By garden, I don’t mean acres of beautiful raised beds, full of well rotted manure and compost and teeming with worms! Children can grow an enormous variety of delicious vegetables and fruits in a small series of pots in a sunny spot. I speak from experience –last year my two children and I had a steady harvest from about 10 pots of various sizes along the sunny edge of our balcony. The children grew purple carrots, chocolate capsicums, white zucchini (Lebanese), delicate Japanese eggplants, basil, parsley, raspberries and strawberries as well as lettuce, peas and purple runner beans, Black Russian tomatoes as well as other varieties and colours of tomato.

Almost every day we could go out on to the balcony to ‘harvest’! My two year old daughter would not eat shop bought carrots, only the ones from our garden, ditto with beans. Most of the food did not make it to the kitchen – it was munched on the way inside!

I was amazed at how little work was involved – the plants were watered with water from washing fruits and veg as well as buckets from the shower (waiting for the water to get hot). We had absolutely no insect problems at all until I planted some broccoli seedlings which brought their own caterpillars with them! The caterpillars did not spread to any other of the plants though and the children loved picking off the poor creatures and mercilessly dropping them over the balcony to the bushes below!

The concentration, fascination and joy of my children watching their food grow – in caring for it and reaping the reward was priceless.

It was seeing their passion and the innate connection which children seem to have with nature which encouraged my sister and I to start a gardening club for children, Sprouts Growing Gardeners . We have members all over Australia who receive information packs, project cards, heirloom seeds and various other goodies every season. Members are encouraged to send us pictures and stories about their gardening efforts and these are shared with other members through our website. The enthusiasm of the children has been overwhelming and we are lucky enough to witness this enthusiasm face to face when we hold workshops at various sustainability festivals and at other venues.

It is marvellous to see a child take a seedling they have just potted up in a pot they have made to their parents and to see the pride on their face and hear them telling their parents that they want to plant it out in such and such a place! We really do have to give responsibility for the environment to our children, we must teach them how to feed themselves, how to share produce and seeds and build community. Children seem to relish being given this opportunity and what could be more fun to them than being able to get their hands dirty and reap the reward of ripe strawberries straight off the plant?!

WORDS: Clare Nickson