Growing Green Fingers By Linden Groves
Idealistic views of children’s gardening continue to charm – but are not always matched by reality.
R
osy cheeks, excited giggles, little fingers unearthing worms and sowing seeds as youngsters learn new skills – the image we have of teaching children to garden is one that has long captured adult imaginations. From pinching out tomatoes to setting up bean canes, the belief is that gardening will form wholesome characters and inspire a lifetime of sensible choices. I am one of those adults, having cajoled and marshalled hundreds of four to 11 year olds into gardening at my offspring’s state primary school in London. Over the past decade, well-meaning parents have helped children to plant wheat, woodland trees, strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, wild meadow flowers and so much more, egged on by schemes such as the Woodland Trust’s ‘Trees for Schools’, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s ‘Grow your own Potatoes’, the Real Bread Campaign’s ‘Bake your Lawn’, and of course the Royal Horticultural Society’s matchless ‘Campaign for School Gardening’, in which schools rise to various challenges from teaching the use of hand tools to holding garden open days in order to win increasingly grand certificates and prizes.
But such initiatives and a desire to help children to garden are nothing new and, being something of a historian, I haven’t been able to resist looking at examples of our predecessors’ attempts. At a second-hand bookstall in a sleepy Shropshire market town in the heart of England, I found a slim 1947 post-war guide by the name of School Gardening by G.H. Copley (National Diploma of Horticulture; Joint Organiser Lancashire County Garden Produce and Small Livestock Committee; Horticultural Consultant Member of Gardeners’ Brains Trusts).
Above: The romantic ideal of children’s gardening has long captured the imagination. Right: A school garden layout proposed in 1947 by G.H. Copley. 20
HISTORIC GARDENS Review
Issue 37