The Ugly Gardener
Children's Book on No-Till Gardening
A Conservation Garden for Kids
by Sheila O’Riley
I’ve given numerous demonstrations on how to build a
no-till garden; many of these to children.
See the
No-Till
Gardening page for "recipe" to help you get your own no-till garden
started - so simple children can do it.
Children love the process and they learn about conservation along the
way. They can build this garden with no or little adult assistance.
The children who watch and help with the no-till garden
demonstrations learn about soil erosion and conservation, composting,
mulching, recycling, and water conservation; as well as, how to make a
garden.
One child, after helping me build a no-till garden two years in a
row, told me I should write a book on no-till gardening for children.
Aren’t children so intuitive? He
didn’t realize how much work it is to write a good book and it is even
harder to find a publisher willing to publish it. He simply liked
building and planting a no-till garden and wanted other kids to be able
to build their own gardens.
None-the-less, it was a fantastic idea. There are lots of
environmental and quality of life benefits from no-till gardens. What a
great way to get the message out and, especially, to children, adults of
our future.
Thus, I sat down at my computer and wrote a story. I simply took
the facts from the hundreds of children I’ve helped to build no-till
gardens and mixed in a little fiction to hold a child’s attention. You
might call it a fact-ional story. Then I took a class on writing for
children and edited the book again and again.
My goal for this book is three-fold:
- educate children on environmental issues
- give instructions for building a simple no-till garden that is especially appealing to young people, busy people, and disabled or elderly people.
- provide a tool for educators to use in environmental education.
Summary of
Book
A
Conservation Garden for Kids is in an educational story on how to
build a no-till garden. Children, Mika and Andy, who have helped their
grandfather garden, believe they are ready to make their own garden.
Their grandfather tells them they are not big enough to make a garden as
it requires lots of muscle to till the garden. The children learn from
their neighbor, The Ugly Gardener, that a garden does not need to begin
with tilling or turning the soil over. Mike and Andy enlist The Ugly
Gardener’s assistance to make a garden all by themselves. The Ugly
Gardener walks Andy and Mica through the process of building a no-till
garden. The children learn about soil erosion and conservation,
composting, mulching, recycling, and water conservation through the
process of making their garden. They are overjoyed about building the
garden themselves and are anxious to teach their father the conservation
lessons of The Ugly Gardener.
Genre –
The story is written for middle to upper elementary school children.
There is an appendix at the end of the book of
The Basic No-till Garden Recipe.
All instructions to build the garden are on this one page for quick
reference. Thus, the book can grow with the children and adults can use
it for reference, also. Environmental educators and elementary school
teachers could use this book as a teaching tool. Anyone who reads the
book will be able to teach others how to build a no-till garden. It’s
that easy.
To read excerpts from A Conservation Garden for Kids by Sheila O’Riley, click on the following links to excerpts you can read or print.
Composting excerpt - children in a discussion about composting
Kids share their knowledge excerpt - kids explaining to others what they have learned from the Ugly Gardener
New topsoil excerpt - explains what topsoil is
Recycling excerpt - how building a no-till garden involves recycling