Weslandia

One of our favourite books when the kids were a bit younger was Weslandia by Paul Fleischman. In it, a young boy creates a whole civilization based on a mystery plant he grows in his yard. A fun read in and of itself, it also lends itself well to the concepts of basic needs, the development of civilizations, and how creativity and "being different" can lead to great things.

When we pulled out the above ground pool in our backyard, we were left with a large circle of dirt. This was a goldmine for the kids that summer, who were then preschool/kindergarten ages. They used all of their digging tools and trucks and made paths and pits, waterways and dams, aqueducts and bridges and all kinds of "good stuff". It was their area, and I let them have complete control of it.

After a few weeks, some "mysterious plants" began to grow. In the spirit of Weslandia, the kids decided to let them grow. They grew all right--to about 7' high! The kids made paths and forts in there, and had an amazing time within their safe wilderness. Strangely enough, none of the neighbours complained at all. It was one of the best things we ever did with/for the kids.

I recently found these photos that show the area I'm talking about.

Amazingly, and to my own great relief, at the end of the season when the plants began to go to seed, it took less than an hour to pull it all to prepare the area for the veggie garden we started the following year. Never again did I see those plants in our yard though. I'd love to know what they were!

Since that time, I've become more relaxed at letting nature do some of the gardening. The veggies that grow from the compost always taste better, and the raspberry bushes supplied by nature give us enough to make jam to keep us going through the winter.

Milkweed, once shunned, is now appreciated for its importance to local ecology. So often we think we know better than nature, and she gently (or not so gently!) shows us how very wrong we were.

So thank you Paul Fleischman for showing us a world we would otherwise never have seen, and giving my kids and myself one of the best summers ever!