after, other scouts assembled a kid-sized three bin cedar compost station and a small cedar tool rack. We delivered the cedar components for these projects precut and ready-to-assemble, just like the ten cedar garden beds.

 

The next addition to the new S.E.E.D. garden was a robust, rustic cedar pergola that was built by another scout working towards Eagle. With that impressive structure in place, we built two large cedar picnic tables and placed them beneath the rustic cedar pergola. We hand made these two 8’-long picnic tables with rough-sawn red cedar and stainless steel hardware, and you won’t find big and burly tables like these at any home improvement store.

We always love seeing the dozens of little campers comfortably seated at these two cedar picnic tables, engaged in garden crafts and other hands-on learning activities during summer day camp.

 

Since then, all sorts of fun enhancements have been added to the S.E.E.D. garden, including a Nature Play & Construction zone, Story Time area, Bird Observation Platform, Bird Nest, Bird Blind, Bird Feeding Station, Stream Bed, SEED Pavilion, Wildlife Den, Worm Digging, Living Tunnel, and programmatic gardens such as a Sensory Garden, Ozone Garden, Pollinator Garden and Healing Garden. 

So what could we add to the now utterly amazing Student Environmental Education and Discovery (SEED) Wildlife & Children’s Garden? 

With all these new elements in place, what could Wing Haven’s S.E.E.D. garden possibly still need to make their excellent garden program for children any better?

 

Well, with all that playing, exploring, climbing, worm digging, and bird observing, Wing Haven staff found that kids - and adults - could use some comfy places to sit down and rest for a while. So we built five cedar benches to be placed in shaded areas near the activity stations in the S.E.E.D garden.

 

Now, tired out kids can stop and rest between activities, and adults can sit comfortably and supervise all the fun. And since we know that the whole point of the S.E.E.D. program is experiential learning - with plenty of activity built in - we secured each of the five benches firmly to the ground with red cedar stakes. Kids will be kids, after all, and the last thing we want is one of our cedar benches tipping over and spoiling the fun.

 

Like the raised garden beds and picnic tables that were assembled in 2018, the new benches were made with rough-sawn red cedar. And for the very same reasons : A finish that ages beautifully over time, and a very long life span in outdoor applications like this. We fastened the bench components with stainless steel bolts and screws, which will help ensure that every bench still looks beautiful, and provides a comfortable place to sit and enjoy the garden -  long after that first class of little gardeners has grown up, spread their wings, and left the nest. 

Another item that the S.E.E.D. program requested from us was cedar storage shelving - scaled down so that kids can easily reach and use it. So we created 3’-wide cedar storage units that include hooks to hang trowels, cedar shelving, and a bin at the very top to hold watering cans and other gardening supplies. We placed the cedar shelf units underneath the covered S.E.E.D. Pavilion, where staff can easily transfer supplies from the pavilion’s storage closets to the new cedar shelf units. And we know those sturdy cedar shelves might look a little bit too much like a ladder to a young gardener - especially to the more adventurous ones - so we securely anchored the frame of each cedar shelf unit to the wall behind it. 

 

Back over by the cedar raised garden beds, an assortment of kid-sized rakes, shovels, and garden hoes had long been essential equipment for the seasonal planting and harvesting activities, summer camp programs, and other hands-on gardening events at S.E.E.D.

A simple, but functional, kid-sized cedar tool rack had stored these tools for several years, and it was finally time for an upgrade ; A covered cedar tool hutch that little growers could easily access and use to store their gardening equipment - and keep those tools and other growing supplies out of the weather. For this, we scaled down a cedar storage shed design, reversing the shed roof so that rain will run away from the building and over the front side of the hutch. We framed and clad S.E.E.D’s children’s tool hutch with red cedar, and covered it with tinted polycarbonate roof panels. These lightweight, high-performance roof panels are easy to work with, transport, cut, and install. They’re inexpensive, and best of all, they allow more sunlight into the cedar tool hutch - making it easier to see everything that’s inside, and quickly find exactly what you need. 

 

With these new amenities, the S.E.E.D. garden at Wing Haven seems pretty well set, and it would be hard to walk through the garden and not spot any or all of the items described here.

Still, they do have plenty of space there at the S.E.E.D. garden. 

And we certainly understand that gardening is a dynamic thing - like Nature Herself, always in motion, always changing. 

So we won’t be at all surprised if we hear from our friends at Wing Haven again. In fact, we’ll be delighted to come back over, if they ask us to build something that would make the S.E.E.D. garden even better.