‘Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row’
Children are natural scientists. They are curious, inquisitive and generally ask lots of questions, either verbally or by the expressions on their faces and in their bodies. Gardening with children is a botanical science, as it encourages them to explore, hypothesise, experience new things and learn about the way the world works. It is also scientific from a biological perspective – we know from all the research about spending time outdoors that being in nature increases oxytocin, the feel-good chemical that helps calm and settle people.
Gardening is a fabulous learning experience for children. There is much to explore with the opportunity to dig in soil, find bugs, and analyse plants and their life cycles, including investigating seeds and bulbs. It also allows children to observe the cycle of the seasons: in the ELC garden, we talk about the seasons as defined by First Nations cultures (which are different in different parts of Australia), the four-season calendar we use in our temperate climate in Melbourne, and how this is flipped between the northern and southern hemispheres.
As they discover with hands-on – or hands-in-soil – activities, it can get quite messy and dirty! Importantly though, they develop their fine motor skills as they make tiny holes for planting seeds and seedlings, and their gross motor skills with the strength needed to pull out the weeds and dig big holes for large plants.
They must learn patience and responsibility as they wait and care for the plants, which includes watering, weeding and noticing changes and developments. Here, they are discovering the science of ecosystems, weather, insects and pests.
All of that is a huge amount of information, research and learning!
There are so many ways to offer children gardening experiences, like small container gardening, hessian bags for potatoes, herbs on a windowsill, or the old favourite of watching a broad bean sprout in a jar with cotton wool (you can also do this using a carrot or turnip top on damp cotton wool on a plate). These activities present so many wonderful opportunities for children to think and theorise, to come up with questions and support their wonder and curiosity about the natural world: ‘How long do you think it will take to grow?’, ‘How do you know which is the bottom or top of a bulb?’, ‘Why do worms wiggle?’
In the ELC, we value gardening with children – the opportunity to be hands-on connecting with the soil and wondering with them about nature and the natural environment. There is still plenty to do in a garden in the winter, and the natural healing powers of being outdoors applies all year round. Let us know about your gardening experiences with your children.
Some of you might enjoy a visit to the Ian Potter Children’s Garden at the Botanical Gardens during the holidays – it is a truly magical place.
Happy gardening and happy holidays.
Wendy Seidler
ELC Director – Kew campus
