Plant A Genda

Hello! I’m a 73 year old exPrimary School teacher, Grannie, & Jack of all Trades: I want to talk to those gorgeous mums and dads out there with gorgeous, gorgeous kids (and to those brave unselfish parents who may have a disabled child) who are trying to raise kids in the best possible way, to make them the best possible citizens for today’s tricky world. You are probably both working; you may have a huge mortgage, you may be very, very time poor; you may be sleep deprived; you may often wonder if the bills will ever stop coming. You may also wonder why there is so much ADDH and Altzheimers.

Is it something we are putting into our bodies? (Processed foods...?)

Now for a shocking thought: Do NOT do anything next weekend that your kids think they’d like to do. Instead, on Friday night, sit down and plan a vegetable garden. You are going to make a raised garden bed.* Go to

www.plantagenda.com.au and click on Hints to see how to make one – it is quite easy if you can get a lovely burly man to help with the lifting. Plan to go to the Tip on Saturday. (This is a favourite place for kids!) Hopefully by the time Winter has finished, you’ll have 4 of them!* You can buy them, but that costs a motza! (See the parsnip? Check out www.

plantagenda.com.au and click on Hints to see more about that!)

Why have a veggie bed? Because for a small outlay (approximately $200)* you can have free fresh vegetables for life. No more wilted greens for you (no matter how much that restaurant charges for them!) From Spring onwards, you will be able to go out to your garden and say “Now. What vegetables will we have for dinner tonight?” Think of the saving on groceries, petrol, tyres etc., to say nothing of how you are helping the environment and Climate Change!

Source corrugated iron, some angle iron, some star posts; organize to get some compost, some

‘top soil’* – the kids will love helping unload this. A raised garden bed means NO DIGGING, NO WEEDING, NO BENDING. (You can go away for a month and not worry about the weeds!) You might need to hire a drill, and buy some wire.

If you live in a flat, then you need to source ‘broccoli’ boxes and old oil cans* and buy seed raising mix. The Tip can provide all sorts of raised structures on which to place these containers*: little stools, besser blocks, drums etc. all of which can be decorated by the kids. (***see Hints on

www.plantagenda.com.au for more.) Next time: Free ‘educational’ games for the whole family.