When visiting the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens with kids, the Children’s Garden itself is easily a full adventure. Add in a troll hunt and other gardens you’ve got a full day! There is a lot to unpack here so I’m going to give you a quick rundown and then talk about each of the areas in more detail below.
First is the giant trolls, there is one in the gardens by the entrance and the rest are distributed throughout the forest areas. You’ll want to visit the Fairy House Village while you’re out there. Second, there is a Children’s Garden that could easily be your whole day. There is all kinds of interactive things for littles to do including a playhouse with a kitchen inside, lots of books and water play. Lastly, the rest of the place! Highlights include the five senses garden, the butterfly house and the apiary. Finally, I’ll share my strategy for our visit and how we did navigating the place. We saw all the trolls, spent time playing in the Children’s Garden and walked around the other gardens.
The Guardians of the Seeds: Giant Trolls at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens with kids
There are many layers to the giant trolls experience. On the surface, it is a nice walk in the woods and the trolls are amazing to behold in person. Step a little deeper into their story by making it a troll hunt! Each troll has a name, personality and passion to go along with them. There is an information plaque at each laying it all out. Each one gives a clue to the location of “the secret seeds.” Visit each troll and you will have what you need to solve the puzzle. If I am remembering correctly, the clues are letters that you put together.
There is a much greater message here as well: the “Teachings of the Trolls.” The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens has laid out a wonderful story and purpose around these giant trolls. If you love making adventures an educational experience, this is your jam! The trolls teach about biodiversity and taking care of our environment. Learn more about the artist behind the trolls – and the other trolls that are throughout the world!
They aren’t forever!
The trolls are meant to decompose naturally. I heard estimates as small as five years and as long as ten years. They were finished in 2021 so get your troll hunt on the books!
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Children’s Garden
The beautiful Children’s Garden brings all the interactivity you would expect at a children’s museum outside and into the gardens. First, if you are there on a hot day, this is where you will find water to get wet and cool off. There is a “splash pad” type water feature with shady swings so you can relax and take a run through the whales squirting water. Further into the garden is a water pump and watering cans. All kid-scale so they can pump water to fill up their watering can and then water the flowers around them.
There is Mr. McGregor’s Garden, a large vegetable garden with big labels and paths for children to discover. Next there is a small barn with books to read – this is also home to the garden’s story times and puppet shows. The playhouse looks like a small cottage with a wooden kitchen and play food inside. All adorable.
There is a small pond which features a station that lets children drop a line in the water and reel it back in as well as a rowboat (on land) they can climb into and row. Everything is designed in a way that lets children get up close to the water to see plants and maybe a frog or two!
A highlight you cant miss is the “Back Woods.” Welcome to the playground! A large wooden treehouse has rope bridges and ramps, cool balconies and a climbing wall. If you start here…you’re going to be here awhile! Right down the hill from the treehouse is a musical area with a mixture of wooden and metal instruments like xylophones and drums. The music is right around the corner from the first troll, Lilja.
The Rest of the Place!
My personal knowledge level of gardening and plants is aspirational; I am learning right alongside my kids. For that reason, I didn’t have anything that I personally really wanted to see; The caretakers of this beautiful place repeatedly blew my mind with the beauty they created around every corner. (If it is important to you as a gardener to see a certain installation, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens website has a great run down of all their gardens here.)
For a family, I would make a point to check out the Butterfly House, the Garden of the Five Senses, and the Apiary. The butterfly house and apiary are obvious – you can’t beat butterflies and bees! In the butterfly house the staff (possibly volunteers?) was very active in engaging us in conversation and pointing out things we otherwise would have totally missed. I saw caterpillars I had never seen before – that I didn’t even know existed. Very cool stuff!
The Garden of the Five Senses is not only beautiful but it is designed with elements for all five senses. A few examples are fragrant flowers and herbs for smell, a water feature for hearing, and a textured labyrinth of stones for touch. There is also a covered area with tables and chairs here if you need a snack stop.
Now we need a strategy: Plan your route through the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens with kids
Trolls. Lunch. Nap/Children’s Garden. Rest of the Place/Children’s Garden.
The plan was to get there right at opening and head to the trolls first. This plan, plus some luck along the way, and we had a great day soaking up the place for 6 hours. SIX HOURS!
The Giant Trolls
By heading to the trolls first, we avoided most of the crowds that are sure to form around each one. We were at the edge of the woods visiting Lilja at 10am. By the time we got to our 5th one, around 11:30am, there was a crowd. It took some waiting and wrangling to get a photo with just our group in it. There was also less opportunity to just relax and enjoy the scale and grandeur because we didn’t want to step into other people’s pictures – which also meant children having less freedom to explore as they pleased.
The first troll, Roskva, is near the entrance and easily accessible. We swung by her and then walked over to Lilja at the start of the woods. There is a shuttle stop right by her and – this is the huge assist – we hopped on the shuttle to bring us all the way down the long stretch, to the furthest stop in the Rhododendron Garden.
From there it was a beautiful and do-able hike uphill to Gro and then over to Soren. We took the Maine Woods Trail (not stroller friendly) to the Fairy House Village where we stopped for water, snacks and wandering. Then it was an easy, short walk further down the road to Birk. At this point, someone had to go to the bathroom (Hint: Stop at the porta-potty by Soren, oops!) so we jumped back on the shuttle for a quick delivery back to the bathrooms in the Family Education Center.
The Stroller Situation
In order to take the shuttle, we left the stroller in the car for the trolls portion of the day. I had a toddler in a carrier and a walking 5 year old. You do not want to try and navigate the trail between the waterfall & Gro with a stroller, nor can you go on the Maine Woods Trail. Both include steps and small, windy ways, but are easy, well maintained trails.
That said, most of the garden is built to be accessible so the majority of paths are equipped for strollers, wheelchairs and even the golf cart shuttles. If you don’t need the shuttle (i.e. no walking kids) and stick to the main trails, you can make it to all the trolls with your stroller, it will just take longer.
After a lunch break at the Cafe, we walked back to the car to get the stroller because my toddler was on the loose and I could feel my patience leaving my body. We navigated the rest of the day around the gardens just fine with the jogging stroller. There was a stone step here and there that we negotiated with little to no trouble.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens with kids: Children’s Garden and The Rest of the Place
Once we got the stroller, it was nap time. (This is the luck portion of the day.) A relaxing walk through the gardens let a hard, much needed, stroller nap happen. While the little one slept recharged, the rest of us enjoyed playing in the Children’s Garden.
After nap, water and more snacks, we meandered over to the Butterfly House, stopped at the Apiary installation and then finished out the day at the Children’s Garden. This area is so open-ended and engaging, I recommend ending here – or having one grown up take the child who is D.O.N.E seeing flowers to hang out here while the rest of the group keeps going. My crew was exhausted but around every corner they found something else that they had to check out. Eventually I had to make the executive parent decision to end it. Remember – SIX HOURS later!
Quick Facts: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens with kids
- Before you go: Read Peter Rabbit so they can appreciate the Children’s vegetable garden.
- What to bring: However many snacks you usually bring, triple it.
- Mostly stroller friendly.
- Small “splash pad” whale statue that squirts water.
- Grab & go style Cafe with indoor and outdoor seating.
- Huge parking lot
- Official address: 105 Botanical Gdns Dr, Boothbay, ME
