​Chicago Park District cuts ribbon on first-of-its-kind children's garden on West Side

It's a brisk Thursday morning at the Garfield Park Conservatory, but that doesn't seem to bother a group of second graders.

"It's really fun!" they said. "In class we're studying botany, and we want to see more trees. We can see the different trees. We can see the photosynthesis, and we can learn about how the trees change color in the winter and the fall."

They are the first to experience the Conservatory's new Child Wild Exploration Garden.

The project led by Chicago Park District Director of Conservatories Mary Eysenbach was in the works for 20 years.

"The idea is that we make a place that kids think is wild, but we also needed their caregivers to feel comfortable letting their kids go off an adventure, like an off-leash area for kids," Eysenbach said.

She said the idea for the park was born from her career working in parks and seeing the important role nature played in kids' lives.

"I think it's evolution," she said. "From a biophilia point of view, we know that nature supports our lives. We know that kids who experience green settings show better impulse control. They show better recovery from stressful situations."

She said the garden is is the first of its scale in the country to sit in the middle of an urban, densely populated neighborhood. It features natural landscaping, interactive discovery zones and custom shade structures.

"This is so important in the heart of the city because there are a lot of kids we know who actually never leave their neighborhood," she said. "So the concept of them being able to go to a place that is 'wild' is not realistic. They have to be able to walk to it."

She said ultimately, the goal is to replicate something similar in cities across the country.

"I think as as as we've gotten the Industrial Revolution and now the technical revolution, the further and further that we've gotten away from nature, the more it's become sort of acceptable, but it isn't acceptable," she said. "It's just really critical that we have an example here in the middle of the city where we can tell everybody across the United States, 'Hey, you can do this.'"

She said she also hopes the garden will be a setting for memories made by children and their families.

"I hope they remember it. That's what I want," she said. "It's kind of building lifelong memories of these experiences. So they want to seek them out and they want to provide them for their children."

The garden is free but reservations are needed to visit. The hours will be the same as the Conservatory. Reservations are available online.