I am a great advocate for getting children involved in gardening and especially growing fruit and vegetables. I believe it gives children a great sense of achievement and by nurturing and caring for plants (my hope is) they will become adults who care for this beautiful planet too.

So, you can imagine my delight, when on visiting Kingston Lacey near Wimborne, I came across a scheme run by the National Trust which teaches children an holistic approach to vegetable growing.

Leonie Oldfield, Supervisor at the seasonal kitchen garden, takes groups of children from ages 5 – 14 and teaches them the principles of composting, sowing and harvesting plants, with hands on fun.

Without good soil, plants will find it harder to grow, so I love the fact that they are teaching the children how to compost, with containers dotted around for people to leave their compostable scraps in, which the children collect and then deposit into a composter in the shape of a pig.

Any surplus vegetables, which are not used in the restaurant, are sold by donation on a little stand, which the children have harvested and tied into bunches with string.

There is plenty of information for the adults as well, with the emphasis on making your gardens greener by reducing your carbon footprint.

They have lots of information on their website (see links) including videos, to get you started.

If you would like your child to attend one of these classes, which are running through August, then you need to contact Kingston Lacey on 01202 883402 (line 8) and if you have any spare books please take them along too. They are selling second hand books by donation, for the kitchen garden project and would welcome them, from 11 – 3pm.

With my two-week break underway, I am getting to spend lots of time in the garden, which is having a wonderful de-stressing effect on me.

I have noticed quite a few beneficial ladybirds about and lots of, not so helpful cabbage whites. So it’s a good job my purple sprouting broccoli is covered, otherwise there would be nothing left of them.

An interesting fact I picked up from the National Trust website, is that wasps, one of the most hated insects, will harvest up to 300 cabbage white caterpillars a season, taking them back to its nest for their young to feed on. Now that must be a good reason to stop hating them so much!