Summit Community Gardens finalizes plans for new children’s garden

Children play in the Summit Community Gardens' children's garden. Photo: Summit Community Gardens.

PARK CITY, Utah — The Summit Community Gardens have finalized plans for a major upgrade project to their children’s garden. With the addition of an outdoor classroom, play area, imagination land and a growing area, the idea is to more effectively utilize space and make it more fun for the children who attend their garden camps.

“We have a lot of plot renters who have kids and would benefit from a place for the kids to run around and play while they’re in the garden,” Executive Director Sloane Johnson said. “Although we do have the park right nearby, having something inside the garden, it’s a more natural playscape and the play is kind of more geared towards digging in the dirt and climbing on logs and more natural scapes, so we thought it would be nice to have.”

When Summit Community Gardens hosted their regular kids camps in years past, they often found themselves relocating outside the garden to the nearby park due to the heat and for a better place to hang out. But now, and in addition to these new areas, the garden will also be adding some shade structures in order to provide a more adequate and comfortable area to entertain the children with activities.

With several new areas, the camps will provide children the opportunity to look after their owned raised beds, artwork showcases, and different types of garden projects that they’ll be able to watch develop to later show their friends and families.

“Whether it’s bug hotels or learning about how worms mix all the sand, they can come back and see what they’ve been working on whenever they go visit the garden. So I think that’s one of the biggest draws, is just being able to see the work they’ve put in and the progression of their work throughout the summer,” Johnson added.

With all the plans set in stone, the garden will start their fundraising efforts with an overall goal of $50,000. To kick things off and promote this new project, the garden will be promoting it at their big opening weekend party on May 21. Attendees will have an opportunity to purchase a stepping stone, which they can decorate, in order to support the cause.

As for now, sign-ups for their spring after school program for elementary students have begun. The sessions run for eight weeks from April through June and are held Monday, Wednesday and Fridays after school. They will also be holding leadership programs for children between the ages 12-16 from May to September. A link to more information can be found here.

Construction for the new children’s garden will begin this spring and after being paused during the summer, will continue next fall with an expected completion in spring of 2023.