I haven't gotten all holiday this and gift list that this year; a lot of blogs are cranking out a lot of shopping lists, and I hope they make a lot of money doing it.
The kid, though, is making her list, and though we've checked it several times, one item on it has us stumped. She wants a garden, but not a real garden. She wants "a plastic garden with pretend flowers and trees and plastic dirt."
Half of me wants to get a wooden garden, and half of me wants to get a plush/stuffed/cloth garden, and none of me wants to get a plastic anything. That said, the closest I can find so far is on DT advertiser Sparkability's site, a magnetic, stacking Play Garden, which looks a little too zany to me. Plus, it's $74, which seems pricey. Damn that euro exchange rate...
Any other ideas out there, short of a trip to Michael's? I'd like to think it'd be another 80 years at least before the kid started arranging silk flowers.
Play Garden, $74 [sparkability]
How about this set from Playmobil:
Playmobil 3134 Superset Flower Garden
[yeah, we've been trying to find it; it's been discontinued. another reader, Farrell, who's a landscape designer, also suggested it. -ed.]
Kids surplus has a couple of playmobil garden things on clearance:
http://www.kidsurplus.com/itemDetail.asp?item=69%20PMO%204481&catid=725&fromsearch=true
http://www.kidsurplus.com/itemdetail.asp?item=69%20PMO%204480
I'm kind of infatuated with the greenhouse myself.
[I'm looking for the flower garden, but I got the greenhouse, #4481, just in case. Apparently, you can plant real seeds in it, too. There's also #4482, Plant Beds with Garden Shed, which is pretty great, and the shed matches the kid's portapotty. Playmobil is freaking me out in a not-all-bad way right now. -ed.]
If you want to get a little more creative you could just load up a shopping cart on the lego site with ala carte trees, shrubs, and flowers. Of course, still plastic, but a little more landscape architect than cat lady.
[she asked for Legos, too. maybe for her birthday -ed.]
At our waldorf play group the teacher just showed us her moss garden (that sounds dirty than it is), and it actually looked pretty cool. She makes one for the class and leaves little wooden figurines or pretty stones or crystals in it. It was probably a two foot round basket with rocks/soil on the bottom, and two types of spongy moss on the top. She said she just goes to a local garden center and they help her set it up.
Do you know how long it took me to figure out what the initials to this site are?
If your daughter wants a plastic garden, she probably really wants a plastic garden, even if we think it would be cooler if it was some kind of real garden. Maybe a plastic greenhouse could be justified in some sense, though. Yes, you did too ask for a plastic garden and this is one.
Hate to have that kind of talk on Christmas Day.
My child is older and I'm here to warn you that that plastic stuff hangs around looking cheerful for so long that you want to smack it, melt it do something with it. All that plastic cheerfulness will haunt you forever. But your plastic garden does look a lot better than those dead plants in my window that I can't seem to get rid of either.
[lol, clearly, playmobil is not plastic, but some kind of magic happystuff that makes up the tiny, buyable soul of every creature and object in the universe. and sorry about the initials thing. -ed.]
Our almost-four-year-old daughter got the Plant Bed with Shed for Hanukkah together with some of the other sets. (Unrequested, from an aunt and uncle.) She has pretty good fine motor skills - but a lot of these pieces are TINY. So far, not much interest in it - but maybe since the Peanut actually asked for it, it will be a bigger hit at your house...
[yeah, the one comment on Amazon from a grandma suggested the blizzard of tiny pieces in the Flower Garden was more appropriate for a 40-yo than a 4-yo. -ed.]