Photo courtesy the Royal Horticultural Society, copyright 2008.
We came across
this lovely garden inspired by
Where the Wild Things Are and thought it was inspired in the truest sense. Sendak frequently puts a great deal of care into the illustrations of plants, and since he's sort of the Joseph Conrad of children's literature (a self-confessed
misanthrope) he has managed to blend his sense of the dark jungle of the soul with something mystical, magical, and innocent that all children can relate to as a source of wonder - the moon. Landscape designer Tiggy Salt did well to emphasize this in her garden layout with a gorgeous leaf-shaped boat containing a whimsical crescent moon scuplture, as well as capitalizing on the very evocative transformation of Max's room into a jungle.
There is also a
series of photos Salt uploaded to Flickr outlining the construction of the garden. Not as gardener-centric as we'd like, but it does give you a sense of the steps involved in such a project.
We're giving away copies of Scholastic Video's wonderful collection of Sendak's animated adaptations on DVD, which includes
Where the Wild Things Are,
In the Night Kitchen, and the Nutshell Library series. For an entry in the giveaway, tell us what book - for children or adults - you'd like to see inspire a garden, one you could visit or one for your own backyard. If it already exists, tell us about it!
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I’d love to see the Zipparumpazoos (from Mercer Mayer’s Professor Wormbog in Search For The Zipperumpazoo) cavorting in a garden. I’m not sure it’s even in print any longer, but I just dug my copy out of my mom’s attic for my little girl.
Oh, our children’s museum just put together a literary-inspired garden, and it’s very cool.
Personally, I’d love to have a Very Hungry Caterpillar garden… inspired by the bold colors and vibrant style of Eric Carle’s artwork I would include various fruit trees for the fruits the caterpillar eats through, and lots and lots of butterfly-attracting flowers to make it the perfect home for Hungry Caterpillars and Beautiful Butterflies. I can picture it now… can’t you?
It is pretty clichéd, but I would love to see a garden of The Lorax by Dr. Suess (at least before the environmental disaster occurs). The post also reminds me a movie I saw recently called Greenfingers (2000). It is based on the true story of a group of prison inmates who compete in the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. It stars Clive Owen and was a very enjoyable pro-gardening film (although it is rated R).
Definitely Alice in Wonderland! I’m sure it has probably been done somewhere, but that is my favorite story of all time and I would love to see it come alive in garden form.
Piseco - an Eric Carle garden would be amazing! Do you know there is a museum dedicated to him in Mass.....maybe they have a garden?
I agree with Chandra, an Alice in Wonderland garden would be fantastic! Personally, I would love to see a Lord of the Rings garden.
Is this a lovely idea! The Costal Maine Botanical Gardens are working on creating just this type of fun (see http://www.mainegardens.org/events/For-Kids.php).
I was there this summer and they had a variety of kids gardens, wonderful little fantasies made by local companies. If only I had that gardening talent.
But to the quesiton at hand: I don’t think I have one answer. Based on our what the Maine gardens are doing, One Morning in Maine and Blueberries for Sal see like good bets. But around here Jamberry is a current favorite (elephants skating on strawberry jam).
Looking through my son’s collection of books, I’d have to say the jungle forest in Elmer by David McKee. The plants are all so colorful and larger than life with big leaves and lots of different textures. Kids could even have fun re-enacting another Elmer book, Elmer and the Lost Teddy, where Elmer hunts for a teddy bear that is lost in the jungle!