Some Things a Garden Can Be

Author: Dr. Carol Fraser

A garden can be an opportunity; it can be a habitat for insects; it can be a process that brings plants and children into bloom; it can be innumerable other things. The four dimensions I’ve written about demonstrate the enhancement that children’s curiosity and inherent experimentation bring to the basic opportunity.

Of course, the strength of focusing on the interrelatedness of opportunity, habitat, the process of gardening, and the apex of blooming is that through their gardening experiences, children can be directed to relate the food they eat to the plants they grow as they come to understand the roles of water, sun, soil, and insects. As you will find in my examples, combining gardening and children is magical!

John Seizes Opportunity
In this instance, the garden setting created an opportunity for a fourth grade student to have and try-out an idea.

For years an air conditioning unit had dripped on a sidewalk behind a building that abutted the western edge of the garden. The intense sun evaporated most of the water before it ran very far beyond the cement, but there was always enough to result in a bit of mud.

My students were adding compost to a flowerbed in the area one fall afternoon when one of them, John, stopped, starred awhile, and looked about. There was a bit of teasing about everyone doing their share of the work and the fact that class wasn’t over, when he suggested, “Let’s use the water dripping from the AC to water this flower bed!”

Other students’ responses were varied: “No, we couldn’t do that because we don’t have a ladder, and we don’t know how to attach a hose, and we don’t have a hose that’s the right size, and, and…”

The next day John came to tell me his father had agreed to help by providing materials to fulfill his vision if I would give him credit for working with the mathematics and physics of the project. Agreed. And a great idea was developed and implemented. We planted a lovely fern bed that required no treated water! What a great realized opportunity! And who knows – John’s idea of conserving or reusing water may have future applications none of us have dreamed of!

Billy’s Habitat for Metamorphosis
In this scenario, the dimension of a garden habitat containing native plants and their pollinators provided a student with the opportunity to observe metamorphosis, rather than just talking or reading about it. Billy, a second grader, experienced his own kind of metamorphosis of behavior thanks to understanding made possible by the garden’s gulf fritillary habitat.

Billy had upset his classmates by stomping on every insect he could find, especially caterpillars, all through the fall and winter months. As the gulf fritillary eggs on the passion vines in the school garden began to hatch, there were repeated teary stories from Billy’s classmates that he had stepped on caterpillars as they migrated from their food source to the fence where they formed their chrysalises. In an attempt to change Billy’s behavior, I talked with him about why he killed caterpillars and learned his mother didn’t like worms, and according to Billy, “They’re nasty.”

I read a story about monarch’s metamorphosis to Billy who, by the time we finished the story, thought monarchs sounded neat. After I showed him pictures of adult gulf fritillaries, which was the species we had at school, he agreed to help me raise one of our fritillaries from egg to butterfly, which he would release.

Billy selected one passion vine leaf with an egg on it; we watched the tiny caterpillar emerge; every day for three weeks he fed the caterpillar; we observed the diapauses, the color changes, the growth, and finally chrysalis formation. Then there was a long, trying time of 16 days before the adult butterfly emerged.

She was beautiful, and Billy was excited and proud. The afternoon after she emerged, Billy took the box that had been the fritillaries’ home, along with five of his friends, to the area of the passion vines that had a bed of pentas blooming in front of it. It was sunny and warm; the kids watched Billy release her from her box and fly up into the sky. She circled back and landed on a pentas flower to sip nectar before flying beyond the garden wall.

Billy’s enthusiasm for butterflies even in their caterpillar stage remains to this day. The habitat that made the gulf fritillaries’ life cycle observable had provided a child an opportunity to change his behavior and understand nature in a new way. The benefits to a child observing the natural world can’t be beat!

The Process: Amy’s Story
The third dimension of gardening with children – process – is possibly the most important. Amy, an adorable second-grader child deprived of oxygen at birth, illustrates this beautifully. She was somewhat unpredictable – some ideas and activities seemed okay with her while others didn’t appear to register.

As one of their earth science projects, Amy’s class practiced vermiculture (red worms converting vegetable and fruit waste to nutrient-rich “castings”). Each student was invited to build a habitat for, monitor, and routinely feed 20 or so red worms for an entire semester.

Amy diligently followed the requirements for all students involved in the project. She brought a recycled plastic container to school. She poked air holes in the sides and tore up and dampened newspaper for bedding. She set up her picture diary so she could record observed data from her red worms. Then – unexpectedly, she refused to touch or count the red worms that were hers to take care of. She watched her classmates choose their worms, participated in some of the naming, and overall was engaged but did no touching.

About half way through the semester, Amy came to me one day and asked if I would place her worms in the habitat she had made. Of course, I did so! Two or three weeks went by. The class and I were engaged in reading There’s a Hair in My Dirt! A Worm’s Story by Gary Larson, when I looked up and there was Amy, worms in the palm of her hand, asking me if I thought she should name her baby worm Charlie!

Amy still talks about her worms, and although her mother did not allow her to take them home at the end of the project, the process changed a little girl’s fear or hesitation into confidence and participation. Because the process of vermiculture was of long duration, Amy could take her time and develop at her own pace. She experienced responsibility and caring, and as her worms produced castings, success.

Amy’s process – limited participation at her own comfort level, curiosity tempered with shyness, and time and space to be herself – developed around the most basic of garden ingredients, the soil (or more specifically one method of creating soil). Because she was able to engage in her own way and according to her own clock, she experienced and loves “the garden.”

Ryan Blooms in the Garden
The fourth dimension of gardening with children is witnessing the parallels between the growth of children and their plants. I call it the blooming aspect. Blooming, the apex of the growth cycle for some plants, is also a term we use for happy engaged children. It is part of seed formation, botanically the beginning of the next generation, and describes well the development of a ninth grader named Ryan.

Harvesting rainwater has become a basic part of developing every part of the garden. In some areas, it involves building a short berm and in others (due to soil type, slope, or other features) the activity involves more earth moving and design.

In this case we were working with heavy clay soil in full sun with a significant erosion problem. The catchment design required a hole 2 feet to 3 feet deep and approximately 10 feet long. Digging in the dirt is hard work. It can be fun, it can be a challenge, and it can be a way to release energy when the classroom closes in or becomes too stressful. During the first month, students had randomly started digging but hadn’t gotten far when Ryan and his teacher approached me asking about something Ryan might do that involved hard work and would give him some thinking time. Viola! The rainwater harvesting infrastructure could be quickly finished.

Ryan dug and dug. He worked much of the day, stopping only for lunch and drinks. He dug too deep and too long, but kept digging. At the end of the day, I thanked him and marveled at the job he’d done. He’d worked really hard and hopefully had spent time thinking about his conduct.

The next morning I arrived at school and went immediately to the garden. Ryan and four of his friends were standing in the hole he had dug, and I heard him brag, “Look at what I did by myself yesterday! I’m Dr. Fraser’s hero!” And, so he was. What began as a student demonstrating marginal behavior had produced a feature in the garden about which he could feel pride, ownership, and a continued interest. The garden site was the opportunity, digging in the dirt was the process, and the accomplishment was that Ryan blossomed.

As I said in my introduction, and hope my stories have confirmed, gardening and children are a magical combination. I believe the individuality of each student’s gardening process validates the time and energy required to allow their development.

Obviously, the process of gardening covers a spectrum much broader than the examples I’ve written about. What’s important is not specifically what we try but that we try. So, develop a gardening idea with your students and experience it with your students. Who knows where it will go?

Dr. Carol Fraser is a passionate life long gardener who started as soon as she was old enough to weed the vegetable garden on her family's wheat and cattle ranch. She studied forestry and botany in college and since then has lived and gardened in 12 different areas of the United States. She has also had the opportunity to explore extraordinary gardens around the world. Carol entered the realm of youth gardening with her own children and has been active in 4-H clubs and with Junior Master Gardener programs, and currently develops educational water conservation programs for clients through her business, HEAD, INC (Habitat Exploration and Discovery). Her ultimate goal is to introduce children to nature so they will understand our human connection to the land and develop a sense of stewardship.

Carol is a member of the Kidsgardening Advisory Board, a group of youth gardening experts and advocates from around the country who provide NGA staff with ideas, suggestions, and feedback for kidsgardening.org.