Abdul In The Garden

Abdul in the Garden

It was a holiday. Abdul was helping his Abbu in the garden. Abbu was clearing the dried leaves and grass from the vegetable beds. Abdul started to pull out the grass from one of the beds. He found that it was not easy to pull out even the small grass. His hands became red by the effort. In trying to pull out grass, Abdul knocked down a stick that was supporting the pea plant (climber). The delicate stem of the pea plant broke. Abbu said, “Why are you pulling the grass? The roots of the grass are strong. You will have to dig them out.” Abdul carefully dug out the plant. He then saw that the roots of the grass plant were longer and much more spread out than the part of the plant above the ground.

Ö The stick which was stuck in the ground fell very easily. It was difficult to pull out a small grass. Why?

Ö Do all plants have roots?

Ö Look at some plants and trees around you. Imagine how deep and spread out the roots of these are.

Ö After three days, Abdul saw that one broken part of the pea plant had dried. Guess which part would have dried up? Why ?

Abbu remembered that he had to send some radish (mooli) home. He started to pull the radish out of the soil. Abdul wondered whether these were also roots. Only a few radish were pulled when there was suddenly a strong wind and rain. Both of them picked up the radish and ran. They had just reached home when a branch of the neem tree in the courtyard broke and fell. In fact, Abbu was lucky to have missed by only a few inches. Despite the strong wind the tree remained firm on the ground. They both sat down to have tea with Ammi. Abbu said to Abdul, “The plants were getting dry. Now that it has rained, we will not have to water the plants. We can now sit and play ludo.”

Ö Why do you think the neem tree did not fall despite the strong wind?

Ö On putting water in the soil where the plants are growing, the droping leaves become fresh again. How?

Ö What do you feel, do all plants need water?

Ö Which of the plants around you need regular watering?

Ö What will happen, if nobody gives water to these plants?

Ö Abdul realised that he never watered the huge neem tree. “Where did it get its water from?” he thought. Which of the plants around you do not need watering. Where do they get water from? Make two guesses.

Ö Abdul wondered whether radish was a root. Why did he think so?

Abdul has more Questions

Nowadays Abdul keeps thinking about all kinds of plants that he sees.

Abdul saw a plant growing out of a wall in school. He wondered –

Ö How deep must the roots of this plant be going ?

Ö How do the roots get water?

Ö How big will this plant grow?

Ö What will happen to the wall?

Ö Can you give the name of the plant in the picture?

            Have you ever seen a plant growing from a crack in a wall? Where was it? Did you have any questions when you saw it?

What were some of your questions? Ask elders and find the answers. Find out the name of the plant you saw.

            Abdul saw a huge tree that had fallen on the roadside. He remembered the neem tree in his courtyard. He could see some of its broken roots. Abdul thought –

Ö Would someone have uprooted such a big tree or would it have fallen on its own?

Ö How old would this tree be?

Ö Abdul on seeing a tree surrounded by cemented ground, thought that how will it get rain water?

Let us talk

Ö Which are the oldest trees in your area? Find out from your elders how old the trees are?

Ö Name animals who live on this tree.

Ö  Have you ever seen any big tree that had fallen down? What did you think when you saw it?

Unusual  Roots

Have you swung from a banyan tree? What did you hold to swing? What looks like the hanging branches are actually the roots of the tree. These grow down from the branches until they reach the ground. These roots are like pillars that provide strong support to the tree. The banyan tree also has roots under the ground, just as other trees have.

Have you seen any tree which has roots growing from its branches?