Press Trip¦ Did you know that less than 10% of children can name a single variety of English apple? A shocking number of children in the UK don’t know many of the basics about fruit, vegetables and herbs grown in this country. A large number are unable to identify basic gardening tools and 73% have never grown a sunflower. A couple of weeks ago, we attended an event at Clifton Nurseries in London for the launch of Sudocrem’s Get Out and Grow campaign.
When I was growing up, I absolutely idolised my Grandad, as he did me. One of his other great loves was gardening. From the age of 15 he’d collected cacti, eventually owning thousands, knowing all their Latin names and facts about them. He also enjoyed all other kinds of plants and was always up for a challenge. One year we brought some sea beans back from a holiday in Cornwall for him to try growing, which he successfully did. He loved bright, colourful flowers and created the most beautiful borders both in the back garden and front garden. People would often stop as they passed to admire his work. Meanwhile, his apricot tree produced the most delicious, sweet, juicy apricots I’ve ever tasted.
Naturally, I’d spend a lot of time in the garden with him. I remember watching him garden as a toddler and him going to one of the greenhouses to get me a kneeling pad so I could help him. I really enjoyed those sunny afternoons planting flowers with him and have always appreciated a pretty garden since. Whilst I wouldn’t describe myself as a keen gardener as such, I do enjoy gardening and wish I found more time to dedicate towards it.
Of course, it was inevitable that when I had my own child I’d recreate some of these experiences with her. I started last summer, when she was only one and a half years old. I bought her her own watering can and she loved helping me to water the garden every evening. Recently, she’s helped me to plant sunflowers, tomatoes, chives and potatoes. Gardening is such a fun activity that we really enjoy doing together. I can’t wait until the chives have grown just a little taller so that she can reap the rewards of what she’s grown for the very first time!
Autumn is now only 2 and a half, so it might be difficult to drag older children away from technology and convince them that gardening is just as much fun, if not more so! A recent study showed that less than 10% of children have dug up a vegetable and only 20% have eaten a vegetable they’ve grown themselves. Perhaps if more grew and tasted their own produce, it would give them a buzz of satisfaction, giving them the gardening bug.
I never did gardening at school, so I suppose that if I hadn’t done gardening with my Grandad and parents then I may have been in much the same boat as these children. It would be fantastic if more schools did gardening with children. In fact, I would love to see a proper gardening class added to the curriculum. For decades it was the norm for children to play outside, building dens and climbing trees. However, that has all changed with the advent of consoles and the internet. Along with it there has been a loss of important skills. The aforementioned study showed that only just over half of children had ever weeded a garden or planted a seed.
Sudocrem’s Get Out and Grow campaign encourages families to get outside, plant and grow! There are many benefits to doing this. Spending time in nature is good for mental wellbeing and learning gardening skills is good for a child’s development. Children are also more likely to eat vegetables if they’ve grown them themselves! As anyone who has ever grown their own produce knows, it always tastes far better fresh from the garden than bought from the supermarket.
The magical Clifton Nurseries was the perfect place for Sudocrem to hold their launch event, as London’s oldest nursery. They encourage gardeners of all ages, inspiring a love of nature than spans across the generations. Situated in Maida Vale, the historic Clifton Nurseries is absolutely beautiful. It is no wonder that it has won multiple Chelsea Flower Show gold medals and has worked with HRH The Prince of Wales, Cartier, Christies and Harper & Queen. As I perused, Autumn’s laughter filling the morning air, I felt it impossible not to feel inspired.
After a story, the children gathered around crates of compost to dig up potatoes and carrots, much to their delight. Then, they each got to plant some sunflower seeds in a large Sudocrem pot (a great idea for recycling when we get to the bottom of the one we’re using!) This campaign encourages children to get gardening and have fun, as well as offering lots of advice!
We then had an amazing cake made by Great British Bake Off Winner, Frances Quinn. If I hadn’t been told it was cake, I would have thought it was real bulbs in the plant pots.
A cross section showed the bulbs even went below the surface. She had even made mini cakes for the children! The cake was absolutely divine and I was over the moon to receive a copy of her recently published book which contains the recipe.
Autumn, who was already in a rambunctious mood but was now fuelled by cake, ran off to explore the nursery. Following her, I was delighted to see the variety of plants on offer.
Autumn received a lovely goody bag containing lots of essentials for gardening as well as a T-shirt, so that we can continue our gardening adventures. She delighted in pretending to water the plants at Clifton Nurseries with her new watering can! It also contained a cute little pot of Sudocrem – perfect for looking after small hands after they’ve been working in the garden. Any little cuts and scrapes will be healed in no time!
Would you like your chance to win your very own Get Out and Grow goody bag?
There are two up for grabs! Enter using the widget below.
Sudocrem Get Out and Grow Goody Bag
Disclosure: We were invited to this event, where we were given a goody bag in return for our attendance. All views and opinions are honest and my own.
"A literacy campaign by" Sooper Books© | Free Bedtime Stories
My little one is two and love shelling me in the garden
What a lovely prize 🙂
We are growing salad crops
I’ve just bought a lot of bee-friendly seeds so they would be first.
we have alot of work to do in our garden as we not long moved in hoping to plat lots of bee friendly plants liek lavender!
We are entering a local sunflower growing competition so that will be first on the agenda
Over the weekend we planted potatoes and dwarf French beans. We plan to do tomatoes and swan guords (for a bit of fun) next x
Wow, that does sound fun! x
We’ll be growing tomatoes.
THE GRANDCHILDREN WILL BE HELPING GRANDAD WITH HIS VEGATABLE PLOT
Strawberrys and tomatos
My little girl is going through a phase of wanting to buy seeds wherever we go and then wanting to plant in our garden so hopefully we will have lots growing soon
Aww, that’s so cute!
We always plant strawberries and tomatoes!
I really want to plant some fruit and veg this year with my son!
We are planning on strawberries and sunflowers!
We just got some wildflower seed packets so that is happening very soon!
We will be growing lettuce and tomatoes 🙂
We are growing gooseberries and redcurrants.
Ooh, interesting!
We have started planting but we still have some sunflowers and veg to do.
sunflowers peas Tomatoes
I think we are going to give strawberries a go this year.
My daughter has a sunflower she has planted at school that will be going in our garden
potatoes and tomatoes
We are growing potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce.
We are going to grow our first sunflower! Xx
Think it will be some lovely succulent tomatoes
Great prize ,my granson will love it if lucky enough .
We like growing flowers and I have some seeds for them to grow
Wonderful idea!
We are going to grow peas this year
We started planting our garden this morning
We’re growing sunflowers and potatoes
My daughter loves growing sunflowers (because of their flowers) and beans (because of the Jack and the beanstalk story).
At the minute were growing peas but we’d love to grow more goodies
Got lots of annual flowers seeds as I have a huge garden with lots of space to fill and growing some organic veggies too
Hoping to get to a garden centre to choose some flowers to put in our patio containers.
we’ll be spending some time up in the lakes taking walks and enjoying the countryside as well as a break up to the highlands to visit friends xx
we’re growing tomatoes
Wow my 3 children would love this .. fingers crossed
Sunflowers 🌻
I’m hoping to get some planters filled with bulbs this year so my son can enjoy helping too
Some flowers for our hanging baskets
At the moment we’ve just planted some sunflowers – but would love to add a wild animal flower garden or bee garden, and some easy to harvest veggies!
We love growing giant sunflowers and seeing who can grow the tallest ones!
We will be growing a sunflower and some strawberries
Would love to win this …such a great prize
We’ve already planted seeds for cherry tomatoes, strawberries and peas. Planting them into bigger pots soon 😍
Lots! Sunflowers, tomatoes, strawberries, peas and beans
we have been planting fruits and vegetables
We’ve just been re-potting lettuce and we’ve sown seeds for sweet peas. Also they’ve been trying cress seeds on damp kitchen paper
Our family are green fingered so this sounds great to get minion involved in!
We have planted some British wild flower seeds
We will be planting wild meadow seeds to encourage bees and butterflies
My little one loves to grow strawberries and radishes
Lots of veggies
Lots of herbs and potatoes
We planted tomato seeds at the children’s centre today 🙂
tomatoes some herbs and what ever flower seeds the kids choose
Can’t wait til my little one is old enough to help me out in the garden and make mud pies!
We have been growing Carrots.
My son and I were in the garden centre today picking up some Sweet Pea to grow in the garden.
Because I have fibromyalgia I am looking for things that I can do with my son. Growing plants is something I can do without running around. and it can help the environment is a bonus.
Viola, etc as colourful for the garden. Maybe some herbs.
sunflowers for us
We love to grow tomatoes and berries 🐆
Lovely giveaway 😊
We always grow strawberries in the garden and myself and my children enjoy helping my mum at the allotment. My favourite are the peapods! x
I love encouraging my grandchildren to help me in the garden!
we will be growing lettuce, tomatoes, different types of veg. our granddaughter loves helping her granddad in the garden
We’ll be growing peas, lettuce and radishes
Hoping to plant a sunflower with my granddaughter, so she can watch it grow
Sunflower and herbs
we are growing peas x
Blueberries, tomatoes and herbs.
last year my granddaughter planted some sunflower seeds, several of which grew into huge sunflowers, so I think we will do that again this year.
We’ll be growing tomatoes and potatoes this year.
I’d love us to grow some herbs to use in cooking.
We always make a runner bean teepee. Let the beans grow around hazel branches made into a teepee. It’s a great den for the kids
Spring onions 🙂
Lots of walks to our local forests where we love to scoot and search for mini beasts x
Great prize. Strawberries and raspberries