Nurturing growth

from The Oxford Times

My years as an infant teacher were not only happy, they taught me that personality and attitude to life are forged at an amazingly early age.

My grandmother, a doughty Yorkshire lady called Lucy, fostered my interest in gardening from the age of three onwards, and it's shaped my life. When I went to school, I gardened in the quadrangle as well, and I know countless others who started gardening like this.

Nowadays, smaller gardens, a lack of land in school grounds and pressure on the curriculum make gardening at school a rarity. But the children of Ickford School have been lucky enough to have their own vegetable plot at Waterperry Gardens, near Wheatley. It's part of their healthy eating project.

They've had expert help and they have just exhibited their produce in the Domestic Tent at the Thame Show. Let's hope they continue gardening and eating healthily, too.

Vegetables are a good starting point for children, as they normally take only three or four months to mature, and there are plenty of vegetables that have large seeds that are easy enough for young children to handle.

Pumpkins, squash, courgettes, runner beans and peas could all be sown next May. They can be planted in pots or trays and, once they come up, the only thing to do is harvest them. Children also like to plant potatoes and onion sets and these could go in from mid-March onwards.

On the flower front, I'd start with sunflowers and nasturtiums.

Waterperry, along with Oxford Botanic Garden, has been an inspiration for one local adult, Neil Bromhall, of Summertown in Oxford.

Neil has photographed the borders and individual plants for his Complete Gardens CD, featuring three thousand plants. It's really a plant selector and it's been voted Best Buy & Top 5 Star CD by Computer Active Magazine in the garden software category.

The idea is that you can select a plant for certain attributes, a pink flower for full sun that flowers in June, for instance. Then you can add them to your wants list'.

Neil used to be a wildlife cameraman on David Attenborough's television programmes, but his career was cut short by an accident while filming. I can see real value in his CD, which has taken years to compile, because it marries the image with the plant's name.

So often I get asked for a plant for a south-facing wall and when I mention, say, Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica, the person's eyes glaze over. I know very well what it looks like - but they haven't a clue and however good my description is, it's no substitute for a well-taken picture.

Complete Gardens comes in two versions. The Complete Gardens plant selector and pruning guide encyclopaedia, featuring 3,000 plants, costs £34.95. The Complete Gardens plant selector and pruning guide encyclopaedia, featuring 2,500 plants, costs £24.95.

The CD is available from Blackwells bookshop or can be ordered from www.complete-gardens.co.uk