Growing Food and Kids

Most kids would give anything to have a sprawling tree house of their own in the backyard. But if they can’t, the next best thing is to play in someone else’s tree house. At the Huntsville Botanical Garden, the Tremendous Treehouses exhibit is just the place for kids to adopt a tree house for a day.

A few weeks ago, our family visited the exhibit, and the 11 tree houses planted throughout the gardens really are tremendous. Handcrafted by various groups and individuals throughout the city, each tree house is interactive and one-of-a-kind.

Some of my boys’ favorites included slides coming down from the tops of the tree houses, or a cozy loft accessible via a ladder to the top of the house. One tree house included a sandbox outside and chalkboard walls inside, with plenty of chalk for visitors to leave their artwork behind. We spent an entire afternoon meandering through the gardens and stopping to play in each of the 11 tree houses.

Along the way, we got to experience the gardens, which include a vegetable garden, herb garden, dogwood trail, nature trail, and numerous flower gardens. There’s also a fabulous children’s garden with activities and water features, great for cooling off on a hot day.

We’ve visited other botanical gardens before, but we loved that the Huntsville garden, while beautiful, seemed less formal than most of the ones we’ve seen. In a word, it was accessible. Visitors are encouraged to walk on the grass and hike off the trails into the wooded areas, so there’s no need to worry about children “messing something up.” Wagons are provided to pull your lunch (or your child) through the gardens.

Our house is about an hour away from the garden, but we definitely plan to return before the tree houses are dismantled in September. In fact, we’re now members of the garden, so we can go back anytime we want (for free) and in a way, we can call the tree houses our own.

What fun garden places have you visited lately?