Gardening

Learning about gardening

Whilst Granny is staying with us, we have been tackling our poor, neglected garden. She is a keen gardener and was enthusiastic about helping us. So, we had a trip to the local garden centre to stock up on new plants, then the work began.

Charlie was Granny's assistant. He has already shown an interest in gardening, keeping pot plants in his room and enjoying growing his own carrots. He is much better than me at remembering to water them. He is convinced plants have feelings and gets very upset when we walk on daisies, believing that it hurts them. This has been an opportunity to teach him about the physiology of plants, but his opinion that they have emotions remains unchanged.

With Granny's help, he learnt how to transplant the flowers from their pots into the soil, adding compost where needed and watering them. He planted geraniums, nemesia and lithodora amongst others.

I have appointed him Head Gardener and entrusted him with the responsibility of watering the plants every day.

Apparently, gardening is soon to be introduced onto the National Curriculum , a move that the Royal Horticultural Society has been proposing for some time. It will be taught as part of the Design and Technology curriculum, although it is cross-curricula in its breadth of teaching: all sorts of subjects can be taught through gardening.

But Charlie doesn't care about any of that. He just enjoys making things beautiful again, nurturing his plants and spending time with his Granny.