The interactive garden in the courtyard of Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh is a magical place where 2- to 8-year-olds can learn about the science and artistry of horticulture. After my first visit, I'm convinced that the future of gardening is in capable hands.
Sharon and Jim Bright raised four children and have eight grandkids. They also ran a nonprofit preschool for troubled children for 13 years.
"We didn't have a nest egg when we retired from the preschool," Sharon Bright said. "The museum is in walking distance of our house, and we took part-time jobs there basically to help any way we could and keep the exhibits clean." Between 600 and 2,000 children visit the museum every day, and she considers herself the resident "mother hen."
Sharon Bright suggested that the "dismal swampy area" in the courtyard be transformed into a garden spot, and Angelo Randaci, Wake County's newest Cooperative Extension Agent recommended his wife, Carol Wentz Randaci, to design the garden. The Randacis are transplants from Sarasota.
The museum's exhibit manager, Chris Alexander, was in charge of building and installing the hardscapes and credits Carol Randaci's dynamic design for keeping visitors moving, entertained and active in all the garden's spaces.
Sharon and Jim Bright agree and added that the project evolved through a community effort that will nurture the kids who visit the garden for years to come.
Those efforts have resulted in Castaway Cove Kid's Garden, a maze of meandering pathways, bordered with split cedar logs that divide the garden into Peter Rabbit Farm, Jack in the Beanstalks, Edible Rainbow, Fairy Hollow, Bounty of Herbs, a Pizza Garden and Diggin' Dirt Island.
An activity table is under a central pergola draped with a fire-engine red sunscreen. Vines of matching red mandevilla flowers climb the cedar log standards, and the gigantic leaves of birdhouse gourds wave in the breeze.
Seasonal vegetables and flowers were planted by tiny tots who visited the museum on planting day last spring.
"My 3-year-old daughter, Tess, planted an eggplant that day," Chris Alexander said. He added that Tess so enjoyed her museum gardening experience that "she wants to visit her eggplant every time she comes and insisted that she plant veggies at home as well."
Sharon Bright says that the garden attracts adult walkers, office dwellers on their lunch breaks and even homeless people who stop to admire and compare the gardens to ones they remember from happier times.
Because adults must be accompanied to the museum by a child, I thought about borrowing or renting a preschooler for future visits to the museum's garden, but I decided instead to volunteer my artistic skills for a planned indoor undersea exhibit.
Soon I'll be painting colorful coral under the sea, and, right outside, I can glimpse a garden that's watered and cared for by thousands upon thousands of tiny hands.
