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Teamwork in the Garden: Children & Others Can Help
by Jeanne Sable
Few things bind people together in a more healthy or meaningful way than
gardening. Whether a family or community project, gardening seems to work
best as a team effort. I think that's because even the most ardent of gardeners has
certain tasks s/he would rather avoid. By dividing the labor, you increase the
chances that a partner will take to a particular task you find difficult or downright
loathsome. Conversely, a job you find enjoyable may be just the one your partner
detests doing. And working together is always more fun.
Heavy manual tasks such as hauling loads of manure and compost, installing
fences and trellises, or digging out the latest crop of rocks are of necessity
relegated to those with strong muscles. But other jobs can be left to personal
preference. A friend who could not trust anyone else to weed her prize flower bed
had a helper simply shake the soil from the roots of weeds as she pulled them. "I
pulled, he shook. . . . It was beautiful," she said. The dirt shaking was the only
part of working in that garden she disliked, while to her friend, it was no problem.
Children are especially helpful for undertaking tasks adults often dislike, such as
chucking stones out of the soil, or hand picking insects off plants. I recently
overheard parents discussing how much money they compensate their children
for each bug collected. (Of course, lady bugs, spiders and praying mantises
would fetch no bounty.)
But sometimes the division of labor in the garden can be tricky business. It's
frustrating to find that a well meaning child has sown lettuce seeds in the beet
bed, or a diligent partner meticulously picked out those pesky little blades of
grass that were actually the start of young carrots. Then there was the year
someone produced Frankenstein fruit by planting some squash or other too close
to the melon patch. These are obvious glitches that good communication and
planning can prevent.
The garden is not so different from the corporate world. Problems occur when
workers are not made aware of the individual differences and needs of persons
responsible for subsequent steps in a given process. Case in point - raised bed
boxes built too wide across for the person responsible for weeding and thinning to
comfortably reach the center. Bean poles erected to heights only a pro basketball
player could reach. Or how about the person who hasn't a clue why it's not a good
idea to empty an entire package of carrot seeds into three feet of space? These
people must be educated. A spirited session of thinning will do the trick for the
carrot planter. Supplying measurements of the picker's reach will guide the box
and trellis builder.
The duties in our garden are pretty consistently divided in the following manner:
Charlie does the heavy hauling, bean supports, initial turning and fertilizing of the
soil, bed box construction, sprinkler rigging and other mechanical feats, and
"putting by" the harvest. I do most of the planting, weeding, thinning, watering
and harvesting.
After an hour or more of picking beans in the hot sun, I'm glad Charlie's willing to
spend hours in a steamy kitchen putting them up in jars. I'd rather be out in the
garden anyway. One time I lugged in a shopping bag full of green beans and half
a dozen huge heads of cauliflower. Sure that I'd picked more vegetables than
humanly possible for one person to "put by" in a day, I thought I'd pitch in with th
easy part—bagging the cauliflower for the freezer. As I carefully slid a seal-able
bag over the tight-fitting form that keeps it open, Charlie commented what a pain
that job was for his wide fingers. He then settled happily in front of his pressure
canner with a good book to process a rack full of green beans.
The point is, one person's drudgery is another's recreation. It's one of the benefits
of teamwork. So get yourself a buddy or two and see if gardening isn't a whole lot
easier and more fun. Share both the toil and the spoils.
Just make sure everyone takes his fair share of zucchini.
About the Author:
Jeanne Prevett Sable is an organic gardener, editor, and freelance writer
specializing in farming and environmental issues, with hundreds of articles
published in local, regional, and national publications. She has written
environmental scripts for children's television, live puppet theater, and the Web.
She is also the author of Seed Keepers of Crescentville, her first novel.
by Jeanne Sable
Few things bind people together in a more healthy or meaningful way than
gardening. Whether a family or community project, gardening seems to work
best as a team effort. I think that's because even the most ardent of gardeners has
certain tasks s/he would rather avoid. By dividing the labor, you increase the
chances that a partner will take to a particular task you find difficult or downright
loathsome. Conversely, a job you find enjoyable may be just the one your partner
detests doing. And working together is always more fun.
Heavy manual tasks such as hauling loads of manure and compost, installing
fences and trellises, or digging out the latest crop of rocks are of necessity
relegated to those with strong muscles. But other jobs can be left to personal
preference. A friend who could not trust anyone else to weed her prize flower bed
had a helper simply shake the soil from the roots of weeds as she pulled them. "I
pulled, he shook. . . . It was beautiful," she said. The dirt shaking was the only
part of working in that garden she disliked, while to her friend, it was no problem.
Children are especially helpful for undertaking tasks adults often dislike, such as
chucking stones out of the soil, or hand picking insects off plants. I recently
overheard parents discussing how much money they compensate their children
for each bug collected. (Of course, lady bugs, spiders and praying mantises
would fetch no bounty.)
But sometimes the division of labor in the garden can be tricky business. It's
frustrating to find that a well meaning child has sown lettuce seeds in the beet
bed, or a diligent partner meticulously picked out those pesky little blades of
grass that were actually the start of young carrots. Then there was the year
someone produced Frankenstein fruit by planting some squash or other too close
to the melon patch. These are obvious glitches that good communication and
planning can prevent.
The garden is not so different from the corporate world. Problems occur when
workers are not made aware of the individual differences and needs of persons
responsible for subsequent steps in a given process. Case in point - raised bed
boxes built too wide across for the person responsible for weeding and thinning to
comfortably reach the center. Bean poles erected to heights only a pro basketball
player could reach. Or how about the person who hasn't a clue why it's not a good
idea to empty an entire package of carrot seeds into three feet of space? These
people must be educated. A spirited session of thinning will do the trick for the
carrot planter. Supplying measurements of the picker's reach will guide the box
and trellis builder.
The duties in our garden are pretty consistently divided in the following manner:
Charlie does the heavy hauling, bean supports, initial turning and fertilizing of the
soil, bed box construction, sprinkler rigging and other mechanical feats, and
"putting by" the harvest. I do most of the planting, weeding, thinning, watering
and harvesting.
After an hour or more of picking beans in the hot sun, I'm glad Charlie's willing to
spend hours in a steamy kitchen putting them up in jars. I'd rather be out in the
garden anyway. One time I lugged in a shopping bag full of green beans and half
a dozen huge heads of cauliflower. Sure that I'd picked more vegetables than
humanly possible for one person to "put by" in a day, I thought I'd pitch in with th
easy part—bagging the cauliflower for the freezer. As I carefully slid a seal-able
bag over the tight-fitting form that keeps it open, Charlie commented what a pain
that job was for his wide fingers. He then settled happily in front of his pressure
canner with a good book to process a rack full of green beans.
The point is, one person's drudgery is another's recreation. It's one of the benefits
of teamwork. So get yourself a buddy or two and see if gardening isn't a whole lot
easier and more fun. Share both the toil and the spoils.
Just make sure everyone takes his fair share of zucchini.
About the Author:
Jeanne Prevett Sable is an organic gardener, editor, and freelance writer
specializing in farming and environmental issues, with hundreds of articles
published in local, regional, and national publications. She has written
environmental scripts for children's television, live puppet theater, and the Web.
She is also the author of Seed Keepers of Crescentville, her first novel.
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