After School Club Makes a big splash!

Water is a very attractive thing for children – ok maybe less so in the dead of winter. But the words ‘pond repair’ had been on our gardening to do list for some time and we were looking for a fun activity for the after-school club children to bond, have fun and stay relatively warm. Of course, let’s reinstate the old pond! 

I was chuffed to introduce Megs, our gardener, to the wonders of Milliput, the week before. A mighty glue with giant powers that could repair most things, including all the holes in our old Victorian bath. Holes that made for a leaky pond. 

A week later and wonders of wonders, the bath was watertight and ready to be reinstated into the garden.  The children arrived and after fruit snacks and hot apple juice, we took them into our polytunnel and asked them to look for things that we could use for a pond. The children hunted high and low – how about this? – they point to mugs, then troughs and pots with holes in… no one mentioned the bath.  With no taps or plug hole, didn’t even look like a bath, less so a pond. Several conversations about baths and showers later, we presented the group’s challenge - to move the bath safely across the garden. With safety comes a high vis vest, so we each grabbed one from the youth PPE box.

Megs and I lay the long bath down like a giant body and the children assembled around, each, we explained, like a leg on a millipede.  We stopped and shared what we knew about millipedes.  Everyone knows that millipedes have lots of legs, but did you know that they walked the earth long before dinosaurs, and way before there were any flowers or trees? Millipedes we explained can walk great distances looking for scraps of dying wood or plants. 

Now we needed to get across the garden carefully carrying the empty tin bath, walking as one, as a team.  One child ran ahead carrying a torch to locate the safest and easiest path for the giant millipede. Others shouted instructions – this way, that. We’re heading for the ducks! 

Our eyes had become accustomed to the fading light. Our torches lit up the path and made the legs of the high vis clad millipede glow. The bath was safely back home at The Huegel Mound and each placed a large stone inside, so birds or insects could sit above the water line. 

Every child played their part that session, every child was the team. It's January now, the pond now filled with water turned to thick ice.  I cast my mind back to our fun winter adventure or milliput and millipedes. 

Ponds are fantastic habitats for a wide range of wildlife, including toads, frogs, newts, insects and birds. Because they provide excellent sources of food and water, and a home or breeding ground for the local wildlife, the After School club’s contribution was greatly appreciated.  

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Notes from the Garden