Night of D'Light funding children's garden

Funding for a new children's garden planned for the Botanic Gardens has been kick started by gold coin donations from people who attended the recent "Night of D'Light" event, a KidsFest activity supported by Christchurch City Council.

Night of D'Light was a captivating night-time experience set in the Botanic Gardens. Despite the inclement weather, 40,000 people turned up to see the fantastic light display and installation and raised more than $34,000.00.

Garden and Heritage Parks Operations Manager Jeremy Hawker says the experience was unique and children and adults alike were amazed and delighted.

"Children and families interacting with the colourful images, interesting sounds and visual elements made it a memorable experience. And the great thing is, that by coming along to that event, a new children's attraction is also made possible. The money collected is going towards a new children's garden that has been planned in the Botanic Gardens for some time now.

Children's gardens are becoming increasingly popular world-wide and come in various forms. The Christchurch children's garden will be a place for younger members of the community to connect to the natural world through exploration, discovery, and play. It will be next to the current children’s playground and design ideas include a tree hut, an edible tasting garden, a worm or insect garden, a place where children can do some gardening, play with sand, mud or water and some interactive learning stations.

"The current absence of a children’s garden is a noticeable gap in the facilities offered by the Botanic Gardens, especially considering the significant number of children and families that visit. In today's culture, with the trend to smaller sections and busy lives, not everyone has a backyard garden anymore. Children are the adults of tomorrow and connecting them with nature, in a hands-on way is important – children need to be able to explore, touch, taste and learn what makes a garden work and how that contributes to keep our planet thriving," Mr Hawker says.

In 2007, the Council agreed a children's garden will be created next to the current children's playground. Since then work has been underway looking into similar gardens around the world. Visitors will see some play elements being trialled from early next year. The Council has allocated funding for an upgrade of the children's area which includes this garden via the Long Term Plan.

Night of D'Light was a KidsFest event sponsored by The Press and ran after 5.30pm each night from Wednesday 8 July to Sunday 12 July 2015. Plans are underway for this event to return to Christchurch next year.

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