Years ago, when we held Open Gardens, they were “adult only” as, with farm dams and machinery, we had no way to keep kids safe. One invitee asked to bring her eight-year-old grandson. “He adores gardening. He’ll be fascinated.”
The kid told me later it had been the best day of his life. While the adults listened to a two-hour talk then toured the garden, he slowly worked his way down the three trestles of afternoon tea, able to eat all the home-made biscuits, cakes, frittata, lemon tarts and varied sandwiches he wanted.
Kids are not natural gardeners. A true gardener is excited when they plant a dead-looking stick, imagining the apple tree it will be. Kids don’t have the experience to understand garden magic, until they are shown it: these tiny seeds will become a lettuce. Watch this avocado seed shoot, balanced on toothpicks over a glass of water. Then we’ll plant it and one day you’ll eat its fruit.
Kids are natural garden lovers. Humans — especially kids — are happier and calmer with green and growing things around them. Want kids to put the screen away? Give them a tree to climb. Sadly, all too many kids need to be taught how to climb a tree. They’ve never been shown, not given one that is easily climbable.
A few months ago, I invited a passing family to pick fruit in our garden. I looked back as the small boy said wonderingly, “Mum, is that a lemon? Can I really pick it?” His sister had already chosen and picked an orange. She looked as if she’d been given the crown jewels. When I was a kid, most people had a few backyard fruit trees. At least one in three had hens and most a vegetable garden.
I suddenly realised that the majority of today’s kids miss out on basic human joys. Houses take up most garden space. Parks have swings and slides and climbing nets. Kids need a tree far more than a net. We have more dog parks than spaces where kids can pick flowers and fruit, make mud pies or puddles and jump into them or discover the difference between chillies and strawberries. Pick it fast, before the birds, snails and millipedes get it first.
If adults vanished from the world, could today’s kids pick fruit and veg and grow them to survive? Have they ever camped in the backyard with the stars for a ceiling? Do they look out for the first star of the night? Watch the moon rise? Or know that birds sing at dawn, and why? This isn’t parents’ fault. We’ve let town planners bamboozle us, taking away green spaces so councils can have more power and money, and less green space expense. Green space isn’t a luxury. It’s a human right.
How to