How to Get Kids Gardening
with Lee Connelly
This post contains affiliate links
February is on its way out, and surely no one will be sad to see the back of such a wet, miserable and stormy month. With the gardening waking up and the hope of brighter days ahead, the opportunity to get into the garden arises and, for those with children, this must seem a bright prospect after a winter of being cooped up indoors. Just how to get kids interested in growing things is quite another matter, and helping people to do just this is something that Lee Connelly has made a career out of. His new book How to Get Kids Gardening came out just in time for half term, and I took advantage of its publication to get Lee to talk about his approach and what led him to condensing his ideas into a physical format rather than the talks, podcast and blog in which they’ve featured up to now.
We discuss tree climbing, whether we’re all really as time-poor as we make out and, of course, how he got Monty Don onto the Skinny Jean Gardener podcast, while Peta Cootes reads The Gardener by Robert Louis Stevenson, in which a frustrated child laments the detachment of the family’s resident horticulturalist.
Please do continue to share the podcast on social media, and if you’d really like to brighten my day, leave a review on iTunes or your podcast app of choice. Or drop me a note in the comments section below, having listened on the embedded player on this page.
Gardens, weeds and words podcast, S02E07 show notes
A blend of slow radio, gardening advice and conversation, and readings from the best garden and wildlife writing.
These notes may contain affiliate links.
Garden soundtrack
Almost March.
Children in the garden…
…a gardener’s perspective
The gardener in the garden…
…a child's perspective
Poem 03:04
The Gardener by Robert Louis Stevenson
Read by Peta Cootes
Early experiences of plants and gardens – a minor obsession
How do you get kid’s gardening?
Interview with the Skinny Jean Gardener, Lee Connelly 09:21
10:14 What’s this about Skinny Jeans?
12:07 The Skinny Jean Gardener podcast and Monty Don
14:40 Being the Blue Peter gardener
16:58 Lee’s early plant and garden memories
21:11 Time for gardening as a family
22:53 The importance of getting children interested in gardening
25:00 The role of schools and parents
27:40 Schools allotment project with Marks & Spencer
30:55 Ornamentals or veg? What has the most educational value for children?
34:53 The new book, How to Get Kids Gardening
***
Thank you to Lee for joining me on this episode. Lee's book is How to Get Kids Gardening https://amzn.to/2wQYUkc
The Skinny Jean Gardener Podcast is here http://skinnyjeangardener.co.uk/podcast
Lee on Instagram instagram.com/skinnyjeangardener.
Thanks too to Peta Coote for reading for us. You can find Peta and her work here instagram.com/nourishingsoulfully
With thanks to all my listeners for your continued support and reviews, I really do appreciate them. You can support the podcast by buying its producer a virtual cup of coffee for three quid, at https://ko-fi.com/andrewtimothyOB. Proceeds will go towards equipment, software and the monthly podcast hosting fees.
website: gardensweedsandwords.com
email: gardensweedsandwords@gmail.com
Instagram: instagram.com/AndrewTimothyOB
Twitter: twitter.com/AndrewTimothyOB
You can hear find the podcast trailer and the first four episodes here, either on iTunes or on Switcher.
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