Netley Garden Guardians
Back in November, the garden club that myself and Gareth Morris, Deputy Headteacher of Netley Primary School, had hoped to start in the Summer was finally going to begin. Ten students from Year 5, The Guardians, embarked on the journey as the first group of students stewarding the allotment beds on Netley campus. This would be setting the precedent for the rest of the year group as well as the school to grow a productive, healthy, welcoming garden.
The goal would be to learn, grow, and reflect with different activities to foster a shared ownership between students, teachers, and parents (eventually through an after school garden club once lockdown and restrictions are eased) of these precious green spaces.
We began each session with a mindfulness activity to slow down and arrive mentally and physically in the garden. We explored the space by using our senses, noticing all that there is to observe outside. By getting to know the garden we were then able to get to know each other a bit more by choosing an element we identified with strongly.
“I’m like the sun because I’m warm and I like to smile a lot” said Ruqaya.
Food growing was one of the main objectives, we harvested vegetables and sowed new ones (beans and garlic mostly at that time of the year). But the most vital element of this garden according to the Guardians in their time outside was the creatures we found. Gary the tiny snail was a star amongst the creepy crawlies.
This fascination led to a few sessions dedicated to the importance of wildlife in the garden. Thinking about what we know of our own homes we explored what it means to have a safe habitat. Food, warmth, shelter, family, etc. With a few wooden pallets, found natural objects, bricks, and straw we made a bug hotel and waited for the guests to arrive. For our winged, feathered friends we made natural bird feeders out of oranges and seeds.
Amongst the peaceful and playful experiences the students slowly confronted their fears and aversions over the 7 weeks we worked together. The most notorious creature for the Guardians was the humble worm.
Whenever a slithery friend would surface out of the soil or between veg scraps in the wormery, shrieks, gags, and occasionally a sprint to the other side of the garden soon followed.
A game and scavenger hunt revealed the interconnectedness of the soil food web; and how the dead leaves, rainwater, oxygen, and fungus can reanimate lifeless soil. Knowing how worms improve the soil to help grow the cotton in our t-shirts, the sugar in our sweets, the rubber that once used to make the erasers on the tip of our pencils, helped us appreciate the worms just a little bit more than when we first entered the garden.
Photo from Netley’s Twitter Account
Reflecting on our time together we played charades to learn what each person enjoyed about gardening. Next we thought about the future and prepared for the next season. A mad dash around the garden, and trowels flicking dirt here, there, and everywhere, you could find Guardians planting Narcissus, Crocus, Allium, and Snowdrop bulbs. We finished the term by showing gratitude to the amazing staff at Netley by planting over 70 pots of Hyacinths and Daffodils as gifts for their hard work over the difficult lockdown period. We can’t wait to see their work bloom!
Photo from Netley’s Twitter Account
Notes from the Garden
I wake to a bright crisp winter’s day. Finally … after weeks of storms ravaging the country.
As the year ends we are reminded of the magic and beauty that our gardens bring, as places to come together and celebrate, even in difficult times. This year it has been challenging not to be taken over by fear and despair, with extreme weather events being mirrored in different ways across the world, from floods to droughts; with the most recent political events; with wars destroying land and displacing entire populations; and with the constant increase in the cost of living creating ever more inequalities between those that have and those that do not.