By Francesca Filanc, for Let’s Talk Plants! December 2024.
Storybook Land Inspires Miniature Gardens
As a child, our whole family including my grandparents went to the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California, for my eighth birthday. We stayed overnight at the original Disneyland Hotel, and we used the monorail to travel to and from the park.
Walt Disney coined Disneyland, “the happiest place on earth” where everybody is a kid for the day.
As a child, I daydreamed that I would grow up to work at Disneyland. Watching Walt Disney on TV in the Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night was a family affair, and Disneyland was a magical place for a small child to experience. I was enchanted by all of the rides. One of them was initially called Canal Boats of the World. I am just now reading the history of the ride. The ride was originally designed to be reminiscent of Holland. Walt Disney had visited Holland, and he was so enchanted by all the canals and windmills that he was inspired to make a ride with canals. They had a lot of problems with the boats in the beginning and the nickname for the ride was “the mud ride” by the people who worked at Disneyland. Many times, humans had to pull the boats along, and so the under-landscaped banks were all muddy. Automated boats had not been invented yet. After two years, Walt Disney changed the name to Storybook Land Canal Boats and the idea of going through the whale’s mouth was from another idea Walt Disney had for another ride that was never built. Gardens were designed and plants were planted to the water’s edge where the mud had been before from pulling the boats.
According to Wikipedia, “the muddy banks were landscaped with miniature plants, including a bonsai tree planted by Walt Disney himself.”
There is a knot garden and different beautiful gardens that go with the storybook characters and houses. A person can just imagine the storybook characters in their houses and castles as you pass by in a boat.
Cruise through the mouth of Monstro the Whale into a magical land of Disney movie locales—all in miniature.
Storybook Land Canal Boats is still one of my favorite rides at Disneyland as an adult. Storybook Land at Disneyland came to mind when thinking of writing this article about making miniature gardens for Christmas or Hanukkah gifts or just for your own pleasure or with a child or a friend.
A few years ago, one of my daughters made miniature gardens with her children for the whole family for Christmas presents. They are such a lovely gift from the heart. You can buy little miniature items to go into your miniature garden. Succulents and moss are lovely to use and it is such a creative experience to do with friends or with children or even by yourself with your pets enjoying watching as you create an inviting miniature garden that takes you into your imagination of books you read as a child such as Toad Hall or Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, the Three Little Pigs, Peter Pan, Cinderella’s Castle or countless others that you remember from your childhood.
For me, the experience takes me back to Disneyland as a little girl and also as an adult watching my children and grandchildren enjoy creating these works of art to display on a garden table or in your home.
While meditating with nature on a garden swing with the dogs about, Prince is lying next to the swing and Daisy Mae is in my lap, I hear frogs croaking… or do I hear Toad from Toad Hall? Who knows….
Happy holidays and have joy making miniature gardens to give as gifts or just for your own enjoyment.
Happy Gardening!
~Francesca
Artist, author, photographer, fly-fisher woman, Francesca Filanc grew up in old Del Mar and these days lives, paints and gardens in historic Olivenhain with her two dogs.
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Have gardening questions or want to learn more about Francie’s art? Contact: Franfilanc@gmail.com
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