Weeding the Web

How not to turn kids off gardening

Have your children had a go at gardening and given up? It could be that they’re just natural something-elsers, rather than gardeners, but on the other hand, was it just too hard?

I certainly remember the difficulty of wielding an adult’s spade in our clay soil and am reasonably sure I’d have moaned less and enjoyed it more if my parents had put a bit more thought into what would make it better. It might even have kept me interested in gardening through my teenage years, which would have meant one more pair of hands in the garden. 

So if you feel a bit like a Catcher in the Rye, trying to grab your kids before they disappear off the edge of the garden, Edmonton's Community Garden Network has useful design pointers aimed at community gardens on how to make vegetable plots attractive to children. The suggestions are just as relevant for home. They include making the beds small enough for short arms to reach across and storing water close by.

At the Gardeners' Club they list plenty of ways to make things easy and keep children interested, including making a spray bottle instead of letting them cope with a heavy watering can. And if you tend to exacting standards, there's a Parents' Primer at Kids Gardening, with a chapter on What Turns Kids On and Off Gardening. It might help you to relax. And reward you with children who stay to help.

Shed of the Year Award 2010

Is it the potential they offer – the undesignated space, unfettered by society’s (and home-making magazines’) expectations? Do we find we can express ourselves in a shed the way we're not allowed to in the house?

Reg Miller expresses himself as a pirate, and has just won Shed of the Year 2010, with Lady Sarah out of Worthing (named after his partner) in the competition run by readersheds and sponsored by Cuprinol. Judges included house renovation expert Sarah Beeny.

Lady Sarah might not be to everyone’s taste, but you can’t deny the attention to detail – 16’ wide, 8’ deep and 10’6’’ at the apex, it’s made to look like the poop deck of a pirate ship moored at a Caribbean dock, has a parrot and koi carp pond, and is stuffed full of piratical pieces, including real crossed bones (courtesy of a butcher, you’ll be relieved to know) skulls (provenance unspecified), and a dead man’s chest. It’s orientated to catch the evening sun – useful for rum consumption when said sun has disappeared over the yard arm.

Pond-ering Kids in the Gardens

If your children’s school holidays haven’t yet started, they’re certainly just about to. and you are possibly wondering how on earth you’re going to get any gardening done and keep the kids happy.

It might seem unlikely, but this could be the ideal time to tackle that pond project you’ve had in mind. Over at Dallas Arboretum and Gardens, research found that water features created the most excitement for visiting children. Digging a pond in the garden could add just that dimension of interest which gets them out into yours. And getting them to help build it should give your powerhouses some exercise.

There are clear and helpful instructions for a weekend pond project at Wild About Gardens, which also warns you about such things as too much hard landscaping near the pond as young amphibians can cook in seconds.  

You might also like Getting Children Interested in Gardening and, for pond-making: Garden Ponds: Priming the Pump of Decision

Getting a Kick out of Gardening

Gardening has certainly got trendy, but how’s this for chic? It’s inspired The Gardener’s Tea Break, a cocktail available at Bourne and Hollingsworth, the quirky retro bar in London’s Fitzrovia.

Now I haven’t tried the cocktail, but I do know Hendrick’s, the gin that forms the cocktail’s base. It’s generally served with a slice of cucumber, rather than the usual lemon and, to my not-so-educated palate, has a lighter, slightly airier taste (hmm, pretentious drinks talk comes alarmingly easy) than other gins I’ve tried.

The Gardener’s Tea Break, developed by Dino Koletsas, is a blend of gin, cucumber, lemon juice and green tea syrup. It even comes in a teacup with a cucumber sandwich. Talking to Dino was quite an education in the thought that goes into creating a new drink. The choice of gin is appropriate, not just because it’s infused with cucumbers but because Hendrick’s, owned by William Grant and Sons, was named after the Grant family’s gardener.

Dino said, “I envisaged the legendary Hendrick sitting down and enjoying a cup of Gardener's Tea Break to invigorate and refresh him before getting back to his hard day’s work.”

And, one imagines, a wobbly row of cabbages.

Putting the Cat Out

I keep vowing to buy a water pistol. After all, if you’re going to try to keep cats out of the garden, you might as well have fun at the same time. However, by the time I’d found it, refilled it and emerged from the back door, I’m pretty sure the cat would have smelt a rat and slunk off.

If you’re having trouble with neighbours’ cats, this long list of cat deterrents from vet Pete Wedderburn’s blog at the Daily Telegraph might help. The idea of keeping them out at the boundary with upside-down gutter covers on the tops of fences is one that I haven’t come across before.

Back on the water pistol theme, you could let technology do the squirting for you with a motion-activated water spray like Contech's Scarecrow. Their website has links to plenty of videos about it.