DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET Preface When we published our first edition of this book in 2002, we never would have imagined where we would be today and the changes we have seen in the years since we started gardening with young children. When we wrote our first edition, Hollyhocks and Honeybees: Garden Projects for Young Children, our work was based on our experience building and living with our gardens at the Child Development Laboratories at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Our work began with our roles there. Sara was the director of the program, Marla was the master preschool teacher, and Karen was a landscape architect and an associate professor in landscape horticulture, as well as the parent of two preschoolers. We began our journey gardening together when one of Karen’s graduate students, Jessica Chambers, proposed building a series of children’s gardens as her master’s thesis project. Jessica developed a wonderful design for the gardens, and before we knew it, families, staff, university faculty, and commu- nity members had joined in to make our garden come to life. Over the course of the next five years, the garden became a key part of our curriculum from spring through fall. We initially wrote Hollyhocks and Honeybees to share what we had learned from that experience both because we had a lot to share and because it had been difficult for us to find quality materials on gardening with young chil- dren. We feel like we succeeded at that task. As we look back at our first edi- tion, it reflects the work we did and the wonderful times we had at the Child Development Laboratories. But we have moved on. Sara is now an associate professor in Human Environmental Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. She has con- tinued to follow her interest in connecting children to nature through her involvement in many activities, including participation in the World Forum Foundation’s Working Forum on Nature Education and membership in the COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL ixix