The Beanstalk Children's Garden
This could be you!
The Beanstalk Children’s Garden: Provides nutrition and environmental education to Kansas City’s youth in a unique urban garden setting, using a STEM-based curriculum tailored to meet the needs of all learning levels. Children gasp with wonder as they engage all five senses to experience the garden’s six unique areas: Vegetable, Fruit, Herb, Grain, Curiosity, and Water, tasting in-season plants and becoming inspired to grow their own food.
Mid June to Mid October
Mon-Fri: 9am-5pm
Summer Saturdays: 9am-12pm
Closed Sundays
NOTE: Only Self-Guided Tours are available on Saturdays
Guided Tours are $2/person
Self-Guided Tours are Free
Donations Accepted
To book a tour:
Email: nikki {at} kccg.org
Phone: (816) 931-3877 ext. 320
If you don’t receive your tour confirmation by email within 3 business days, please call us that number above.
The mission of the Beanstalk Children’s Garden is to inspire young people to make healthy food choices as they see, smell, touch, and taste growing plants.
All of the Beanstalk Garden programming takes place in the Beanstalk Garden. Today’s students are active participatory learners. In the Beanstalk, they observe, infer, ask questions, and think reflectively in all of its six gardens: The Vegetable Garden, The Fruit Garden, The Herb Garden, The Seed and Grain Garden, The Curiosity Garden, and The Water Garden.
Beanstalk staff guide visitors’ interactions with plants growing in the garden. Activities incorporate nutritional experiences with growing plants as the seasons change.
Your students will:
Walk through gardens full of flowers, herbs, veggies and grains at your leisure. Smell the lavender. Taste four kinds of mint. Pick a fresh raspberry. Admire the multi colored coleus. Peek into the gourd house. Feel the Lamb’s Ear, but not the prickly cactus.
Kansas City Passport to Adventure: Bring your passport or pick one up when you come. Answer the Beanstalk question in your passport book to get a destination stamp. Not familiar with KC Passport to Adventure? Visit KCpassport.com.
Admission is free for self-guided visitors - just check in at the office!
Additional Tour Info:
- Guidebook is available for self-guided tours.
- Garden paths are paved and fully wheelchair accessible.
- All plants are labeled with names and information.
- Picnic tables are available with reservation.
- The Beanstalk Garden is an approved field trip site for Girl Scouts to complete badge requirements.
- Homeschool groups may call for special tours and educational opportunities.
- Donations are appreciated!
The Beanstalk Garden Staff
Lois Hutchins
Beanstalk Garden Coordinator
Favorite vegetable? Sungold cherry tomato
Favorite garden? Grain Garden
Favorite plant to show kids in the garden? Sensitive Plant, because it’s like magic.
Nikki Schaper
Beanstalk Garden Assistant
Favorite vegetable? Swiss Chard
Favorite garden? Vegetable Garden
Favorite plant to show kids in the garden? Toothache plant, because I love seeing the surprise on kids’ faces when their mouths go numb.
Stacy Lasley
Greenhouse Coordinator
Favorite vegetable? Lunchbox peppers
Favorite garden? Water Garden
Favorite plant to show kids in the garden? Mulberry tree, because it’s ripe early, it tastes good, and produces an abundance of fruit.
Angie Waterman
Beanstalk Garden Assistant
Angie has always loved helping people, and has been working at it for 27 years through Red Cross, disaster relief, and homeless populations. She has always had a passion for gardening and comes from a long line of gardeners. She is used to caring for acres of gardens ever since she helped in her grandparents garden in Alabama as a child.
The sections of the Beanstalk Children’s Garden include:
• The Vegetable Garden is filled with colorful plants that inspire children to make healthy food choices.
• The Fruit Garden is bursting with both common and uncommon berry bushes and fruit trees.
• The Herb Garden features different types of herbs used in cooking, fragrances, and medicines.
• The Seed & Grain Garden contains seed and grain plants such as corn, oats, soybeans, peanuts and popcorn.
• The Curiosity Garden is an exciting place for children to experience unusual plants like the sensitive plant.
• The Water Garden is home to fish, frogs, and water plants such as papyrus, water lilies and cattails
Some of the special plants at the Beanstalk Children’s Garden:
Cotton
Eucalyptus
Peanuts
Lemon grass
Popcorn
Cilantro
Sunflowers
Sweet potato
Sweet sorghum
Figs
Gourds
Strawberries
Butterfly bush
Raspberries
Hardy cactus
Toothache plant
Giant hibiscus
Mouse melon
Lavender
The BEANSTALK Children's Garden Girl Scout 2019 Badge Schedule
The Beanstalk Children's Garden, located at our Swope Park Community Garden at 6917 Kensington, is a unique and fun field trip destination for children of all ages.
Badge Workshops
Daisies – Outdoor Art Maker Badge – Finding Art in All Aspects of Nature
June 8th, 2019 10:00am – 12:00pm
Use all your senses as you explore our garden, making note of all the colors you see and sounds you hear! Then, try your hand at painting a landscape of your favorite plants, creating a maraca with recycled and natural materials, and learning the basics of Leave No Trace.
Brownies – Bugs Badge – Observing Insect Habitats
September 28 from 10:00am- 12:00pm
October 12: Session 1 from 10:00am- 12:00pm
October 12: Session 2 from 12:00pm-2:00pm
Bugs: find out how we can't live without them. Look for bugs in their garden habitats. Learn how to use a field guide to identify insects. Sort out "good" bugs and "bad" bugs for gardeners.
Take your Bug Craft home and share your bug expertise.
Brownies – Snack Badge - Snacks from the Garden
June 8th, 2019 10:00am – 12:00pm
Get your snacks fresh from the garden instead of the corner store. Check out the plants in the gardens for sunflower seeds, popcorn, raspberries, and mini tomatoes Create a snack sampler and learn how to prepare a healthy garden recipe. Plan with friends what you will plant for a harvest snack party.
Juniors – Gardener Badge – Creating Your Own Garden Design
June 8th, 2019 10:00am – 12:00pm
Walk through the gardens full of flowers, herbs, and veggies then get started designing your own garden. It can be a large container or your whole backyard. Learn how sunlight, water, soil, and space, as well as experience and cost are essential to good garden designs.
Juniors – Flowers Badge – Creating a Neighborhood Flower Guide
July 20th, 2018 10:00am – 12:00pm
Flowers bring beauty, joy, perfume, medicine, seeds and good nutrition to our lives. Observe the many different flowers in the fruit, herb, grain, vegetable, curiosity, and water gardens. Become a flower expert making your own personal Neighborhood Flower Guide.
Cadettes – Naturalist – Trees
Sept 28th, 2019 10:00am – 12:00pm
Come relax in the shade of our many fruit trees. After learning all about trees and what they can provide for us, use your detective skills to identify which tree is which by their leaves. It’s harder than you’d think! Finish the day by designing your own tree house and tree garden and doing a tree craft with all-natural materials.
Cadettes – Eating For You Badge– Find Out How Healthy Habits Can Help Your Beauty Shine Through!
June 8th, 2019 10:00am – 12:00pm
Can making healthy food choices really increase your energy? Do antioxidants and proper hydration give your skin a natural glow? Is added sugar really hiding in your favorite snacks? Find out the answers to these questions and more, while learning some new recipes and tasting an easy-to-prepare healthy snack!
There is a $3 fee for each girl. Adults are free. Badge not included.
Please remember to wear tennis shoes. Sunscreen and water bottles are recommended.
To book a tour:
Email: nikki {at} kccg.org
Phone: (816) 931-3877 ext. 320
If you don’t receive your tour confirmation by email within 3 business days, please call us that number above.