Bees, Kids, and other Garden Things

Bees: The bees discovered the pop up garden! It took them a few weeks (after all, the garden did appear out of nowhere in a place where no garden had been before), but luckily bees are very smart. At first I noticed just one bee taking incredible dives into nasturtiums and cucumber flowers, but it brought its friends and now there are heaps of bees. Hurrah!

Kids: Every Friday morning kids from Newtown School visit the Innermost community garden in Newtown (the garden I might be helping to run next year!), and so for the past few weeks I've been heading over there to help out. Because as we all know, I love gardening, and adding children to the equation is pretty sweet. Its not precisely like the teaching that I did in Austin; they are only there for about forty-five minutes, and the teachers usually bring something to do. Plus, they rotate through four different groups, so I haven't had the same group twice yet. Activities have included planting peas, identifying edible plants, digging up a few potatoes, checking out the plants, poking at the worms in the worm farm, playing gardening games, picking some beans (I thought the worms were the best part). Gardening with kids is always inspiring, but my best experience happened last week, as we were leaving the garden and one girl turned around and told me that 'this was the best gardening lesson ever!'. I don't think I've ever been so flattered.
Really, though, gardening with kids gives me a real sense of adding something of value to their education and their quality of life; a chance to get out of the classroom and make connections about food and the natural world that otherwise they might miss out on. It also gives them a chance to eat at least something small from the garden, and as I recently found out, some of these kids don't eat lunch. How insane is that! I know that there are families that are too poor to feed their children properly, but I was very, very surprised to learn that the New Zealand government doesn't have some sort of school lunch program. I mean, even the U.S. provides lunch (and sometimes breakfast, and often post-lunch snack) in schools. By and large, the NZ government is more progressive and social-minded (although its not like they're Sweden or anything) than the U.S., and yet no food in schools! I think this is a huge oversight. Kids don't think well on empty stomachs. So now I have to figure out a way to get produce from the garden into the school regularly... we'll see what I can come up with.

Other Garden Things: On a happier note, the surveys that I did at the pop-up gardens came to a successful conclusion last week! Pretty much everyone I talked to was quite enthusiastic, some people were felt encouraged to start their own gardens, and I think it made people think seriously about urban agriculture. Plus, I had some great conversations about gardening. Gardeners love to talk about gardening. I do, they do, we had some great times. One woman that stood out told me that she was growing her own potatoes for the first time in a really long time; her and her daughter were amazed at the flavor. 'I'd forgotten what potatoes tasted like!' is how she described the taste. The culinary delights of growing your own; when a potato can really shine!