Summer still...

The leaves are falling...

...but the Summer Club plants are still growing.

Amaryllis

Its that time of year again at club...amaryllis time.

Nature Nurture

Last week's reflections took the shape of having a look at the nature Vs nurture debate with regard to the young people we work with.

When we meet a young person are they 'who and what they are' because they were born that way or because society has made them that way? Most think it's a mix of both, that both can have an effect...but whatever the mixture, young people come in our doors with a whole lot of baggage we don't know about that can help or hinder the short opportunity we have to take part in that nurturing.

So this week our Adopt a Plant experiment began. Each worker got to choose a seedling for adoption (with birth certificate of course), give it a name (which was registered) and could take their seedling home to nurture as they saw fit.

No one knew the genetic make up of the seedling they took home, all they knew was from what they could see. Some took a be-draggled sad looking seedling because it needed the most attention and others sought the best looking or healthiest plant to give them the best chance of survival.

As the plants were chosen and named a relationship seemed to begin. As the days went by people talked about their adoptees. Some had re-housed their seedlings in new pots and compost , others were moving teirs about to get the best light. People swapped advice about whether to keep the existing housing and incorporate it into the new pot or when to water or feed with nutrients or if talking to their adoptee really worked.

In my role of Plant Health Visitor, I have talked to each 'new parent' about their adoptee and will as part of the Plant Social Services be checking up on all the seedlings at half term to see if they are developing and give all the 'parents' the opportunity to share their experiences so that others might learn from it.

There are also 8 seedlings which have remained in care so if there is anyone willing to offer one a home ...

Names on Adoption Plant Register

Nurturer & Nurturee

Nick & Philo
Renu & Billy
Emma & Munch
Craig & Sammy
Kelly & Vincent
Josh & Harry the Hard Nut
Jim Sebastian
Christine C & Ronan
Daisy & Petal
Rhonda & Plant
Keeley & Tristin
Jon & Pip
Christint M & Audrey
Thomas & ? (cant find name registered, you know how bureaucracy works…paperwork disappears…the case falls off our radar…all we can hope is that the parent is responsible and that we don’t read a story about the possible results of our lack of support (some might say incompetence) in the paper…

Amarwotsit

Its called an amarillus or amaryllis or something like that and about 50 weeks of the year it is just a quite boring plant with long leaves that kind of droop every so often...and then for two weeks it bursts into ginormous glorious flower...last year no one else saw it as it was during holidays but this year (thanks I believe to global warming) it has flowered early and not only that but there are two flowers where last year there was only one.

It probably seems a rather mundane little story and it won't have much to raise it above every other mundane thing that has happened this week in your life but to me its a symbol of my growth.... and is quite dear to me as one of the first things we grew from seed/bulb in club.

Look at the bottom of the blog page...thats where it started and look now...even if for two weeks of the year I could shine like that it would be enough...if I spread the hours of the 14 days over the 260 days I work that would give me about an hour a day!

Trees for Cities

Summer last year began our relationship with Trees for Cities. We started with some workshops and activities about, yes you've guessed it - trees. Then we went to a local park Alton Green and the young people made suggestions as to how the area could be developed and where they thought trees, shrubs and flowers should go in the area. More recently the young people voted for the trees and shrubs they liked best, made some decorations for the tree guards and today we planted them with about 150+ volunteers from the community and Trees for Cities.

It was a great day - I even got some sun...I suppose you will after 6 hours outdoors under blue skies even in March. We dug up the ground, planted shrubs and trees, mulched (technical term for throwing bits of wet bits of tree bark around the tree, shrub and flower beds to keep in moisture and stop weeds growing!) and decorated the tree guards with the flowers we made and even showed some other young people how to make them (including a Caitlin & Francis).

On the day there were all kind of other activities including face-painting, wood carving, mask painting, games and fire making and weaving (Emma made a chicken from reeds, as you do - it only took her an hour!).

It was lovely to see so many people from the community out today in the sunshine, working and playing together, enjoying the day and making the world a better place.