Life is a Garden | South Africa |

Children who spent 12 weeks cultivating their own school garden ended up doubling their intake of fruit, herbs and vegetables compared with their previous consumption.

These are the astonishing results of a 12-week study in Great Britain involving 99 children aged 10 to 13 who started their own school garden. They also ate twice as much of the produce as youngsters on a nutrition-in-the-garden course that was taught in the classroom only, without hands-on experience.

The fruit, herb and vegetable intake of the gardening children rose from 1,9 servings to 4,5 servings a day – almost making the ‘five-a-day’ goal that is now encouraged in a healthy  diet. Not surprisingly, the amount of certain nutrients they consumed increased too. The children also had significant gains in vitamin C, beta carotene and fibre.

The project took place during the spring and summer and the variety of edibles grown was quite amazing – strawberries, herbs, potatoes, corn, peppers, peas, beans, squash, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce and kohlrabi. The children planted, weeded, watered and harvested everything themselves over the three-month period. In the classroom they also made dishes such as salsa, wrote a class cookbook and held an “add a veggie to lunch day” as part of their project.


A South African success story

The Birches Pre-Primary School in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal also combines learning with hands-on fun in the school’s food garden. The children have planted a very productive vegetable garden, and, when the crops are ready, they harvest them, clean them, grate them or chop them and make salads, soups and scones or teas.

Principal of the school, Scilla Edmonds says: “Interacting in the food garden is all in a day’s play for the children. They are challenged to take vegetable seeds and seedlings home from school and plant them. We have found that children who have made food from their harvested crops here at school also begin eating them at home, to the amazement of their parents!”

Former South African cricketer and organic gardener, Adrian Kuiper, was one of those children who was inspired to grow his own produce after a school project. “I remember the pride I felt when, at six years of age, I harvested my crop of beans which had been germinated in cottonwool at school. My mother noticed this interest and encouraged me to plant these in my first vegetable patch. To observe the transformation from a dry bean seed into a plant and then onto my dinner plate went on to inspire my interest in organic gardening,” says Adrian.


A veggie patch for your children

Children’s gardening does not, of course, have to be restricted to schools. Whether you have a small piece of garden, a patio or a window box, you can still start the process at home.

Help your children to set up a kitchen garden by following these tips:

• Choose a site that offers you about 5 x 4m of usable space.

• Make sure the area receives at least four to six hours of full sun a day.

• Before sowing and planting, prepare the soil well. Dig over the soil in the beds with a fork to a depth of at least 30cm. Add liberal quantities of compost (half a bag per square metre) to the soil and work in 60g or a handful of organic fertiliser per square metre.

What to plant in November

Herbs: Plant any of your favourite herbs this month. The following are easy for children to grow: parsley, origanum, thyme, sweet basil, chives, mint (but plant in a container to reduce its spread).

Vegetables: Plant cabbage, brinjals, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, beans, beetroot, lettuce, baby marrows, tomatoes, sweet peppers, butternuts.

Tip! Visit http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden to get practical step-by-step advice for starting your own garden at a school. This website also has a number of food and nutrition related projects that can be used as supplementary material in the classroom.