Date: Fri 14-Jun-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Quick Words:

Suburban-Gardener-Children

Full Text:

(`Burban Gardener column on gardening with/for children, 6/14/96)

Suburban Gardener-

On Children & Gardens

By Anthony C. Bleach

In 1908, Gertrude Jekyll wrote Children and Gardens . She thought it was of

paramount importance to introduce children to nature's joys early in life. A

kindergarten - a school for developing minds of the children by object-lessons

and toys - was a fashionable institution then, and what better classroom than

a sort of miniature Garden of Eden?

Miss Jekyll felt the pure fun of digging in the dirt was the real key to

getting children involved. Carol Knapp, youth education specialist at the

Denver Botanic Gardens, says gardening "gives [children] a sense of

accomplishment and teaches them how to plan, how to think things through."

She suggests this gloriously mucky activity: A worm farm. Cut the top off a

plastic milk jug; discard the top. In the bottom of the jug, put a layer of

soil then a layer of organic materials such as leaves, grass clippings or even

old lettuce from the refrigerator. Follow this with another layer of soil,

then another layer of organic matter. Do not mix up the layers.

Spray or sprinkle the whole thing with water and keep moist, but not sopping

wet. Put six earthworms, available from fishing tackle stores, on the top

layer. They will soon move down into the organic mixture.

Next, lay plastic on top of the farm and put it in a dark spot. Watch the

incredible journeys of the worms through the sides of the jug. Around

midsummer, release the worms outside, where they help aerate soil and break up

organic matter to make better gardens.

Children will also enjoy "real gardening," but most will soon get discouraged

with adult gardening tools. Miss Jekyll realized this. "Children should be

provided with proper tools," she wrote. She suggested child-size versions of

trowel, spade, rake, hoe, blunt weeder, bucket, small wheelbarrow, rounded

scissors, gardening gloves and hat.

Leonard Yannielli, who teaches at Naugatuck Valley College in Waterbury, has

gardened with his two boys for years. He recommends they grow any

quick-maturing crop, the best being radishes which can be sown at any time,

are pest-free and can be consumed in six weeks. You can use radishes for

almost immediate gratification, but more exciting yet is to grow a root crop,

which is then lifted from its earthy tomb to the great joy and surprise of

all!

Lenny planted sweet potatoes with his radishes last May and recalls what an

exciting experience it was. He tells me the most important factor to success

in getting the kids involved is your attitude. Let them do it in their own

eccentric way and don't worry about the yield.

But whatever you do, never leave them alone. Tools should be carefully

demonstrated and any not suited to them should be forbidden. Do not have

garden chemicals around. Plants which need support should have tall stakes,

not short ones which could cause eye injuries.

Be sure to check children when they come indoors for ticks, insect bites,

poison ivy or other allergic reactions. Train them to wash their hands.

Gertrude Jekyll, thinking back to her own youth, wrote that she thought at the

time there were "...only two types of people in the world... children and

grownups... and that the world really belonged to children. And I think it is

because I have been more or less a gardener all my life that I still feel like

a child in many ways."

The Victory Garden Kids' Book by Marjorie Walters has a lot of good

instruction and is the result of fairly intensive study with a group of

children.

(Anthony C. Bleach coordinates the horticulture programs at Naugatuck Valley

Community-Technical College in Waterbury.)