Turn a playground into an outdoor classroom with native plants!
Amanda Hegg
"Don’t just tell children about the world. Show them"-Penny Whitehouse
How to Navigate this Website
Scroll through this webpage to find helpful information and pictures about native plants and nature-friendly landscape design for playgrounds. Use the menu above to navigate to specific parts of this page by clicking on each topic.
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"We need to provide our children with natural settings in which to play, learn, and thrive. We need to help them form emotional bonds with the abounding beauty of flowers and trees, rivers and streams, critters and clouds. We need them to be fascinated by these things, to grow into close and careful observers of the world around them, to feel not only appreciative but protective, and to be prepared to live their lives accordingly. This is a public health strategy, an environmental strategy, and educational strategy … and a path to the future we want.”—Howard Frumkin, MD, PhD, Dean, University of Washington School of Public Health
Monarch butterfly
Common Yellowthroat
Creating a Natural Playground
Natural playgrounds include elements such as:
Logs to practice balancing
Streams and ponds
Sensory garden (colorful plants that invite kids to touch, smell, & taste)
Herbs such as sage, mint, lavender, rosemary, thyme, and lemon balm are popular
Boulders
Digging areas
Climbing feature or hill
Tunnels or simple shelter
Bird houses & feeders
Native grass maze
Native flowers that attract pollinators
Natural playgrounds can take many forms, and can suit any budget or space! Toggle through the gallery below for examples.
Raised garden beds
Click on the white arrow to toggle through photos.
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Resources & Examples
Stick Creek Kids Natural Playground- Wood River, NE
Since 2020, Rowe Sanctuary has worked with Stick Creek Kids, an early childhood development center in Wood River, NE, to create a playscape with native plants to encourage nature play and learning and support local pollinators and birds. Scroll to learn more about the project!
Move the center circle left and right to view before and after photos of the Stick Creek Kids sensory garden in Wood River, Nebraska.
May-August 2020
We started designing the native plant playscape at Stick Creek Kids and cleared rock and shrubs from a circular bed in the playground. This will soon be the sensory garden!
May-August 2020
We cleared rock and installed mulch and logs in a bed adjacent to the sensory garden.
May-August 2020
Stick Creek Kids volunteers built a mud kitchen!
May-August 2020
They also installed a cool music area!
August 2020
We built a spiral herb garden and installed plants such as sage, mint, lavender, rosemary, lemonbalm, and thyme.
September 2020
We selected a variety of Nebraska native prairie plants (with bloom periods spanning from spring-fall) from local nurseries, laid down compost and 4" of kid-friendly mulch, and installed plants. Fall is a great time to install native plants in Nebraska.
October 2020
We also installed stepping stones with numbers and nature designs!
May 2021
Community members joined us for the Stick Creek Kids Grand Opening! Plants were still pretty small, but not for long!
May-August 2021
Raised gardens began to grow! The kids love trying the fresh veggies and fruits!
June 2021
Our native plants are starting to establish in the sensory garden.
August 2021
Our Purple Poppy Mallow, Liatris, Purple Prairie Clover, and Obedient Plant are blooming! We plan to leave seed heads on grasses and flowers over the winter for birds to eat.
April 2022
We cut back dead flower stalks leaving 18-24 of stubble to provide nest cavities for stem-nesting bees.
August 2022
Plants installed near the entryway are blooming nicely! We planted Butterfly Milkweed, Sideoats Grama, Indiangrass, Cardinal Flower, Purple Poppy Mallow, White and Purple Prairie Clover, Thickspike Gayfeather, Purple Coneflower, Prairie Dropseed, Junegrass, and Showy Milkweed.
August 2022
Thickspike Gayfeather planted near the entryway is growing tall and strong!
Moving forward
We will continue to maintain areas with native plants by hand-picking weeds, refreshing mulch, adding more plants, and thinning plants that are spreading more than we'd like.
Next up- the infant toddler area
In 2022, we will plant an Eastern Redbud, sedges, and milkweed in the infant toddler area. Pictures coming soon!
Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa)
Downy Wood Mint
Purple Coneflower
Obedient Plant
Joe Pye Weed
Spiderwort
Shell leaf penstemon
Thickspike gayfeather
Giant Goldenrod
Purple Poppy Mallow
Purple Prairie Clover
Butterfly Milkweed, Sideoats Grama, and Cardinal Flower
Plants in the Stick Creek Kids playscape. Click on the "i" icon in the upper left corner of each picture for the plant species.
