Annette Montoya, garden designer
I am a retiree and a veteran. I’m actually a combat veteran, which has allowed me to attend UConn under the GI Bill with a tuition waiver. I started off studying horticulture, discovered landscape architecture, and then found my passion designing children’s gardens. I created an individualized major: Landscape Design for Cognitive Development, which takes a multi-disciplinary approach to creating gardens for children, integrating the principals of developmental and cognitive psychology.

During the course of my studies, I have read numerous academic articles that advocate using a multi-disciplinary approach to create children’s gardens. How can one design a garden for a child if they don’t understand that child’s developmental needs? Multiply this by numerous children, at various stages of development, with a variety of developmental needs. In this case I would propose that, for the landscape professional, the “client” is the child rather than the one who holds the purse-strings.

I am also a mother, a step-mother, and a foster-mother. I care deeply for our children and for our earth. I believe that there is a critical need to get our children into nature and to bring nature closer to our children. The goals of this project are 1) to create a garden that encourages cognitive development and experiential learning through sensory stimulation and self-directed play; 2) to design a garden that is not only aesthetically pleasing but physically engaging; 3) to build a garden that is accessible, magical, and captivating to both the young and the young in spirit; and 4) to establish a garden that draws people outside and creates a lasting connection to nature and the community.

This blog is a means of bringing these goals into the public forum, to encourage readers to participate in the creation of this garden (even if they never step foot in it), and to entreat others to create similar spaces for their children in their own communities.