A Magical Storybook Come To Life: Bookworm Gardens
A Mixture Of Horticulture And Fairy Tale Literature Bring Classic Children’s Stories To Reality In A Fantasy-Like Landscape For All Ages
Ever wonder just how wild a wild rumpus with the Wild Things really is? Or what life must have been like on the dusty prairie in The Little House in the Big Woods? Or how the three little pigs felt huddled in their homes while they were blown down by the big bad wolf?
Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, has uniquely blended horticulture and literature to bring classics children’s stories like these to life. At the Gardens, storybooks jump off the page and become places to explore, allowing visitors of all ages can engage with them.
“About 17 years ago, a local Sheboygan woman Sandy Livermore was at a photography [event] in East Lansing, Michigan,” Executive Director Elizabeth Wieland says as she gives the history of the Gardens. “She was at a children’s garden in East Lansing taking pictures and they happened to be having a story time. So a volunteer came out with a book and just started reading. As [Sandy] was observing this, children just flocked over to the volunteer and were rapt, listening to this story. And she said that’s when it came to her; that’s when she had the idea to deliberately build gardens based on children’s stories.”
What came next was a decade of hard work and community collaboration. Funds had to be raised, board members found, and the garden spaces designed. Once a site was located, it had to be cleared of shrubs and invasive species.
With her background in architecture and landscape design, Sandy was instrumental in the early designs for the gardens. She also worked closely with well-known landscape architect Herb Schaal to complete the garden plans. The first books to use as inspiration were chosen by local librarians, teachers, and reading specialists.
In the fall of 2009, the Bookworm Gardens were opened for the first time. They have continued to expand over the years, and today, they house more than 70 garden spaces, each inspired by a different children’s books.
“[The Gardens are] also divided into gateways and each gateway has a theme,” Wieland explains, “So for example, there’s the Animal Gateway. Each of the books in that gateway have something to do with animals and when you enter the gateway space there’s a stone pillar that houses the physical books. We laminate the books and put them out in the gardens. The idea is that you come in, you pull the book, you sit in and experience or interact with the space that was inspired by the book, and you have a very holistic experience of both the book and the garden space.”
Each garden space is designed very intentionally. Some have more literal interpretations of the book, such as the purple flowers that fill the plot inspired by Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. Others are more interpretive; the Degas and the Little Dancer garden, for example, encourages dancing and movement. Still others are very interactive, such as The Three Little Pigs garden, where children can crawl through each pig’s house to reenact the story they know so well.
The plants are also chosen intentionally. Gardens and Facilities Manager Allissa Montgomery deliberately connects the horticulture with components of the literature story. For example, one of the plants in the Three Pigs garden is called Pig Squeak.
The plant life throughout Bookworm Gardens is yet another educational aspect of the space.
“We have over 1,000 species of plants in the gardens,” Wieland continues. “As a botanical garden, we also strive to have translatable practices in the gardens that visitors can take home with them and do in their own spaces. Like rain garden spaces, where you have areas that get a lot of water and plants that can have wet feet. In our farm gateway, [we] show composting and raised beds and try to grow a large variety of vegetables and illustrate some of those sustainable gardening practices. Our mission is so fun that way to be able to explore both the education and literature side of things.”
A few new gardens are added every year, the books used as inspiration carefully chosen by a committee.
Wieland describes the process: “The Book Selection Committee is made up of librarians, reading specialists, our staff members, teachers, parents, and in the past, a child has had their input, as well…. As we add additional gardens, we think about what holes there are, what areas do we not have represented...what is the age group [we might be missing]? We try to hit a large age range, and include fiction and nonfiction…. We try to be very inclusive.”
This year, Bookworm Gardens is opening two new spaces. The first is inspired by the book Look Up by Annette LeBlanc Cate.
“It’s a bird watching focus,” Wieland says. “We have a set of binoculars and have taken advantage of a corridor along the ravine edge, putting a bunch of bird feeders in, and then you can watch the birds from the binoculars and observe how they’re eating and moving and listen to their calls.”
The second new space for 2017 is the result of a collaboration with local schools Wieland explains.
“We have a program called Readers Roundup, which got a total revamp this year and turned into having classrooms submit a design for a book in a garden space at Bookworm. The winning school, it’s a first grade classroom out of Racine, then gets to design the garden space and it will be installed in Bookworm for one year until the contest runs again. It’s the first garden that will switch over or change. It’s also the first garden that will have direct input from the schools or classrooms that we see so frequently. The book that won this year is called Drum Dream Girl [by Margarita Engle and Rafael López]. The infrastructure in the space is all done, but the garden itself will be installed by the classroom when they come visit us later this month.”
In addition to programs like Readers Roundup, the Gardens host six weeks of summer camps, as well as a family festival each month. The festival’s theme changes with the season.
“In June is the Pollinator Picnic. We collaborate with other members of the community, the Beekeepers Association, and other people in Sheboygan that are doing cool things. There’s something called the Fairy Folk Festival in July, which is an especially fun one because all of the kiddos come dressed up as fairies or gnomes or elves. It’s really adorable. In September it’s called Harvest Happenings. In October is our biggest one. It’s called Happily Haunted Gardens.... We put twinkle lights up all over the gardens. And when you come you get to see all the twinkle lights plus go trick or treating at stations throughout the gardens.”
Last year alone, Bookworm Gardens welcomed 60,000 visitors during their open season from May 1st to October 31st. That number doesn’t include the school children that took field trips during that time, which last year was around 5,200 students.
In order to keep all these programs alive for their visitors, and meet the operational budget of the Gardens year round, Wieland relies on funds from many different places. While there is no charge for regular admission, the public and community play a large part in keeping the Gardens running. In addition, guided tours, rental spaces, field trips, individual and corporate memberships, and an annual fundraiser help to bring in the money needed for the operating budget. And of course, Bookworm Gardens also runs on the generosity of hundreds of volunteers who do everything from helping with educational programming to working in the gardens.
All these components--donors, fundraising, school trips, family festivals, the dedicated staff and volunteers--work together to achieve Bookworm Garden’s mission to enrich lives. Wieland has an exciting task before her as she carries on this tradition and considers the future of Bookworm Gardens. Her focus is on expansion--a new gateway, new book gardens, and more programs for more visitors. The impact she sees the gardens having on children and adults is encouragement to carry onward.
“It’s so much fun to see [kids] read the story book and see the physical space or garden...and make those connections,” Wieland reflects. “But as much as it’s about the kids, it has that same effect with adults, too. Part of our mission talks about the young and the young at heart. So we really try to inspire any visitor of any age that is coming to the garden. Certainly kids get a huge kick out of the garden spaces and many of the components are child sized, but it’s just as much fun walking around with a group of grownups and seeing them relive some of those childhood favorites. It’s just a very magical experience in the garden.”
Kailyn Clay
A graduate of Trinity Christian College with degrees in English and Political Science, Kailyn has written for GEMS Girls’ Clubs, Spark Hire, The Grand Haven Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, and other sources. She enjoys reading, writing, and camping.
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