This year’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was all about edible gardens and home-grown produce. Gavin Haines reports on a food revolution that’s gaining momentum.

It might have all the charm of Chelsea but the appeal of the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show runs far deeper than aesthetics.

A perennial favourite in gardening circles, the exhibition started in 1990 and it has always had an emphasis on grow-your-own – but never more so than now.

Organisers of the event launched a new home-grown exhibit this year and participants rose to the occasion.

The show’s standout gardens were ones that proved you can have a garden that looks beautiful and keeps your larder well stocked.

Celebrity chef Gary Rhodes, who owns Rhodes South in Mudeford, took part in this year’s show to provide inspiration to visitors who wanted to produce their own food. He’s the latest in a long line of chefs to extol the virtues of growing your own, echoing the likes of Jamie Oliver and former Dorset resident Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

The unveiling of the show’s edible gardens last week coincided with new research about the positive effects that gardening has on children. The study, conducted by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), found that gardening in schools provided a vital tool for children’s learning and encouraged them to embrace a healthier, more active lifestyle and become more confident.

“As the new coalition government considers a new approach to the primary curriculum, we hope they acknowledge the striking conclusions of our research – that gardens enable a creative, flexible approach to teaching that has significant benefits,” says Dr Simon Thornton Wood, director of science and learning at the RHS. “Schools which integrate gardens into the curriculum are developing children who are much more responsive to the challenges of adult life.”

The study found that getting youngsters into gardening helps them get in touch with the origins of their food, encouraging them to eat more healthily and become more inclined to cook for themselves when they’re older.

Gardening is also a great way to find some common ground with nippers and what better time of the year to get them involved, with plants and trees starting to bear the fruits of your labour? Perhaps if you cook them something nice with your home grown grub, you might have a budding gardener in the family.

If you would like to start a gardening project in school then visit edibleplaygrounds.co.uk, a website supported by Dorset Cereals that helps schools and children come together to “sow it, grow it and eat it”.