Harakanta dasi - Raising Children in the Garden

[Guest guest]

I realize that everyone else is well started into spring - here at least

the dafodills have started to poke up some green leaves, even though we

have snow flurries today.

 

Following is one of my all-time favorites from my "Land, the Cows, and

Krishna" column in Back to Godhead. Harakanta's article is from the

March-April 1997 issue of BTG (Vol. 31, No. 2).

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi

 

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Growing Children in the Garden

by Harakanta devi dasi

 

[iTAL] The following piece by Harakanta dasi, adapted from an article in

Hare Krsna Rural Life shows how to get children involved in gardening.

Harakanta and her family live in a devotee community, with no running

water and no electricity. Yet the life is opulent in simplicity,

peacefulness, hard work and good cheer. Children are welcome and

enthusiastic participants in the chores of simple living -- including

gardening. -- Hare Krsna dasi [end ital]

 

Gardening means raising crops to offer to Krsna. Of all the things

we grow in the garden-- fruits, flowers, vegetables -- I think the best

"crop" is our children. Parents, children, and gardens go perfectly

together. The combination of love, fun, and work in the friendly

environment of the garden ensures that whatever is taught there will be

remembered in a treasured way.

 

Even the youngest toddlers can be entertained in the garden. Let

them bring their dump trucks and turn them into seed-delivery vehicles.

Toy wheelbarrows and shovels can deliver compost or mulch. "What if

children step on the newly sprouted plants?" you ask. With small

children, my method is to hill up all the rows so that they can easily

see and step over them -- or jump over them. What four year old doesn't

love to jump and jump? If you make it so children can see the rows, they

are free to run in the garden and make it a game not to touch the rows.

 

One of the first lessons to teach children is that gardening is

fun. They should never feel overwhelmed with work. Be sensitive to their

attention limits, to their size limits. When you give a child his or her

own rows to care for, make sure that the rows are very short -- that way

weeding is shortened. It's worth investing in child-sized tools and

implements. Children will take pride in working with their own tools.

 

As a child grows, his garden patch can grow along with him. For

starters, measure the child's height, and make the plot twice that long

and twice that wide. As children get older, give them no more than they

can work in one hour.

 

A garden is the ideal place to share lessons of Krsna

consciousness. Show your child how the spirit soul is present in every

living entity -- even plants. Plants have spirit souls, and they can

talk, but differently from the way we do. Wilted plants say, "I'm

thirsty! Please, give me some water." Small scraggly plants are saying,

"Help, the weeds are trying to choke me to death -- save me!" Pale

plants say, "I'm hungry! Please, give me some manure."

 

Children easily develop an appreciation for manure. They know that

Krsna loves the cows because they are friendly and playful -- and cows

provide many benefits. People become strong by drinking milk, and plants

become strong when you feed them manure. Observation is the most

important tool of good gardening, and as you guide their powers of

observation, children quickly learn the value of manure. Then their

plants will be saying, "See how healthy and strong I am -- I can grow

big tomatoes for Krsna!"

 

Encourage children's pride in their work. Relatives and visitors

who tour the garden are usually a good source of praise for fledgling

green thumbs. Take pictures of children working in the garden during

different stages and make a small book of the photos. If they like to

color or sketch, have them make pictures of the garden as it grows and

changes.

 

In early spring you can start your own plants indoors, peat pellets

are good for kids to work with. You can also show them how to make their

own evenly spaced seed tape. Unroll a long sheet of toilet paper. Have

the child dab it every inch or so with a dot of wet flour paste and

press a seed in every dot. Allow the whole long sheet to dry. Roll it up

carefully. Later on the child can dig a shallow trench and unroll the

"seed tape," and cover it with a thin layer of soil. In the moist earth,

the paste and toilet paper will disintegrate, leaving only the child's

perfectly spaced row of seedlings.

 

As soon as the weather begins to warm up, build a compost pile with

kitchen scraps (-- no fat, please), cow manure, forest leaves and grass

clippings. Children can see Krsna's arrangement that by some things

decaying and decomposing, nutrients are recycled so that new plants can

grow lush and strong. If you are imaginative, you can turn work into

play, but still get the job done. Make a bean tipi village. Plant your

corn in a spiraling circle. Plant flowers among your vegetables.

Marigolds help repel insects and hide young brassicas from greedy ground

hogs. Nasturtium flowers (and leaves) can be offered to Krsna in salads.

 

These are just a few ways you can turn gardening into a form of

devotional service your children will love. When Krsna and Balarama went

to the forest to tend the cows with their friends, their work was

actually play. Similarly, successful gardening for kids and parents

mixes play with work in such a way that no one can tell for sure which

is which.

[Guest guest]

Dear Mataji,

 

Thank you for posting the nice garden article. I printed it to use in our

homeschooling garden activities. The toilet paper seed tape is a great idea!

 

Your servant, Kalavati devi dasi