Get kiwis into gardening

I remember as a toddler helping my mother in the gardens at our home, and I had my own small wheelbarrow with spade which I would wheel around the property picking up weeds and putting them into the compost bins or feeding to the chickens.

I also had an old tennis racket which I would use to swat white butterflies so they could not lay their eggs on the cabbages.

Every few days it would be my job to examine all the cabbage plants for caterpillars, pluck them off and put into an old tin before feeding them to the chickens.

I also had my own little patch in the vegetable garden to grow a few vegetables of my own. A great fuss would be made when, whatever I had grown, was harvested and cooked for tea that night.

Apparently my own vegetables tasted better than whatever mum had grown (not that I noticed any difference as they all tasted good) but as a toddler that no doubt gave me the encouragement to spend the rest of my life growing plants.

Back then when I was a kid everyone had good-sized vegetable gardens along with fruit trees and fruiting bushes, as it was sensible to be as selfsufficient as possible. Every thing was grown naturally as nobody had the money to buy any fancy fertilisers or sprays. They were not needed anyway because having chickens you already had the best manure available. Throw in some blood and bone along with garden lime and plants were rich in goodness. We didn’t have chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride in the tap water to do damage to the soil life.

It is heartening to hear that once again people are starting to get back into good old-fashioned gardening.

There has been too long a period where children from a very young age have not had the opportunity to play at gardening. Primary schools have endeavoured to pick up the baton and have vegetable gardens for their young students to work in and learn a bit about plants. Gardening companies have tried to encourage young people to garden with growing big pumpkins or the tallest sunflowers competitions. I am sure these things have helped and a few more young people have grown up taking an interest in growing plants. Unfortunately all these efforts has not seen a significant increase in gardening rather a gradual decline as old gardeners pass on.

It is truly sad to see their properties with magnificent gardens being sold off to nongardeners and turned into lowmaintenance gardens, and valuable old species of bulbs and plants lost forever.

The latest New World promotion Little Garden I hope will make this a real winner as children love to collect things, and for those adults that do not normally garden where they can follow simple instructions and learn how to propagate plants. I was fortunate to obtain a Basil Little Garden which I am looking forward to germinating and growing on for use.

The Little Garden promotion goes until October 23 (Labour Weekend) which is the ideal time to get growing as it will give children the greatest possibility of success.

Hopefully this promotion will bring into fruition a new wave of budding gardeners making for a better understanding of nature, the environment and personal health.

As parents, grandparents or teachers please take this great opportunity to assist the young and not so young in obtaining the most desirable skill — gardening.

Remember daylight saving time is this Sunday.

This will give you more time in the evening to tend to your gardens before dusk.

I am hopeful that it is going to be a great season for gardening this year as the signs are looking very favourable currently.