I have been lucky to ‘meet’ some really lovely people online, and one of the loveliest is Cathy James from NurtureStore.
Today we are all lucky as I have a quick interview with Cathy to share where I ask here about life as a Mum, her love of gardening and her lovely new book The Garden Classroom.
Kate: Tell us a little about yourself and your family.
Cathy: Hi Kate. I’m a mum of two girls, I live in the UK, and I write the blog NurtureStore, which is all about creative kids learning. We live on the edge of a city in the UK and we have a tiny garden. We really try and make the most of the space, but I always look longingly at all the space you have when you share your gardening posts! We homeschool now, but I used to run a school gardening club, where a team of 8 and 9-year-olds looked after a fruit and vegetable plot.
Kate: What lead you to write The Garden Classroom?
Cathy: I’m always sharing the activities I do with my children on the NurtureStore site, but I realised we are happiest when we’re in the garden and working with nature. So I thought I would gather together all the ideas to share them in one resource.
I’ve seen so many children benefit from being involved with gardening, in all sorts of ways, and seen how children can come alive in a garden classroom, and how school lessons can be learnt outdoors. I wanted the book to be a really useful resource both for people who are already gardening and want to add more creative play and learning to the experience, and for those just starting out who’d like someone to help them work out the best way to begin growing and learning outdoors.
Kate: Tell us a little about your garden. What is your favourite thing to grow? What is your biggest challenge in the garden?
Cathy: It’s so small. That’s the biggest challenge.
We live in a Victorian house, in a city, so we have a walled garden that is nice and sheltered. I like to grow as much as I can, packing things in, so we can experience home-grown flowers, fruit and vegetables, even if we’ll never be self-sufficient. We grow veggies in raised beds and lots of pots.
I love growing herbs, they’re great for bees and butterflies and I love brushing passed the mint and rosemary and releasing the fragrance. I grow them right outside the kitchen door so we can easily reach out and pick some when we’re cooking, and I don’t have to send the kids out in the dark or rain to fetch them from down the garden!
Kate: What is your favourite thing to cook from your garden produce?
Cathy: The children love to pick things straight from the plants and eat them there and then, so some things don’t even make it to the kitchen! Nothing beats growing your own food, does it?
I’ve included some of my favourite recipes in the book, including a great recipe for harvest soup, which is lovely as a community meal to round off the gardening year, and yummy basil pesto sauce which is so easy – my daughter loves to make that to go on pasta.
Kate: What one gardening activity should everyone have a go at?
Cathy: Grow sunflowers!
The first part of the book is called Let’s Grow! Garden Basics and I’ll take you through my top five choices for gardening with children. I’ve picked things that are really easy to grow, and which will give you such an interesting and varied gardening experience, so there’s lots for the children to learn.
But, if you’re going to make me pick just one thing, especially as a first project, it would be sunflowers. They’re so beautiful, and so interesting. You can follow the whole cycle from planting a tiny seed, watching a huge plant grow, right through to harvesting your own seeds at the end of the year. There are some fun sunflower-themed activities in the book that you can try too. We have some sunflowers growing in clear plastic pots on our kitchen table right now. It’s way to let children watch the seeds grown and it sparks lots of discussion at family mealtimes.
You can find Cathy at her blog NurtureStore, as well as on facebook, pinterest and instagram
As you can see my boys had a great time making and planing egg heads on a rainy afternoon and bookmarked a whole host of other ideas, activities and recipes that they want to try. The Garden Classroom is a lovely book full of practical information and doable activities to get everyone out in the garden, growing and learning. You can find a sneak peek inside the book and download your free garden journal pages over here at NurtureStore.
The Garden Classroom by Cathy James, is published by Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston, MA.
It is available at Amazon, Roost Books, Book Despository and many other book retailers.
Win A Copy of The Garden Classroom.
I have a copy of the Garden Classroom to give away to one lucky Australian reader. To go into the draw simply leave a comment on this post answering the following question:
If you could grow anything in the world what would it be and why?
This competition is now closed. Congratulations to Sarah who was chosen as the winner.
Entries close Monday May 4th and are open to Australian residents only – see full terms and conditions below.
Competition Terms and Conditions.
You must be 18 + years of age to enter.
You must provide a valid email address and entries are limited to one per household.
Entries close Monday May 4th 2015 at midday Australian EST.
Entries will be judged on merit and creativity.
One winner will receive a copy of the The Garden Classroom book – prizes may differ to the ones shown here.
Winner will be contacted by email and announced on this post by Wednesday May 6th 2015.
The winner must contact me within 5 days or the prize will be re-drawn.
The winner agrees to have their contact details passed on to the appropriate PR company or brand representative who will send out/organise the prizes directly.
{Disclosure: we were given a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own. }
Maxabella says
This book looks like exactly my kind of thing, Kate. Thanks for sharing it with us and hello clever Cathy, it’s nice to meet you.
If I could grow anything in the world it would be secure, happy, daring, darling grown up children. I am nuturing that garden daily, I promise!!
x
ANB says
Not sure I can trump Maxabella’s comment, but if we’re talking plants I wish I could get raspberries to grow. In coastal Perth it’s a happy daydream- not enough cold for even the low chill ones. But they are my absolute favourite fruit and post the imported berry scare I would value being able to pick my own very highly. In the meantime they are a $8-$10/punnet occasional treat!
Janine says
My kidlets love corn (and some other veges too). They get so excited when they get to use their hands and munch away, especially with a little dollop of butter on top!
What a fabulous opportunity to share nature and learning self-sufficiency at a young age – powerful activities to shape the future of our children.
Sally Allen says
At the moment I would love to be able to grow some tropical fruits. Not going to happen in my canberra garden.
Veggie mama says
oh I’ve been meaning to make these eggheads! Growing and gardening is always on my mind but I know I’m on a steep learning curve – nothing but two inner-city balconies to use, and a TOTALLY different climate to what I’m used to. Everything I’ve tried to grow so far (except the Rosemary) has been dug up by the cats, multiple times. Grrr!
If I could grow anything, it would be avocados. They’re expensive and we go though so much of them! I’d make sure we were also growing plenty of limes, coriander, and chillies and we’d never be short of a Mexican fiesta ;-)
Fiona says
I wish I could grow more of everything but unfortunately we are limited to space!! In particular I’d love to grow more veggies… broccoli right now but the bugs here love them more then I do apparently!!
Catherine says
I would grow strawberries as they are our favorite fruit and there is nothing better than eating strawberries straight from the garden that haven’t been sprayed with goodness knows what.
Stacey says
I would love to have an apple tree in my back yard but not sure I’m in the right climate for it. We eat so many apples in this house and I would love to be able to pick our own apples straight from the tree.
Justine says
I would love to grow carrots. We are big carrot lovers, hubby, kids and the guinea pigs!! It would be good not to buy 2 bags at the markets. One for the 2 legged family members and one for the 4 legged!
Joy says
I want to grow a memorial garden for my baby Ben, who died. Something his big brother can dig in, watch bugs in, and pick and eat to his little heart’s content. Lots of herbs, some lavender, roses, forget-me-nots, and a few other flowers to attract bees and butterflies and keep away pests. Some easy-to-grow veggies, too.
SLOWLY starting this in containers, since we rent.
Tracey says
that book looks lovely! We too love learning outside and I sometimes forget that all the outside work we do actually is learning.
We grow a lot, but my one dream thing would have to be bananas. We all love them, but in southern Victoria, it’s a real dream – even the cool bananas don’t really fruit here.
Aaren says
Tomatoes! I LOVE them, but I’d need a greenhouse to do it here… Have to settle for the icky grocery store ones instead.
Cara says
Oh this book looks amazing! would love to get a copy for my kindergarten as we are just starting a year long gardening project with the local school.
If I could grow anything I think I would choose juicy fresh sweetcorn, because nothing tastes better that a boiled up corn on the cob with a little bit of butter. Id grow it at work but it would take up all the space!
Thanks for this chance!
Sharon says
Would love to grow more herbs and veges at the kindy where I work! The book looks like a wonderful addition to any gardening library! :)
Kate says
If I could grow anything it would be …
A water tree ( a fictional tree that would water the other plants in garden). Watering us just not my thing!
Christine says
How funny! I’m in the middle of reading your archives, so I’m very glad I “liked” NutureStore on facebook today, otherwise I bet I would have seen this post too late.
As for growing anything in the world, I would grow a baby. My husband and I have been trying for almost three years with no luck…and I can think of almost nothing else I want more (except perhaps maybe for my stepchildren to become the best “thems” they can be. It’s a tough call.).
Linda Waghorn says
As a teacher in Early Childhood I would love to grow indiginous edible plants at our kindy. We have been talking about building a bush tucker garden with the children that includes finger limes, wombat berries and Lemon Myrtle. The children are very eager to see what these plants might look like with such curious names!
Tanya says
id love to be able to grow vegetables that don’t take 12 weeks to mature. If ever there would be some one day.
Chris says
Berries! I have memories of picking mulberries as a young child from a large tree (not ours!) so it’d be great to just go to the backyard for some fruit picking.