Kids’ Valley Garden is a hand-coded gardening website created by Louise Larabie, with original graphics and web design by her son, Ray Larabie. Its cheerful illustrations, handmade lettering, and tiled garden backgrounds have welcomed young gardeners since the early days of the web.
Planted in Eastern Ontario
The garden grew from Louise’s work with young gardeners around Pakenham, Ontario. That local beginning matters: the site was shaped by cold winters, changeable springs, warm summers, and the practical ingenuity of a rural community.
Louise received the Ontario Horticultural Association’s Best Junior Leader Award in 1997. She died in 2012, but her garden lives on. The Pakenham Horticultural Society has told Ray that it still uses the site to teach children about gardening.
A garden restored
In 2026, Ray began rebuilding the site so it would work well on phones and modern computers. The restoration keeps Louise’s voice, original pixel artwork, Croteau lettering, bright colours, familiar page addresses, and slightly wonky garden paths.
The gardening guidance was also rechecked against current, reliable sources. Every article tells you when it was reviewed and shows the sources used. Adult-help notes now stand beside activities involving sharp tools, garden products, heavy lifting, food safety, or other extra care.
How to wander here
- Follow your curiosity. Start with a flower, bug, vegetable, or garden problem; there is no required order.
- Try an observation. The best activities ask you to look closely, compare, draw, measure, or keep notes.
- Garden where you are. Louise wrote from Eastern Ontario, but every yard, balcony, school plot, and climate is different. Use local forecasts, current plant labels, and your own garden journal.
- Ask an adult. Whenever a page carries an adult-help notice, make that part a team activity.
Credits
- Louise Larabie: original gardening content and the heart of the project
- Ray Larabie: original graphics, site design, maintenance, and restoration
- Rina Larabie: editing, spelling, grammar, and tidying the original site
Kids’ Valley Garden remains available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License shown at the bottom of every page.