Nursery World - Dig it!

Take a good look at the space available at your setting for some kind of garden, consider what you could do with it and who could help - then get digging The idea of creating a nursery garden can sound so ambitious! Surely this would require specialist knowledge? And wouldn't gardening with small children risk disappointments, accidents, and untold muddiness and mess?

The idea of creating a nursery garden can sound so ambitious! Surely this would require specialist knowledge? And wouldn't gardening with small children risk disappointments, accidents, and untold muddiness and mess?

Well, perhaps, but no more than many other pleasurable activities. And growing things can be thrilling - especially if it's something you can eat! Up to a point, results don't matter. If your potato crop gives you only one saucepanful, that's fine. The children still had the experience of nurturing a delicate growing thing, they learned a lot, and they were able to smell and taste the wonderful earthiness of newly dug vegetables. It can be amazing to see potatoes being dug out of the ground, covered in soil and attached to plants with green leaves and flowers. Such activities are more important than they have ever been. Never have children been so disconnected from the earth and from the origins of their food.

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