This is a catch up of some of the thing that went on in our garden and allotment over the school holidays. I set up a 6 week program of activities based on 2 sessions per week. The program covered the routine tasks such as weeding and watering which are ongoing jobs in any garden, and other seasonal tasks like harvesting the ripe fruit and vegetables, surveying insects, building bug hotels and sowing herb seeds.
Together, we tasted peas fresh from the pod, dug underneath the dying potato plants to discover fresh potatoes like buried treasure, marvelled at the magnificent marrows; which grew and grew and grew. We tasted plums, strawberries, raspberries and redcurrants. We found ladybirds, caterpillars, slugs, pond skaters and diving beetles. We tasted and sniffed all of the herbs, dried them, to scrunch them up later.
Each session varied in its attendees, so as a therapist, my job was to ensure the tasks were adapted to meet the needs of the individuals taking part. Sometimes this is the way they communicate best, the likelihood of them acting impulsively, their attention span, their sensory processing needs and the things they are most interested in.
The garden and allotment provide plenty of opportunities to adapt activities and tasks, and provide endless sensory opportunities. Sometimes I worked 1:1 with a child and their support workers, and sometimes we had a small group working together.
Reflecting on each session afterwards gave me the chance to adapt future sessions as I went along, to make them more relevant as I got to know the children attending.
We planted seeds and watched them grow, and made bug houses for the insects.
And the children focussed, listened, helped and tried new things. Some things were familiar and some things were different, some easy and some hard. They went to new places and worked with someone new to them. They listened to the wind and birds, and breathed fresh air.
