Excerpt from Claire Warden's book Potential of a Puddle. Young children can often be a mystery. I have spent over 25 years working and living with them and they still teach me a great deal! In this article I am hoping to share with you some of my reflections about how children can be inspired to love nature around them whether it is in a window box, tub or garden.

A day can be spent in the happy pursuit of planting bulbs, only to find them all 'rescued' the next day. Seeds are dug up to check on their growth after a matter of hours. Virginia Stock are examined daily to check if the flowers are 'ready'. Even nature finds it hard to keep up with an inquisitive three year old.

The wonder and joy they show about the world around them is truly inspiring. As adults we read books and magazines that tell us all the benefits of having ladybirds, worms and (some) beetles as partners in our gardens. I was once introduced personally to a worm called Cedric, by my son. He taught me to look again at these minibeasts and how amazing they are. To a young child everything in your garden has a huge amount of potential, whether it is a pile of autumn leaves, a muddy puddle or some old rose petals. As adults we look at a pile of leaves and we think of clearing and preparing, when a young child sees them they see the opportunity to sing and dance in a shower of leaves. We see puddles as poor drainage, they see it as a place to splash and make a home of sticks and stones for a couple of plastic frogs. We see old rose petals and think about dead heading, they see them and leap at the chance to make some pungent rose petal perfume to sell in a shop made of an old bit of wood and a couple of bricks.

So why do we see our gardens in a different way? Some elements are certainly to do with human preferences, but a great deal is connected to the way the human brain works. All gardens are an extension of the person tending it. Many adults still marvel at minibeasts and have a real connection to nature to a point that their gardens take the form of wildflower meadows and bog areas. A garden next door may have neat rows, and precise planting. Some people have a dominant brain style that is more random and creative, others more functional, logical and precise, it affects virtually everything we do. Children display a range of talents or intelligences, that affect the way they play and learn. One child may love to plant lobelia and marigolds in rows, another will spread them out in a random fashion in a way they like.

Not only does the brain have a dominant aspect it also needs sensory stimulation. Life for some children has become too sophisticated too soon. Making petal perfume and mud pies helps them to learn about all areas of knowledge for example when you consider science they will explore consistency, capacity, adsorption, scent, and decay.

So the message from all this is to simply give them a bit of space. Perhaps there is an area of the garden that they can dig over and over and never really grow anything, or a puddle that could be developed with a few large stones and some plastic sheet to make an off road driving course. My favourite place in my childhood was a space behind an old shrub near a hedge, where I still remember concocting the best mud pies served up on a tasteful Dock leaf plate. My dad even came and bought some for a sixpence!