National Children's Gardening Week

Get the kids out in the garden for National Children’s Gardening Week next week and plant the seed of a lifelong love of the great outdoors!

The initiative, now in its fourth year, is backed by the Greenfingers Charity and National Garden Gift Voucher and Gift Card Schemes. It’s an annual festival of fun for everyone, whether you garden at a school garden, with a community group or just in your own back garden.

There’s loads going on here at the garden centre in Pickering - look out for some great activities for the whole family, as well as all you’ll need to get involved in some of the brilliant green-fingered ideas from National Children’s Gardening Week Ambassador Chris Collins. Some of the ways you and the kids can join in at home include:

• A recycled garden made from old junk: it’s amazing what you can turn into a planter, from old pairs of wellies to a spare chest of drawers!
• Edible hanging baskets: Line a hanging basket and pack it with tumbling cherry tomatoes, strawberries, herbs and trailing nasturtiums. Yum!
• Write your name in salad: Fill a seed tray or box with compost, use a stick to write your name and sow rocket seeds along the line you’ve drawn.
• Grow a pizza wheel: Mark out a wheel with stones or bricks, and sow a different pizza topping in each section: try basil, spinach, rainbow chard, tomatoes and peppers.
• Hold a garden party! Get the kids to invite friends and family around for a barbecue and make the most of the lighter evenings to enjoy your garden to the full.

You can join in with news and find out about events around the country as well as sharing your own photos, activities and achievements via social media. Children’s Gardening Week (www.childrensgardeningweek.co.uk) runs from 26 May-3 June.