The Genius Ways My Father Motivated His Children to Help Him in the Garden

Gardens and children need the same things, patience, love, and someone who will never give up on them — Nicolette Sowder

My Father had the skill of making things seem like a game and have fun with us. In the Autumn, after he had finished the Autumn clearing of cutting down the dead flowers and plants, he would say — “alright you lot, if you build a bonfire, I’ll buy you some fireworks as a treat. There’s no need to go anywhere else, there’s plenty of branches, and stalks, around the garden. The bonfire will go really well if you put rake up lots of leaves and put them on as well”.

Father was a Sergeant Major and he treated us like his regiment at times. Together with my sisters and brothers we were jumping and laughing. We all put on our Wellington Boots, went outside, and started building the bonfire. I still have images in my mind of my youngest brother, as a toddler, dragging a huge branch across the garden.

It never felt like work, it just felt like a game, we had a wonderful day clearing the garden for him, and when Firework Night finally arrived we really enjoyed the spectacle we had all created.

Then there was the time my cousin gave me a rabbit, he was called Geronimo. We had a large dolls house someone had passed onto us, my father covered the windows and doors with chicken wire. The back of the dolls house was a door, so it made a wonderful hutch for my rabbit.

Then my Dad and I walked up the garden and he pointed out all the things the rabbit would love to eat. They were of course weeds. So every morning I would walk up the garden before school, and pick Geronimo's breakfast. Crafty old devil had me weeding his vegetable plot each and every morning.

There were fruit bushes in our garden, but we all hated the gooseberries, probably because mother never put enough sugar with them when she cooked them. They were so sour, even now I can remember the taste. My Dad told me that if I put the rabbit droppings around the gooseberry bushes it would kill them. I must have cleaned Geronimo's hutch out every evening - but the joke was on me, because instead of killing the bushes, they produced more berries than ever.

We also had a large apple tree, Dad made an apple picker from a long piece of wood, with a 'V' cut in the top. He would then try to hook the highest apples off the tree, and we would stand around trying to catch them. I had 3 brothers and 3 sisters, so it usually worked quite well.

The mystery of the vanishing carrots. Dad thought he could never grow carrots, he said the slugs had them all. What he didn't realise was that my two naughty brothers would pull the carrots when they were young, wash the soil off in the water butt, scoff the young juicy carrots and then put the carrot top back in the original hole. Dad never realised what had happened. He probably wondered why the slug pellets didn't work.

One of the best things he did when his old lawnmower rusted out, was make a go-cart for us using the old engine. My brothers brought back an old pram from the dump, and we used the wheels. The seat was adapted from an old metal chair, that had seen better days, and he cut the legs off. It was great and resembled something from The Beano Comic.