ECEC Gardens

This chapter has been a speculative fabulation that connects gardens, children, and ECEC teachers’ experiences with the ways some bodies are reified, and intersectional bodies are marginalised. The art of noticing shapes the ways we see ECEC garden place-spaces and reveals the diverse nature of gardens and how we might see these differently. Thinking and walking-with fish and sea mammals provided a point of departure for the tension between a small village hall garden, environmental sustainability, and children who were simultaneously capable and helpless. The Angel with one wing highlighted the challenges of inclusive practice (which is a core part of the ECEC curriculum) with the legacies of the UK&s;s colonial past. There are also tensions between public/private place spaces for childminders who work from home and have to balance work space and home space. Finally, the financial decline of cities and towns, predominantly seaside cities and towns, has accelerated as advanced capitalism takes a stronger hold. This chapter considers those places-spaces that provide some insulation from seaside poverty, declining town high streets, and low-paid employment.