On my last day at MSU I had a long walk around campus. It’s very beautiful, the Red Cedar river runs through campus and there’s a botanical garden (more about that soon), as well as the horticultural demonstration gardens and this children’s garden. (There are of course, many other features like actual buildings and the Spartan stadium…)

The children’s garden is one of the best designs I’ve seen in ages. There are themed beds, my favourite was the Peter Rabbit garden which included his blue jacket, but there was also a pizza garden, and an A-Z plant garden. Everything was child height and size, including the maze of conifers. There were clever water fountains, where you could get you feet wet but not fall in, water-lily’s with stone frogs nearby, a section growing wheat and oats and barley with a sheep. There were bird boxes and train tracks. There was also a school-yard garden, which is used for teaching school groups. It was just brilliant, and ever so inspiring.

There were lots of signs saying ‘please touch’ for beds of lavender and there were many different vegetables growing as well as fruit trees. There was even a resident chipmunk…