Nature Play Garden, Highland Park

About Nature Play Garden

Nature Play Garden is a multisensory landscape where families run and climb across rolling hills, boulders, and natural features. The garden includes a willow tunnel, a runnel for floating leaves and stick boats, logs for climbing and hiding, and natural "rooms" formed by arborvitae and hornbeam trees. Sugar maple, aspen, and redbud groves shade the expansive lawn. Sweetgum trees produce rattling seedpods that create sound as visitors move through the space. More than half of the perennials were newly selected for qualities including color, scent, texture, and sound. The garden is part of the Regenstein Learning Campus, which hosts plant-based nature experiences and classes. Nature Play Garden is located in Highland Park, Illinois, as part of the Chicago Botanic Garden.