Today morning while taking breakfast I was talking about Mr. Masanobu Fukuoka and his method of natural farming from the book 'The one straw revolution'. Megh was listening curiously and his eyes were shining with amazement. Then I stopped as I have read only few pages and he pleaded to tell more. He was so immersed into this unique method of farming without digging, weeding, composting or using chemicals and wishing like this talk never end.
Gardening is his favorite activity since long. When we moved to our current home Megh was 2 year old and he immediately made connection with garden. Digging soil, watering plants and other gardening stuff he took on his little shoulder! Every morning he used to spend hours just being in garden. I was very much into Montessori Method and keen to provide all sensory experiences to him but I realized he himself arranging all sensory activities just being in garden! So I gave up everything and let him be with Mother Nature. Often found him slipping to meditative state with the touch of soil and water.
We are growing some veggies and fruits for years and were planning to grow veggies of our requirement since long but somehow couldn't till we acquired motivation from OTG group on FB. People growing own food in whatever space available to them, sharing their experiences, happily sharing their harvests etc....all these moved us out of our lethargic state.
At 2-3 year Megh enthusiastically joined us in setting up our Butterfly garden. At 8 he is same just added some more interests. But still when we are in garden he is fluttering around us, helps sometimes but most of the time has independent ideas and experiments in his mind. Sharing some of them...
I was thinning red amaranths. When seeds are directly sowed, thinning is required to provide proper room and nutrients for healthy growth of plants. But it is something I don't like to do, Megh knows and resonates with my feeling. He also came to know from my talk with Nikhil that Amaranths can grow bigger, have flowers and then seeds. So, he asked one sapling from me and then prepared a pot and planted it. We were new to growing amaranths and not sure it will grow or not as sapling was delicate, his pot was small and he tied it with copper wire (!) so it don't fall during heavy wind! But he was sure and his plant grow nice and have flowers! Now waiting to collect seeds.
Before any trimming or pruning we need to take
his permission, cutting or removing any plant is almost impossible
here....have to assure we will grow many more. He truly feels that hurts
plants. We have prepared lawn as I wished children should
have place to play in garden but since he visited a FB page "Grow food,
not lawn" that was his plan to remove lawn for making space to grow
food. Ashna was against removing lawn and they both had their own
arguments...but as soon as he found sunny weather last month he applied his plan rigorously pull it out ! Today that lawn area is filled with pots growing veggies.
He has seen some videos on growing tomatoes and keep guiding us on different stages from sowing seeds to pollination. Prepared and preheated soil under sunlight before sowing seeds and saplings in his pot grown really fine. You need to transplant deep, it will grow up to six feet, need staking, how tapping helps in pollination, have to remove suckers etc. When he has seen first baby tomato he was on the top of the world and clicked photo that he rarely does!
After we set Butterfly garden there was no open ground left and he was not happy with that. So have given him a area where he keep growing different plants or experiments building bridges/canals/green houses etc. There is one garlic patch also made by him.
So this is what he is learning by doing but much more learning happens in nature by just observing, listening and feeling life around. Nature teaches us life's important lessons in many different ways , we just need to be open and receptive. We keep learning just being with her without any burden of learning.
We are growing some veggies and fruits for years and were planning to grow veggies of our requirement since long but somehow couldn't till we acquired motivation from OTG group on FB. People growing own food in whatever space available to them, sharing their experiences, happily sharing their harvests etc....all these moved us out of our lethargic state.
At 2-3 year Megh enthusiastically joined us in setting up our Butterfly garden. At 8 he is same just added some more interests. But still when we are in garden he is fluttering around us, helps sometimes but most of the time has independent ideas and experiments in his mind. Sharing some of them...
I was thinning red amaranths. When seeds are directly sowed, thinning is required to provide proper room and nutrients for healthy growth of plants. But it is something I don't like to do, Megh knows and resonates with my feeling. He also came to know from my talk with Nikhil that Amaranths can grow bigger, have flowers and then seeds. So, he asked one sapling from me and then prepared a pot and planted it. We were new to growing amaranths and not sure it will grow or not as sapling was delicate, his pot was small and he tied it with copper wire (!) so it don't fall during heavy wind! But he was sure and his plant grow nice and have flowers! Now waiting to collect seeds.
Before any trimming or pruning we need to take
his permission, cutting or removing any plant is almost impossible
here....have to assure we will grow many more. He truly feels that hurts
plants. We have prepared lawn as I wished children should
have place to play in garden but since he visited a FB page "Grow food,
not lawn" that was his plan to remove lawn for making space to grow
food. Ashna was against removing lawn and they both had their own
arguments...but as soon as he found sunny weather last month he applied his plan rigorously pull it out ! Today that lawn area is filled with pots growing veggies.
He has seen some videos on growing tomatoes and keep guiding us on different stages from sowing seeds to pollination. Prepared and preheated soil under sunlight before sowing seeds and saplings in his pot grown really fine. You need to transplant deep, it will grow up to six feet, need staking, how tapping helps in pollination, have to remove suckers etc. When he has seen first baby tomato he was on the top of the world and clicked photo that he rarely does! 
After we set Butterfly garden there was no open ground left and he was not happy with that. So have given him a area where he keep growing different plants or experiments building bridges/canals/green houses etc. There is one garlic patch also made by him. So this is what he is learning by doing but much more learning happens in nature by just observing, listening and feeling life around. Nature teaches us life's important lessons in many different ways , we just need to be open and receptive. We keep learning just being with her without any burden of learning.
2 comments:
After so long, I saw a new post from you. Delighted.
I really appreciate the way you nurture your kids and the way you have taken up homeschooling concept. I wish I could have the same courage and passion as you have. I am a fan of you.
Thanks for posting :-)
Thank you Rajeev. Yeah,that's long break but will try to write regularly.
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