Kids glowing with growing in the garden

BY NICK KIDDEY NICKKIDDEY@NEC.ORG.NZ

It's no secret that gardening is surging in popularity, as people realise the multiple benefits associated with it: financial, physical and health-related, to name just a few. But it's also becoming increasingly popular with children, as recent media reports have illustrated.

I was privileged recently to be a judge for the Waimarama Community Organic Gardens' kids' garden competition. During our visits to these home gardens, we met some wonderfully keen young gardeners, some of whom had gone to great lengths to design, plant and source materials for their gardens.

These kids were equally enthusiastic about getting to eat the produce of their mini masterpieces. It was also clear that some parents were beginning to take more of an interest in gardening, spurred on by their children's energy.

One family that is involved in the garden competition and has embraced the gardening theme is the Olders. Colleen Older explained to me that she sees the gardening process as "a great practical way for the kids to reinforce what they are learning about science and maths" and that although they had been gardening at home for a while, they had really enjoyed the combined learning experience, even though at times it was "a lot of hard work".

The kids' garden competition was enabled by a grant from the Nelson City Council, which has also provided some financial support for the Kids Edible Gardens programme (KEGS) being run this year by the Nelson Environment Centre (NEC).

So why does the council want to support kids' gardening? I asked Karen Lee, Nelson City Council's Sustainability Co-ordinator, who told me that gardening fits with the council's sustainability policy through encouraging the "wise and effective use of our natural resources", but the key thing with kids was "getting them to love the world they're in, and to develop their own values".

"Kids shouldn't have to be warriors or worriers." Another supporter of kids' gardening is the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board's Nutrition and Physical Activity Programme, which has also provided some funding to NEC for the KEGS programme, as well as financially supporting many other schools across the top of the south to develop gardens and cooking programmes.

NPA programme director Helen Steenbergen says: "Gardening is great for helping kids establish healthy habits that can last them a lifetime", getting them active and giving them the opportunity "to get their hands dirty in a safe environment while teaching them the skills and knowledge essential for a long and happy balanced lifestyle".

"We know that if kids grow it, they will eat it – effectively ending the power struggle to get them eating their daily quota of vegetables."

It is certainly abundantly clear that kids who grow veges tend to have a greater appetite for eating them. On a trip to Blenheim late last year researching for KEGS (which has been run very successfully by Marlborough District Council for several years now), we were regaled with inspiring anecdotes of kids devouring their prize produce with glee.

One of these was a story of a teacher keen on harvesting a large broccoli head in the school garden, only to find half a dozen students caught green-handed stuffing it, raw, into their mouths. Perfect. Freshly picked broad beans are also, slightly surprisingly, a food of choice for these young gardeners – parents take note.

Although the KEGS programme in Nelson has only been running since the beginning of this term, there seems to be plenty of enthusiasm for it, as is being discovered by Sue Ware, one of the KEGS facilitators working in four local primary schools.

"Some of the schools have gardens already, but a few have gone from having absolutely nothing to being so into it they've made gardens straight away, with support from the whole school community."

Sue says that many kids instantly have specific areas of interest, with some loving sowing seeds, while others can't wait to learn about bugs in the garden. "One challenge is keeping everyone happy when some want to grow only red lettuces, while others only want to grow green ones!" One boy really wants to grow beetroot.

Patience may be a hard lesson for some young gardeners, with one first-time carrot-sowing student asking, "When can I eat my carrot?"

I can't help thinking that if among these green-fingered young people are our future leaders, the future will be as bright as the look on that grubby-fingered, carrot-eating kid's face.

The main impetus for getting the KEGS programme under way in Nelson has come from NEC, but the bulk of the programme funding has come from the Prometheus Foundation, a charitable trust that is also very keen to see more young people gardening. NZCU South has also provided some funding for the programme.

If you are keen to support any local kids' gardening programmes, please contact the Nelson Environment Centre on 5459176, or talk to your local primary school. We are always looking for more seeds, compost, tools and other useful resources, plus we'd love to hear from anyone interested in volunteering in a school garden.

Going Green is a fortnightly column offering a Nelson Perspective on the environmental challenges and opportunities facing the world. Nick Kiddey is the coordinator of the Kids Edible Gardens scheme.

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