Johannesburg - Weekends and school holidays are an opportunity to spend time with your children in the garden and instil a love for plant and animal life.
Environmental educationalist Dr Di Goodwin says: “Gardeners and nature lovers know they should spend time with their children, but often they don’t know exactly what to do when exploring the garden with their children”.
Goodwin explains there are five stages in a child’s development and in each stage there are appropriate activities in the garden. “The stages are just guide lines as to what your child can cope with at a particular stage in their development”, says Goodwin.
“The stages can overlap, so never pressurise your child into doing something he may not be quite ready for at that moment. Encourage and enjoy, but never force. We also need to remember that children do not think in the same way as adults.”
STAGE 1 (0 - 18 months)
The senses play an important role with young children until the time a child begins to talk.
Between the ages of six and nine months, babies are able to explore many things with their eyes and hands as well as with their mouths.
When you are outside together, let him reach and handle natural objects such as rocks, leaves, sand, sticks, pine cones, flowers and fruit. As he does so, describe what he is doing and the way things feel as well as giving the things names.
If your child is mobile let him scout the area. “Scouting” uses the child’s natural curiosity. It exposes him to a variety of materials so later on it will be easier for him to sort materials into groups. It also aids his power of observing likes and differences which will pay off when he begins to read. He must be able to tell the differences between say an “e” and a “c”. Although he cannot tell likes and differences yet, the more experience he has exploring, the easier that will come.
STAGE 2 (18 months – 5 years)
A child learns a great deal about his immediate environment during this stage. During this era, experiment with the concept of taste in the garden, but be careful that what your child puts into his mouth is safe to taste.
Let your child taste many things, such as lemon juice – from a lemon (sour); nectar from the honeysuckle flower (sweet), and aloe sap from the leaves (bitter).
Your child should know that a lot of plant parts are safe to eat, such as lettuce leaves, tomato fruit, nasturtium leaves and pansy flowers, but stress that he must check with you first before he tries to eat any plant because some plants are poisonous.
STAGE 3 (5 – 7 years)
A child begins to group things and can recognise the properties of objects. The concept of taste can be taken further as nearly all our food starts from a plant growing in the soil.
Start baking with your child. Discuss where the sugar (sugar cane), coconut (coconut palm), flour (wheat), oats and cocoa (cocoa tree) come from and where and how these plants grow.
STAGE 4 (7 – 13 years)
By the age of seven, children can imagine classes and series in their minds without having to work it all out in action.
Planting is central to a child’s development during these years.
Winter-flowering seedlings, such as pansies – which are not only edible but also colourful – are ideal for planting now.
Help your child choose a suitable site. Let him dig the soil over to about 25cm, add a bag of compost to every 2m2 of soil, and water this very well.
Take him to the nursery and spend time viewing the varieties. Show him the different labels in the seedling trays and help him to understand the codes.
Back home, water the seedling tray well before planting.
Make a hole in your bed big enough to hold a seedling plug. Remove the plug and show the child how to firm the plant in the ground with his fingers.
Let him water the soil thoroughly and regularly according to the needs of the plants.
Growing and nurturing plants in the garden will give children an appreciation of nature. They will learn, by association, that forests take decades to grow and that undisturbed kloofs filled with pools of water and tree ferns are very special.
GENERAL GARDENING
TIP
Help conserve water by collecting rainwater off roofs and channelling into tanks. Instead of letting rain and storm water disappear into storm drains, mulch the soil to encourage it to soak into the ground. You can also make use of low-lying areas in the landscape to collect run-off and provide a place for moisture-loving plants such as arums and tree ferns. If the area is large enough, this could be made into a pond.
PLANTING
Planting water-wise hybrid cultivars like the new Coreopsis ‘Pineapple Pie’. Grow waterwise plants wherever possible. SA plants needing minimal water: arctotis, agapanthus, Bauhinia galpinii, bulbine, bulbinella, Tecoma capensis, dietes, euryops daisy, felicia, gazania, plumbago.
PLANNING
Now is the time to plant spring-flowering bulbs for colour in early August. Bulbs should be planted at a depth of three times the actual height of the bulb. Space large bulbs 10 to 15cm apart and small bulbs 3 to 5cm apart.
POTTING
Cyclamens are now in flower and are fabulous potted decor accessories. After buying your cyclamen, fertilise every three weeks with a water-soluble indoor plant fertiliser mixed at half the recommended dosage. Over-feeding won’t produce better blooms but rather more foliage. - Saturday Star