You can make them as simple or in-depth as you like. Of course, these activities are not just for the holidays – we love to do these things every week. In fact, they form the basis of many of our home education ‘lessons’.

Rock hopping at the upper Mary River.

You don’t need to know anything about the plants, animals, lizards, insects or weather to step outside and begin exploring. Nature is out your doorstep – all you need is to be open to wandering and wondering.

Silent Spring author, Rachel Carson, wrote another inspirational book, The Sense of Wonder.  In this book, written over three decades ago, she shares an her philosophy about the importance of sharing the wonder of nature with children. She says “wonder …leads to curiosity … leads to information …leads to responsibility … leads to action”.  This simple power of discovery and connection is such an antidote to indifference.   

You don’t even need to know what you are looking for, just some curiosity, patience to sit and watch what is going on around you, and an ability to notice things. Draw and jot down your discoveries. Share your findings with each other, and through apps like Bowerbird (Check out other citizen science sites in my previous post: http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/raising-earthcarers-1.html).

Bring your questions back inside and do some research – in books, on the internet, or find people who can help can.  People who are passionate about their topic are so keen to share it, particularly with young enthusiasts.

There are great lists out there for nature play activities, for example.

Nature Play: Fun Outdoor Activities for Kids 

Nature Play Passport Missions 

We’re going to have a go at these fun, open-ended activities over the next few weeks…

Become a Naturalist (a person loves to study nature) 

Head out on a field expedition or nature quest at different times of the day, to different places with your family and friends. Be a nature detective – step outside, what do you see, what do you hear, what can you feel, what do your wonder…?  

Make a nature adventure backpack – binoculars, magnifying glass, small field guides, pen knife or scissors (for taking a sample from a plant), notebook, pencil case (pencil, eraser, ballpoint, felt-tipped pen, colour pencils), clips (for holding pages), hat, sunscreen, water. 

Draw what you see – a leaf, a seed, a weed, a flower, a tree, a bird or group of birds, an insect, tracks, scats (animal poo), clouds … Make a note of what insect calls, bird calls, other animal sounds you can hear. 

You could go into your backyard, down the street, to your local park, to a local forest, beach or countryside… For a quick expedition perhaps just take a notebook and a pencil.  Make a point of always recording your notes and drawings

(Kids – always make sure someone knows where you are heading).

Bees in the kitchen garden

Become an Astronomer (a person loves to study the stars)

Go outside at night and for some wonderful star gazing. Can you see the milky way? What constellations can you see? Do you know which ones are planets? Can you see a shooting star – why does it do that? How many satellites have you spotted? Do you know how to tell the direction from the stars? Take a picture of the night sky and leave the shutter open for 30 minutes or more (you’ll need a tripod). Learn more about the stars and constellations (get a free app eg: SkyView) 

Night sky at our place by Columbian WWOOFer Alejandro Cappa.

Become a Meteorologist (a person loves to study the sky/weather)

Go cloud watching and look for weather clues.  Learn to read the clouds. What can you tell about the weather by the types of clouds – is wind, rain or a storm coming. Draw the clouds. Research about what the different types are called and what they mean. Get a field guide about weather and clouds – such as Cloudspotter. Use your imagination too – write a cloud poem, tell a story about the pictures you see, can you see an animal, a face…? 

Become a Geologist (a person loves to study rocks)

What kinds of rocks are there in your area? Make a rock collection. Sort them. Find out what they are made of (look in your rock books or online to help with rock ID). What does that tell you about the deep history of your place? Can you find fossils? Can you draw with your rocks? What games can you make up a game with your rock and pebble collection.

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Image: National Film and Sound Archive

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• Brassica vegetable flowers are edible.
• Brassica flower stalks are edible.
• Brassica seedpods (immature ones) are edible.
• Brassica seeds are edible – mustard spinach seeds can be used to make seeded mustard.

Mustard spinach seedpods –  almost ready to harvest. Nice and plump, just need to brown off.

• Use non-hybrid seeds so you can save from year to year.
• Allow vegetables to go to seed for abundance (one lettuce = 10,000 seeds!)
• Encourage self-seeding vegetables to flourish and adapt to your garden.
• Let your garden soil be your seed bank too.
• Collect and exchange seeds.

 Other things going to seed in my garden right now include perennial welsh onion, rocket, lettuce, snow peas

Native and honey bees visiting my flowering perennial welsh onion today.

Flowering lettuce – from the daisy family.

Lettuce seeds – once the flowers have finished and dried, you can collect the seeds before they fly away.

Edible coriander/cilantro flowers.

My citrus is back in flower – the bees are all over them.

Origami Seed Packets

Maia’s origami seed packets.

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I met Jerry Coleby-Williams, ABC Gardening Australia presenter, on Sunday. He makes 900 jars of jam from one Tahitian lime tree in his suburban edible garden (Bellis) which pays for 6 weeks of his mortgage. He also sells seeds, plants and more, plus hosts open days.  Jerry’s Tahitian Lime jam. As well as selling it, he also makes enough to give away as gifts of thanks. I will enjoy this  on some lovely sourdough soon.

I love community gardens. They are great places to be inspired – to learn how to garden and live simply and sustainably.

I was delighted to be invited to be the MC for the 2016 Open Day at Yandina Community Gardens Hundreds of people came to find interesting new ideas, to learn, to see, to taste, to smell, to share, to meet new and old friends. Parliamentary Speaker and local Independent Member of Parliament, Peter Wellington, officially opened the event.

Jerry Coleby-Williams, ABC Gardening Australia presenter, was the main speaker for the day. He talked about many things, but there were a couple of things in particular that impressed me. His jam-making prowess for one (which he attributes to his Nan’s instruction – she had a Dig for Victory garden in London). Jerry’s garden in Wynnum Brisbane, is somewhat like an old-style mixed market garden from which he creates many products for home use and for sale.

Secondly , I loved Jerry’s deep connection with his garden (a diverse edible oasis in suburban Brisbane) and how closely he observes and documents what happens in it.  He set it up to be a demonstration of sustainability – but it has also become a site of scientific interest.  In his garden he has found many new species of insects and he suggests that if we take time to look, we probably have some too.

Exploring the Yandina Community Gardens with Jerry Coleby-Williams – and searching for new bugs.

How great – being discoverers of new species in your own little garden.  Jerry suggests if you don’t know what a bug is, take pictures and send it to BowerBird for identification from leading experts associated with Museum Victoria – you never know! The kids are keen to do this as a homeschooling project.

I presented too about my adventures in getting out of the consumer-waste trap and I enjoyed listening to the other speakers including:

• Anne Gibson who shared a simple way to easily create nutrient-dense food using micro-greens.
• Elizabeth Fekonia who shared how to properly prepare legumes so they don’t cause stomach upsets (and gas!). I’ll write up the lessons I learnt soon.

Anne Gibson demonstrating how to make microgreens in a reused strawberry tub. I’ll write more about these soon.

Elizabeth Fekonia demonstrated ways to use legumes grown in a permaculture garden. This year is the International Year of   Pulses (legumes).

The kids had a great time too. Maia and I found a couple of extra plants for our garden including sweet leaf. They loved the bicycle-powered smoothie maker organised by Living Smart program of the local Council. They also entered into the photographic competition judged by Leonie Shanahan of Edible School Gardens.

There’s a great permaculture nursery at the Yandina Community Gardens. We were delighted to find some extra plants to add to our diverse garden.

Maia and Hugh with Living Smart’s, Sharon Stott and Council’s bike-powered smoothie-maker. I’d love one of these at Crystal Waters!

Maia’s 2 photographic entries above – a bee landing on Salvia in our garden, and the emerging flower of Yacon indicating the swelling of the edible roots below. Both Maia and Hugh were proud to enter pictures of their garden in the exhibition.

Congratulations to Michelle, Cristina and to all the amazing volunteers for the beautiful Yandina Community Gardens and making your second open day such a fabulous event! Amazing effort – thank you!!

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Our ‘bee bush’ – the perennial basil.

What’s wrong?

Why are bees so important?

• 1/3 of all food in the world is dependent on pollination
• 3/4 pollination of main crops are pollinated by insects (most efficient are honey bees)
• so many vegetables and fruits require bees for pollination
• other pollinators include birds, bats, mammals and wind
• without bees our food sources would reduce to some grains, a few fruit species and fish. 
• grazing animals rely on clover and other bee pollinated pastures
• the more bees in your garden, the bigger your harvest will be 

.What do bees need?

• range of flowering plants makes them stronger and healthier
• plants flowering throughout the year
• open simple flowers – these are easiest for bees to collect nectar and pollen from – avoid modern hybrids with many petalled, dense flowers 
• access to fresh water
• habitat and protection – logs, hollows and homes 

My vegetable garden infused with flowers to attract beneficial insects and pollinators. Open cosmos are great, so are the fennel landing pads.

• Plant bee-friendly plants
• Avoid bee harming plants and chemicals
• Create habitat for bees and other pollinators

Create homes for native bees which also do a fabulous pollination job.

What plants attract bees?

My garden with flowering comfrey, chives, yarrow, salvia and geranium plus a little source of water for the bees.

• Basil, chives, comfrey, coriander, fennel, lavender, lemon balm, mint, mustard, oregano, parsley, rocket, rosemary, sage, thyme, yarrow,

I love watching the bees come down to land on these yarrow flowers.

• Brassicas, capsicum, chilli, cucumbers, leeks and onions, pumpkins, squash….

Female pumpkin flower

• Alyssum, calendula, cornflower, cosmos, daisies, echinacea, geranium, marigold, roses, salvia, sunflowers, zinnia

At the end of the garden bed is a collection of pollinator attractors – basil, marigold, chives, comfrey.

• Backhousia, Banksia, Brachysome, Callistemon, Eucalyptus, Grevillea, Leptospermum, Melaleuca, Westringia 

What vegies can we grow without bees?

A lettuce just beginning to flower.

Some favourite bee attractors in my permaculture garden

Red salvia is a great bee attractor that flowers for much of the year here.

The abundant flowering spikes of brassicas are so attractive to bees. I always leave lots of mustard spinach and other flowering vegetables in the garden to provide a good source of food for the bees.

Lemon myrtle attracts bees in Autumn to it’s blossoms

For more information:

More about bees, what plants to grow, and how to make an effective bee hotel, I think this resource from Valley Bees is just so useful.  Click here to read and download this fabulous free information sheet from Valley Bees.

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