A Miniature Village is Built in a Day

It was the last school garden class on Monday and I had forty grade three students descend on the Ladner Community Garden. The children were very excited when they arrived as they knew we were having a fun day at the garden.

I had set up four stations with identical items for the children to use in their section of the garden. The garden was divided into four sections so I wondered if ten children could agree on what  their section would look like. This would be a lesson in teamwork and cooperation. I had gathered small figurines, farm animals and coloured stones from my local thrift shop over the school year. I gathered up some twigs from my garden, some string, scissors and any other little items I thought they could use.

It soon became a very busy group of students scrambling to get their gardens done. The children had painted the wooden chunks in a previous class. The wood had been the tops of our fence posts that had been cut off during building last summer. Yes, I saved all that leftover wood. It had to be good for something. One lesson I did learn is painting with acrylics is very messy but the children had a blast.

The boys had all sorts of ideas for their gardens.Some took ideas from the popular game, Minecraft, and others just did their own thing. The yellow building was supposed to represent a butter factory. Is that a gang-plank I see over the buildings? Now that’s a scary thought.

I love the colours the children used on their buildings. I had suggested they do a garden to represent where they live perhaps. Maybe recreate a small part of Delta. Here I see an ice cream parlour and some other shops. We even have some farm animals.

Now this little figurine is so cute. I love her little raincoat and hat perfect for our rainy west coast weather.

Oh look , this garden has a pond with ducks and a table for two for some outdoor dining. I think the tiny lady of the house will like this tranquil garden. It’s perfect for a tea party.

Looks like this farm has a few critters in it.I hope they all get along.

Before the children built the miniature village, they planted flower seeds to attract pollinators to the garden. They know the importance of bees in the garden. Check out the beautiful poppies giving the garden so much colour. These plants were planted, stepped on and abused and they still kept on growing. You have to love these self sowing beauties. I hope they drop lots of seeds and return for years to come.

I had to take a photo of this garden. Looks like we have a purple theme going on and check out the flowers by the front door.

The miniature village has a mulched pathway going through the center for easy access. It allows us space to get in and weed the garden while school is out for the summer.

I hope you enjoyed this tour off our miniature village. The village will remain here until winter rains arrive. I usually remove most of the figurines over the winter and bring them out again in the spring. The new class that arrives in September will love to see this garden for the first time.