Gardens designed for keiki

Advertiser Staff

Kids gaze at Nellie the giraffe, found at the entrance of the Animal Garden at the Pearl City Urban Garden. The Animal Garden and seven other children's gardens celebrate with a grand opening Saturday. Children's Garden grand opening Urban Garden Center, Pearl City 955 Kamehameha Highway (enter from the diamondhead side of the Home Depot/Public Storage parking lot) 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday Free 453-6050

The public is invited to take part in activities including tours, hands-on crafts, learning activities, entertainment, door prizes, a mini sale of produce and plants, and more.

The 55,000-square-foot Children's Garden consists of eight theme gardens, showcasing various plant displays that are educational for children and adults alike.

For instance, the Pizza Garden serves up a five-slice "pizza" that measures 15 feet across and includes green pepper, sweet pepper, pineapple, onion, tomato, parsley, basil and sweet marjoram. Swan daisies, with their brilliant yellow flowers, are the "cheese." Recycled concrete stepping-stones, painted red, represent pepperoni.

Other gardens include an Animal Garden, Hawaiian Alphabet Tree Garden, Sundial Garden, Sensory Garden, House Garden, Butterfly Garden and Boardwalk Garden.

Construction of the Children's Garden began in 1999 based on the ideas of Dale Sato, Urban Garden Center manager. About 200 garden center and community volunteers and more than $16,500 in grants have helped make the project possible.

"More than 1,500 children tour the Urban Garden Center's vegetable garden, herb garden, ground cover collection and fruit orchard each year," Steven Nagano, project manager for the Children's Garden, said in a news release. "Now they have a set of gardens built especially for them."

The grand opening will feature:

• Activity books that allow children to participate in activities at each garden and learn about the plant displays.
• A Fish Pond, where children can catch aquarium fish to take home.
• A Keiki Craft Tent, for garden crafts.
• A Hedge Maze, in which children and adults can test their skills or view the hedge plants.
• Free animal cookies and "river juice" (green punch).
• Music by the group Us Guys.

Master gardeners will talk about the technical and practical sides of urban gardening, and provide answers and advice for home gardeners.

The Urban Garden Center officially opened in June 1994. It is a major community outreach site for the University of Hawai'i-Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and offers hands-on programs for clientele including elementary school students, senior citizens, home gardeners and agribusiness professionals.