The Ghanaian Journal

Deborah Hele

Gardens are places of special meanings and memories. We need to allow our children to become involved in our gardens, through this comes the appreciation and caring that they will take with them into school and into their adult lives.

Little pathways, fallen branches, benches, sandboxes, mud, swings in trees, water puddles, leaves, gates, fences, tree houses, fruit trees, strawberry patches and flowers are all elements that will be remembered when relating childhood memories.

Some projects to get your children involved your garden:

Set up a home compost system

Whether it’s a compost bin or a traditional compost pile, any school — aged child can participate in the process of composting using kitchen scraps and garden waste. Composting will show them how nature’s recycling process works — from an orange rind to rich dark soil, (compost) which is perfect for plants.

Get rid of pests without using pesticides

There are alternatives on the shelves that are less toxic to the environment, ask at the nursery. Also, look for underlying causes to a pest problem — ants and cockroaches are attracted to food residue like grease and sugar and outdoor pests and weeds can be a sign of unhealthy plants. Children can be excellent ‘detectives’ by helping you identify where the ants are coming from or helping moving snails from the garden.

Attract wildlife and birds to your garden

By attracting butterflies, birds, lizards, frogs and even bats to your garden will ensure their survival — many insects and birds assist with pollination and will also eat mosquitoes, aphids, flies and other pests. There are simple tasks that children can do to help, — like putting out seed and fruit and putting water into birdbaths.

Cooking birdy num-nums
GARDENING GUIDE

This article appears courtesy of GardenShop.

Here is an easy way to get children cooking! Bird puddings are easy to make and bring great joy to our feathered friends.

The base of a good bird pudding is suet (animal fat) — this can be bought from your local butcher. Melt the fat in a pot on the stove and then add some of the following:

Seeds, bread, cake crumbs, nuts and any other kitchen scraps. Avoid uncooked vegetables — these decompose too quickly. Pour the mixture in to moulds (tin cans are ideal) and store these in the freezer taking out small quantities as needed. Remove from the moulds and allow the birds to peck at it form all sides.

A bird pudding can be fixed to a tree by inserting a dowel stick (which is placed through the middle of the mixture just before it sets.