PLANTING IDEAS IN YOUNG MINDS

How can we encourage children to develop an interest in gardening?

It appears that gardening is not something that children commonly describe as a hobby. Indeed a child's computer game based on successfully completing a growing season in a garden is unlikely to sell at a profit. Despite facing the challenge of correctly planting their virtual seeds, providing optimum conditions, defeating alien bugs and overcoming inclement weather, young children are unlikely to find the game appealing.

Why should this be so? Most children will reason that gardening is not very exciting and is an activity for older people. In a way they have a point. Very young children view gardens as playgrounds. The potent cocktail of raw youth, boundless energy and uncontrollable hormones tend to steer older children towards the most crowded and most noisy places they can find. Personally I have no problem with this and believe that children have a right to develop their own hobbies and interests. However, gardening is one of the most satisfying of activities and it would be a crime if we did not teach children to nurture and care for plants. A realisation that 'all flesh is green' does no one any harm and is probably the key to the survival of the planet.

Schools do pursue plant studies in their curriculum. For example national curriculum science includes studies of the life cycles of plants and explores, via experimentation, the optimum conditions for germination. Via fieldwork both science and geography identify and classify plants, compare plant habitats and explore the relationships of plants with other living things. Extra-curricular activities can offer opportunities for involvement in environmental and gardening projects and many schools have developed a conservation or garden area in their grounds. However, the school curriculum is a crowded and politically-driven vehicle. Teachers have a limited time to spend on plant studies. Furthermore, government educational policy over the last few decades has tended to view school pupils as future consumers rather than innovative producers. It seems western economy will be sustained by people who will buy rather than make! Children therefore are becoming more adept at reading produce labels than judging soil conditions.

As parents we therefore have a responsibility. To promote an interest in gardening among the young we must grasp opportunities to expose children to the wonderful world of plants. There are many subtle and unobtrusive ways we can do this.

A good starting point is to be more generally aware of the common plants around us. For example becoming more knowledgeable about wild flowers can make a family walk more interesting and provides an opportunity to pass on snippets of information to our children. This kind of activity is cost free and is possible in any locality. Drawing children's attention to plants can be started at a very simple level. For example does your child know the humble daisy derives its name from day's eye? The dandelion's name derives from dent de lion - a French description of the leaves meaning tooth of the lion. How tall is a dandelion? Have you ever thought to look for a specimen one metre high? Have your children smelt the pineapple of a mayweed, the aniseed of fennel, the almond of gorse? Have they used fingers to trigger the explosive seed dispersal of Indian Balsam? Do they know that plant stems can be round, square or triangular? Do they know which plants they can eat and which they should avoid? Do you?

Most families enjoy the benefits of a garden but relatively few involve their children in the planning, planting and care of their plot. Providing an area of the garden for children to 'sow and grow' is relatively simple. Impressive growers such as sunflowers are cheap and fun. What about growing something to eat? Children can get a real kick out of growing and eating their own produce. Incidentally, the apparent re-emergence of the allotment as a British institution is really good news. If your garden is too small to develop as fully as you would like why not consider an allotment? It is a great way to grow your own organic produce and involve your children in. a bit of digging and growing! Of course they may spend most of their time hunting worms and eating the strawberries but at least it is good all-round exercise and a very low-cost, environmentally-friendly family enterprise.

Of course the viewpoint that children are not interested in gardening could be totally erroneous. As successive generations develop the overall proportion of enthusiastic gardeners may remain a mysterious, pre-ordained constant. It may be that we need to do nothing. However, although it is probably both futile and undesirable to force the idea of gardening on unwilling young minds, it must be right to provide opportunities for learning. The young like varied stimuli, instant gratification and guaranteed success. Gardening is about careful procedure, patience and learning from failure. A dichotomy exists. All we can do is, without pressure, promote a general awareness, provide information, offer experiences and emphasise the importance of all things green. In this way we provide choices. Many children will choose to ignore or even rebuff your efforts. Most will retain some of the knowledge you have passed on. A number will become keen gardeners and gain many years of pleasure from their own efforts. It is this latter group that will make our efforts worthwhile.

Steve Wathen, Deputy Headteacher, Broadstone Middle School

Archive Winter 2003 | next

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