Happy Kids Family Day Care’s Pathway Garden

Most of the time for years now ,I would walk pass this empty boring pathway with a second look on the uneven concrete that seems to beg for a makeover .

Then I realised I had one option to make this pathway colourful , attractive and useful. I decided to create a “ Pathway Garden”. Although narrow and partly shady with a stream of sunlight from the north shining through worked well . The sunshine was just perfect giving enough sun ray to the plants. The herb plants, the vegetables and succulents seem to thrive. After 4 months of setting up the pathway garden, I decided to improve the dark brown fence by adding a short pale cream bamboo fence on the side like a red carpet looking more inviting and attractive I suppose. Our “Pathway Garden” has been looked after not just by myself but with the children of Happy Kids Family Day Care. We often use grey water to water all the plants. A worm farm also sits in the corner of the pathway garden where children would put food waste in. Having a garden encourages children to learn the importance of sustainability and how to look after plants that can actually sustain us. The children’s interest in tasting the herbs is another topic - they realised green leafy plants are yummy . Which can be added as ingredients in our cooking lessons next time. As of now, most of our plants are thriving .We had a lettuce plant that was almost eaten by a green worm or caterpillar. I’m not sure what it was, but it was the keen eyes of the children that often catches these creatures hiding on or under the juicy lettuce leaves. So you see, our colourful full of life “ Pathway Garden” has become a magical place that gives children some fun learning experiences . Glad to have seen, what something so plain and dull can become so beautiful and full of life just by adding plants. Happy Kids Family Day Care in Cammeray now has a sustainable pathway garden that we are so proud to have. We are still adding more plants and growing some flower plants like the sunflower and marigolds. There are ongoing reasons and ideas to improve our “ Pathway Garden”. More updates by November , end of spring about our “Pathway Garden”.

Written by

Maria Aggabao

Owner/ Educator of

Happy Kids FDC in

Cammeray NSW. Happy Kids FDC

is registered with Sydney Family Day Care Scheme.Maria recently won Educator of The Year - Region North Shore and the Northern Beaches.