Yorkshire gardener launches campaign to encourage children to get growing

Henry-Rice Smith, a professional gardener from Leeds, has helped to launch Back to the Garden, a campaign aimed at getting youngsters into gardening.

Henry - along with London gardeners Jackie Herald and Michael Holland, Tom Clarke from Bristol and M.T. O’Donnell from Glasgow - has created a 10-week gardening plan for children.

The plan features activities ranging from how to grow pea shoots in a window box, how to make your own plant pots from newspaper and jam jars and a challenge to design a garden for the future.

To make it easy for budding garderners to get going, the company Sudocrem are offering indoor and outdoor growing kits with seeds and spades to the first 100 families to come forward.

Henry said: “Gardening teaches young people the interconnectedness of nature and the science of the natural world, whilst also allowing them to explore their creativity, as every garden and every gardener is unique.

“With growing awareness of environmental crisis, understanding nature and surrounding yourself with it could not be more important and gardens, allotments and windowsills, no matter the size, can be hugely inspiring.”

Alice Bamford, from Sudocrem, said: “Encouraging your children to plant seeds and take an interest in growing can give them a long-term project to focus on, away from the computer. And the good news is, you don’t need a garden to get involved: creating a window box full of edible herbs can be just as inspiring as digging a vegetable patch.”

Visit www.sudocrem.co.uk/back-to-garden to sign up for the gardening plan or for your chance to win a gardening kit.