Mill Creek MetroParks Opens $3M Children’s Garden
Mill Creek MetroParks has opened the Anthony J. Fox Family Foundation Children’s Garden, complete with paths, plants, pumpkins and play features.
The project was a 15-month, $3 million addition to Fellows Riverside Gardens.
Chris Litton, director of development for Mill Creek MetroParks, officially welcomed board members of both Mill Creek MetroParks and the park’s foundation, staff members and the community to the newest attraction at the park Friday.
The children’s garden was designed around the Margaret Cushwa Education Building, an outdoor learning center where children can attend programming. The addition of the children’s garden will expand those opportunities.
Aaron Young, Mill Creek MetroParks executive director, said it was important that the garden remain a horticultural space to encourage children to get their hands dirty, while also having some natural play features.
Young said a plan first discussed 20 years ago was part of the early planning for the garden, which has a walking trail, including climbing plants, hidden trolls, water features, interactive sensory components and places where children can climb.
“If you walk the path around here, you’ll see three different trolls with faces built into them that the kids can see,” Young said. “So it’s a very whimsical attempt at bringing horticulture to the forefront for kids.”
At an American Society of Landscape Architects conference in San Diego several years ago, Young said he met Paul Mills, a botanical garden designer with RVI, a national landscape architecture firm, and convinced him to come look at the children’s garden project.
Mills, originally of Brisbane, Australia, was among those enjoying watching people’s reactions at the opening Friday.
The garden features five distinct areas: the Stream Garden, Forest Garden, Wonder Rooms Garden, Sensory Garden and Harvest Garden, each offering unique opportunities for exploration and learning.
Mills said they tried to capture the natural outdoor features of the local area, including water, hummocks and rocks that were reused from the stockpiles Mill Creek already had from past demolitions and removals.
“It’s delightfully irregular,” Mills said of the rocks forming walls and features in the garden. “It’s nice to have it not so polished – just has a natural feel to it.”
Mills said the garden will only improve as it ages and the plants grow taller and fuller each year.
Other features include a waterfall and sandstone wall for painting with water, a globe that turns on a fountain of water and a greenhouse where children can learn to grow plants and water them using a handpump nearby. Children will be encouraged to help plant and care for the plants, including some edible ones.
Eventually, there will be a live willow tunnel, but Mills said they are waiting for the willows to be the right size. Domes will have climbing vines on them by next summer, and children will be able to enter them and sit beneath the plants in the dappled light, Mills said.
“It’s important because you have to have activities for all types of kids,” Mills said. “There’s kids who want to jump all over, and there’s kids who want to look at butterflies.”
To that end, Mills said the garden was designed with pollinator plants and to have areas for more contemplative enjoyment, where youngsters can interact with plants, smells and textures. At the other end of the garden, there’s a natural play area.
The $3 million garden was funded almost entirely through philanthropy, with the Anthony J. Fox Family Foundation serving as the lead donor. According to Litton, the project also was funded through a variety of other foundations and families, which are listed on the gates entering the garden.
Rob Fox said after his son’s death, the Anthony J. Fox Family Foundation was formed in his memory, with children as a focus. Grace and Carter Fox, two of Anthony Fox’s children, were among the family members who attended the opening event.
The Anthony J. Fox Family Foundation donated a house and 42-acre property in Canfield to Mill Creek MetroParks. The decision was made to sell the house and property, with the proceeds from the sale used to pay for more than half of the children’s garden project. Then when the project needed a little more, the family helped again.
Rob Fox said it is important to make sure the garden lasts forever.
“This is a better place, if you think about it, for remembering our son than going to a grave,” Fox said.
The Anthony J. Fox Family Foundation Children’s Garden will be open during daylight hours when Fellows Riverside Garden is open.
Read the original article at The Business Journal.