Need to Play

The four of us- 'the garden ladies' as we are known, because we secured the grant for this community garden, and continue to be there for a time each weekday, have been puzzled by the irrigation system problems. It was all set up, running beautifully, and timed to water every day, morning and evening.

But almost every day we notice that the spigots are turned off or the sprinkler heads are turned every which way. Last week when I was there with many kids what I saw was that they ran to the tools, got dixie cups from the garden bin, rummaged around to find every last seed, no matter what it was. And then, with a satisfied sigh they settled down to PLAY in the pile of dirt we use for the raised beds! They flung the soil about, excavated for worms and grubs, dug with any tools they could find, piled the dirt into the wagon and then dumped it out back onto the dirt pile. They loved it! Of course the irrigation system was discombobulated!

This is what we wanted, what a children's garden should be! By now, after a long harvest season  and the beginning of a new one, these kids are confident. They pick and eat the last of the broccoli and the pea pods. They break off the huge collard leaves, stuff them in bags to take home for dinner.

 They love to be outdoors, and they especially love the freedom to dig and get dirty. Yeah, they'll water and weed, but what they really want is a HUGE dirt pile, some tools, small containers, and maybe even some small vehicles and plastic people. Unfortunately, this is not to be in the careful and circumscribed world of FCAT. But we do encourage the digging and have rethought the irrigation system!

After this long year in the garden we have learned so much, most of it unexpected. But what I have learned all over again is that these kids, like all kids, need to play!
So much the better that they know that they can grow and eat good things along the way. They know where vegetables come from and they know that in the garden their teachers become lax and limp and cast a blind eye to their capers on the dirt pile. A triumph!

Our grandson, Quincy, is staying here for his spring break. He's eight, and unlike the public school garden kids I mostly see, he's a student at a private school that has a richness of play materials- blocks, clay, art materials, a school garden. But still, he needs to have uncounted minutes and hours to explore his own world which is now Lego. He spends hours constructing huge habitats. He explains them to me and I try to respond in appropriate ways. (What's a grandma for?)

Quincy knows that here on a ranch everyone has to do chores. So he pulls on his boots and gloves and cheerfully helps us clean up the downed trees from yesterday's storm. He's really learning to be a big help, he's strong and willing. I see him playing on the downed tree, reveling in his strong young body.  But I know he is really wanting to get back to his most important work- that imaginative play!

Here on our ranch, Quincy is kind of a prince .- and he knows it! But a prince has to set and clear the table, do some chores. And what he really gets here is the time to play.

We all need to play!