This garden was founded in 2001 by the all-volunteer Children’s Garden Committee, which is made up of King Co. Master Gardeners along with other horticultural experts and community members. The garden’s original design was created with ideas generated from the hearts and minds of local children and their parents at a series of design sessions. Throughout the years, the committee has continued hosting design sessions with groups of children, resulting in the addition of multiple new garden features, many with a watershed ecosystem theme. Magnuson Children’s Garden is now filled with delightful places such as a life-size Grey Whale Garden, spiral paths leading up to a Lookout and a Rolling Hill, a Starfish Garden, Willow House, Salmon Survival Path, Pollinator Garden, and much more.

In recent years, the Children’s Garden Committee has been especially focused on making the garden more accessible and welcoming for visitors of all ages and abilities, and from all cultures and ethnicities. Additions towards these goals include child-size and adult-size wheelchair-accessible picnic tables, signage and self-guided exploration cards written in the 10 most-common languages of the surrounding community, and wheelchair-height raised beds in its “Snack House” berry garden and in adjacent 400 sq. ft. p-patch plot. 2021 garden additions include wheelchair-accessible crushed rock pathways that link to all garden entries and to two multi-language “All Are Welcome” murals.