Phil & Kate:
Hi, Kate. Hi, Phil. So here we are. We've literally just finished at the Garden Media Guild Awards, and.
We've been hobnobbing with the, the great and the good today, and it's.
Been absolutely fantastic. And we were guests of Evergreen Garden Care, bless them. They were fantastic. Really, really kind of them to invite us along.
It was a lovely, lovely lunch. We're at the Savoy and it was beautifully decorated, lovely food and, lots of lovely people getting wonderful prizes. Yeah. Great work.
Yeah, absolutely. And on our table, surprisingly enough, was Ade Sellers. Who was our guest last week.
I know, he’s so lovely.
So, this week we're going to be talking about getting kids into gardening.
At the end of the day. We need children, young people to get gardening. Otherwise you know there's going to be no horticulture left.
Exactly. And one of the key things I think from that is the fact that the at the moment, there is no gardening in schools at all.
There's very little I mean, you've got the RHS doing their schools gardening campaign, but that's not in the curriculum. There's nothing that is there that children have to do to learn about gardening.
Yeah. And one of the first people we ever spoke to on this podcast was Lee Connolly.
The Skinny Jean Gardener.
And he's absolutely fantastic and a real champion for getting kids gardening.
Absolutely.
And, this week we're going to be talking to Ross Dyke
Ross and Lee Connolly again, which is going to be great. So we're going to be chatting with them. And Ross has got a special program that he wants to talk to us about.
Well, what is just so wonderful is that Ross has come up with this amazing idea to encourage children in schools to get growing, and it's a kind of growing success plan using sun flowers. And Lee Connolly has come along and really supported him and really helped get him in contact with people. And just giving him the confidence to get going.
That's kind of one of the things I love about horticulture is that a lot of people support each other.
Yeah, it's really fantastic because this isn’t Ross's day job. You know, Ross works with, young people in a in a sort of. I think it's like a farm. Anyway, we'll talk to him and find out exactly what it is he does. But he works with young people, which is great. But he had this idea, and he's really seeing it through, which I think is really good.
I still come off his own back to get, get to get these children gardening, and it's just brilliant. He's even putting the seeds in packets himself.
Yeah.
Bless him. So. Well, I'll tell you what. Why don't we stop this chatter now? Yeah.
Because there's lots of people coming and going.
Yeah, there's Michael Perry.
Another of our guests.
And we will crack on with the show.
Absolutely.
Phil:
So, Ross, perhaps we can start with you. Can you just give us a little bit of background about yourself?
Ross:
Yeah. So, I started in horticulture about ten years ago, started with Webbs Garden Centres. And I worked in their warehouse for a bit. Upon finding out that I do actually like plants and learning more about them. I managed to move to their nursery where I did a crop technician apprenticeship. And then from that, I've gone on to my degree course at Pershore college, which is in horticulture.
And I work for a special educational needs alternative education provision as a crop technician.
Kate:
So you work for a special educational needs provision as a crop technician?
Yes.
Just, explain that. But because I used to work, in a special needs centre for people with all sorts of different disabilities just teaching them gardening. So to have somebody who's crop specialist, what what does that entail?
Ross:
So we grow all sorts of seasonal fruits and vegetables on the farm. We then sell them. We've got a stall. I like an honesty stall outside our gate where we put the produce and honesty box. We then teach the children as well, how to cook with those vegetables. On top of that, we sell fruit to farm shops.
We produce our own apples. Our own apple juice. We've got a cut flower business as well.
Kate:
Wow. Amazing.
Phil:
And, Lee, perhaps we could just get you to just introduce yourself to anybody who is not aware of you and what you do.
Lee:
Yeah. So, I’m Lee Connelly, also known as the skinny Jean gardener, and, I have been, for almost 12 years now, been, getting children excited about gardening and schools and support and teachers as well. So it's a really big push for me. Because I, as a child myself, I think talked to you both about this before…
I never got to garden when I was younger. And now I have my daughter and I get to go into schools, and I'm a governor of my daughter's school as well. I get to see the incredible, things that schools can do and could do as well. So, for me is about educating children and, and also, you know what?
Something I've been talking about a lot more recently is, creating memories between teachers and children, but also parents and children as well, because being outside can really build a connection that screens just can not do. So, so yeah, that's about me.
Kate:
Thank you. So what can you tell us about the inspiration behind the Get Children Growing initiative?
Ross:
Yeah. So, obviously Lee's a big campaigner for bringing horticulture to the curriculum, and there are so many other people out there as well to do the same. And, I sat back in 2023 and said, how can horticulture come on to the curriculum? I started making notes in a book where we could do this. We could do that.
And then the idea of a, sustainable grow kit came to me. So I kind of wrote a mini business plan, but, it was all over the place. If I'm honest. I didn't think it was out right. But then I sat on it for about six months and didn't do anything with it. And I remember me and my partner, and my son went on holiday with my mum and dad for a few days in Wales and I was like, right, sit down, I'm going to pitch you something.
And I started pitching them the idea. And my dad at the time like kind of looked at me and was like, yeah, that could work. But then I still sat on it. And then after meeting Lee and doing my podcast with Lee, I sent Lee the business plan.
Lee:
The reason I loved it so much was, was because, you know, I've talked about this quite a bit, that it's difficult to get children gardening at school because there's not enough support for teachers, there's not enough money out there.
And the things that I'm currently doing with, with the government and trying to get that into the curriculum on the side with my, slightly larger program of school garden success. There wasn't something there that was one free for schools or cheap enough for schools to be able to delve into. And also something really, really simple that teachers can do.
So when and when we met and he spoke about it, I thought, this is this is perfect for being able to, be easily approachable for schools and easy for them to get into. So I loved it mate!
Ross:
It was mainly sitting down and like you say, either having it free or cheap for schools. Yeah, the other grow kids, you're talking £10 to £15 per grow kid.
But it doesn't have to be that price. Do you know what I mean? You can get the price down affordable enough for schools to be able to do it. And I'm lucky with this trial year next year that it is going into schools free.
Kate:
That's amazing.
So can you tell us then what age your, targeting and what made you focus on sunflowers?
Ross:
So ages 4 to 10. That primary school age for now. And sunflowers. Just because they're easy to grow. But you get so many different varieties. Different colors, different sizes. Dwarf, extra tall, you know, and there's so much variety out there for the sunflowers, that I thought kids would really like it.
Phil:
And it's for a class or what had. Just tell us a bit about the kit.
Ross:
Yeah. So the kit is you will get compost, pot, seeds, fact and activity sheet and it'll be one per student. So rather than having 1 or 2 per class we'll do one per student. So the 30 students they get 30 kits. So each kit is sustainable. So it's biodegradable, it's compostable, it's recyclable, uses recycled materials.
And the kit as a whole is a a is a sunflower kit. It's compost. It's a pot. It's seeds.
Kate:
Is this to do at school as a class or can they take them home and do them. How do you kind of keep tabs on it really I suppose.
Ross:
So for the start, I was saying it's got to be done in schools. It has to be done in schools. But when you look at how sunflower flowers over the summer holidays is where the main part of it is. So the idea, would be they start it off in schools, but they can take it home for the summer holidays, and then by the time they come back to school, they can bring the sunflower back, which is where the headmaster or the headmistress or the teacher of the class can pick the best looking sunflower, or they can bring pictures in to show, and the best looking sunflower would then get a prize.
Phil:
Yeah, so it's a competition.
Lee:
Yeah, yeah. It touches on so many different points as well because like a sunflower, in itself, we can, like, it’s exciting right? And we love to have some flowers grow. How tall? That is the best part for children to be able to physically see. But also sun flowers, like growing from seed. And then you're talking about the compost, the soil that it's going to go into the ground like they've grown from seed.
And also I love (and I'm a bit weird like this,) but I actually love the end of the sunflowers life as it starts to dry up and disappear. Because, you’re then touching it into wildlife, which I think is a brilliant thing. So from one plant you're talking about growing and you're talking about wildlife at the same time. And and like, Ross said, about taking it home. That is one of the biggest problems we have within school education: is and I know, I know as a parent that when you, go and pick your kids up after school and you say, what have you been up to? Always the answer is, I don't remember. I meant, you don't remember what were you doing five minutes ago? And that whole connection between school and home is missing. Where? Like what you said you bring in that plant home, you're getting the family involved as well. There's so much involved here, which I love so much.
Kate:
Yeah, absolutely. How important you've talked about the compost? Are we talking about peat free compost? You've said that the pots are recyclable. How important, is that in making it environmentally friendly?
Ross:
I think if you're going to educate children in horticulture for the next generation coming into the industry, you need to promote what's going to be in the future. So you need to promote the sustainability of it. It will be peat free compost, because that is the direction we’re going in. And you know, we've got the government ban on it.
Kate:
Hopefully.
Ross:
Yeah, hopefully. And just in general teaching kids about the peatlands. So why are we using peat free? And that will come with the educational materials of why we are using peat free.
Kate:
Have you got a company that is providing you with the material with the compost?
Ross:
Yeah. So Westland Horticulture.
Kate:
Right. Okay. Brilliant.
Ross:
Yeah. And then the pots are the taupe pots are, they're curbside recyclable, they’re also made from recycled material. You know, curbside recycling. It doesn't sound a lot, but when you recycle something and it goes to that recycling plant, you have to have people on the machines pulling out the black plastic or the green plastic or the red plastic.
So with the taupe colour, the machines can pick it up. So, when I say curbside recyclable, it means that no one's on that machine having to pull it out. So it in theory saves money for the recycling companies as well.
Kate:
Okay. I didn't know that. That's really interesting. So we're talking taupe which is that kind of beige colour. Is that right?
Ross:
Yeah.
Kate:
Okay. Oh no. That is that is interesting. So, what kind of feedback have you received from schools and parents? So far about this initiative?
Ross:
So Pershore College put a press release, for me, I was in all the local papers in my area and in the Pershore area I was on, BBC Hereford and Worcester with Tammy Gooding talking about it. And just from that press release, the amount of e-mails that come in with applications was unbelievable. And then I've had a few nurseries contact me who want to take part in it.
But they start from four months old, up to four years old. So then, in my head, I was racking my head, how can I do it for those children as well? So I went and visited, a couple of the nurseries, and spoke to them about it. They showed me a growing space that they have.
And we are going to still provide some flower kits to them. But maybe not all the educational materials because it wouldn't work with the children.
Kate:
And there's, there's nothing out there for, you know, the gloves are too small. Aren't small enough that there's just not the material. But they do want to get involved, even if it's just for five minutes to get that attention. Start them at that age and hopefully you've got them for life.
Phil:
I mean, it sounds like a fantastic initiative. How did your partnership with British Garden Centres and, and the other organizations that you've partnered with come about?
Ross:
I think that’s down to Lee if I’m honest because. I’m right Lee?
Phil:
Why don't you tell us about that?
Ross:
You advise me to send it to British Garden centres.
Lee:
Yeah. I'm really lucky to be able to. I've done a few bits with British garden centres in the team there, and I really love their whole ethos of time behind what they do. And, when, me and Ross, spoke for the first time, I’d literally just finished doing some sessions there, around Children's Gardening.
And so I knew that they, that that they were behind that sort of thing. And so, yeah, so we sort of introduced Ross to him and yeah, I think they're a really good partnership. Again, garden centres are one of them things which are so important to our industry. We really support I mean, we need to build that connection between children, our future gardeners and the garden centre to keep them going. So I feel like it's a nice little link there.
Phil:
So what would you suggest to people? Maybe in the garden product manufacturers or garden centres or professional gardeners and landscapers, how could they get involved in projects like this.
Ross:
Make it affordable and make it affordable for schools and parents? If you're in a garden centre and, and the only grow kits that are there are £15, not every parent can afford that. The cost of the materials probably wouldn't even cost 5 pound. So you need to bring it down and give them, in my opinion, give them a product that's affordable and educational.
Lee:
Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I think at the end of the day, we, and again, as an industry, we're fighting against, children not going to go to the zoo or to a play centre or to, a trampoline park. So you can, you can spend £15 on a grow kit, or you can spend a day at a trampoline park.
And 90% of children are going to say Trampoline Park, right? So you are right. We need to make it more affordable. I think going to schools is a great idea, because we've also got a huge generation of parents that don't really garden at the moment. So if we can use that as an epicentre at the schools to branch out to, families afterwards, I think that’sa perfect way of doing it, I think if I’m honest with you, as an industry we need to stop paying lip service to saying, we need to get more children gardening.
That is brilliant, right? I love that, you know, schools and gardening. I could sit here all the time and say that, but we actually need to do something about it and pour some money into it as well. Because at the moment we're saying we need younger people in our industry, we need to get people that come from school, but we’re doing nothing at the moment about it.
In a couple of weeks time, a little humble brag from me, but I'm off to Parliament and I'm going to be surrounded by the Titchmarshes and all these sort of people and all different sorts of Lords. And, Lordeses? Is that the right word? And we're all going to sit there and say, we're going to say, that we need to get more children gardening.
Well guess what? A year ago we did exactly that.
Kate:
Said the same thing. Yeah.
Lee:
Nothing's changed. Right? Apart from obviously government has changed. We can't as an industry sit around and wait for government to do stuff. We need to start showing what we can do.
Kate:
And one of the things that I wanted to pick up Lee, what we talked about last time was this tendency to kiddify gardening in garden centres. And I think that also that puts on the price, doesn't it? If you making something specially look cute and pink and everything that's going to cost more money and children don't need that because they kind of play with it for a bit as a novelty and then forget about it is yet another plastic, pink or blue kind of toy.
So let's kind of stop kiddifying gardening, make it real so that kids learn from an early age. This isn't just a toy, it's not just something to play with. This is something. This is life. You know? This is a life skill and it's so important.
Lee:
I love how you've kept the word kiddify going as an actual word in the dictionary now, but, we need to stop treating children like children when we're talking about gardening at the end of the day. So, yeah, you're right. We don't need these colourful tools because parents and I mean children want what their parents have got. And if they, if it's if gardening is made out to be the some sort of, you know, I mean, I have to say it but like, a quick throw away, McDonald's item then, children aren't going to want to keep going and keep that interesting interest flowing.
So yeah, we need tools that actually, feel like proper tools for kids and, and them to feel part and trusted and have that responsibility around gardening.
Kate:
And hopefully that'll bring the cost down as well. So, so, so, Ross, you've talked about educational materials. Can you tell us a little bit more about what comes with the kit, as well as the kind of actual, tangible things they can grow?
Ross:
Yeah. So I'm still actually working on the educational materials. I've got everything in place, but I'm still working on them. So they'll be a factsheet. They'll be word searches, crosswords, but not all the same. So, if me and you are in the same class, we take out the activity sheet with a word search and a crossword.
We're going to have different ones. There's 5 different ones that are going into it. So you can copy off me, or I couldn't copy off for you because we might have completely different ones. And then there’s videos about to be recorded as well. So I'm going to record a start up video. Where kids can go on when they get home and look, or the school can show them on the school computers and it'll be what it is, why it's sustainable or, why we need it to be sustainable.
And then as the weeks go on, a new video will get added. So how to plant a seed, now the seed germination. Now we've got to look after that seed and fulfill it into a sunflower. And each few weeks a new video will come out.
Kate:
So I hear, you talked about prizes, a bit of a competition. What are some of the unique, prizes that are going to be offered, and how will that encourage future learning?
Ross:
So the prizes that I was going for were birdhouses, bug hotels, paint your own birdhouses, build your own bug hotels, nature Explorer kits, and even other like of not necessarily grow kits, but like, grow your own herbs on your windowsill kits and just to send it with the, birdhouses and the bug hotels to build them paint and do it all yourself and then put that up and then see what birds go in and, see what bugs are, going into the bug hotel.
And then with the little grow kits that you give for the windowsill gardening, where they can use it to eat or put in food or, you know what I mean, and just try and keep that nature aspect of it and that growing aspect of it continuing.
Kate:
So, Lee with your work on children's gardening, what advice would you give to parents wanting to inspire a love for gardening at home? And, can you share any fun garden hacks for kids that make planting that bit more exciting?
Lee:
I think, I know I've always said this is I think that giving children their own space to grow is really, really important because it gives them, again, that sense of responsibility. I love when parents come to me and they say, oh, we did this. We gave them their own little area to grow in in the plants died. And then we just had complete tears and I'm like, yeah, what? Why is that? Because they didn't look after them right? And that's a really important lesson that children need to learn that plants, and in life we need to look after stuff and actually work to get that result, we need to work towards it. So I really do think that whatever space you've got, whether you've got like even just, an outdoor, just outside your front door, you can have a pot for the children to, to grow in. I think that is probably the biggest thing we can do is give them their own space. And also, if you've got a garden, the kids have got their own space to play around in and get their hands mixed. It means you've got more time to do the ball and job of weeding and why it's and honestly make such a big difference. Because I remember as for myself, with Olive, when she was outside, having that mud kitchen for her to play in while I'm doing other stuff was an absolute godsend because it meant she was so happy just getting her hands messy and throwing seeds about. She thought she was planting stuff up and that's all that matters. Why she was solving it when she was little.
Nowadays, when she's nine years old, that the, the attraction of screens is more of the fight at the moment. But yes. Yeah, I think giving them that space is probably the biggest thing we can do for children and the best way to get them started.
Phil:
And make them exciting as well. You know, I remember seeing you posted something, Lee, about it. You and, Oliver did a competition. Both. You both had a pot. You did Jurassic Park. She did princesses or fairies or something in Fairy Garden. You know, I mean, that's really exciting for a little kid especially, you know, my pretty boys when they were little, really into dinosaurs. That would have been amazing for them, they would have absolutely loved that.
Lee: (24:57)
Yeah, it was so much fun. We did that in the summer actually. And she is so competitive as well. Parents are competitive, and children are. Right. So if you've got, a chance where you can just, simply with a pot, turn them into what you want to and also be able to watch them grow as well. It's so exciting. Like every time we come out, we still got them pots just outside of where I'm speaking to you now. And she comes round and sees how they growing. And it's just that continued excitement about, something that we did together.
And I spoke about it early on in the, in the podcast, but about memories as well. We've got that memory together. We spent the day, we went to the garden centre, bought some plants and talked together over a cup of tea at the garden centre about what we can find and come back in the afternoon and got our hands messy and it was just so much fun. So again, we're creating those memories, something that she's going to remember in her teenage years and onwards. So yeah, it's a great way.
Kate:
Yeah. I always find that, using something that's really highly scented evokes memories, doesn't it? They stay with you for a long time. A lot of people talk about, you know, lavender with the grandmothers and things like that, and also plants that move, that kind of react to you. Anything that kind of stimulates those extra senses, I think really helps.
Phil:
And am I right? I saw something about winning a day with Lee or Lee coming to your school or something? What on earth is that?
Kate:
Oh wow, that sounds exciting.
Ross:
So I wanted to put a bow on Lee and have Lee as a prize.
But I spoke to Lee, and he kindly agreed to it. So all the schools that take part would be put into a raffle, and then, one that came out, I would get a nice day with Lee.
Kate:
That's brilliant.
That's such a good idea. I love that that that's a really good.
Lee:
It's very nice as well because we get to continue that connection with that school. Get to be able to see how they get in on get to find out what went well, what they could improve on. You know, there's so much involved in that as well. It's not just seeing me, which is lovely I know. But yeah.
Phil:
Is there anything else that you think, retailers could be doing to help attract parents, who want to introduce their kids to growing? And are there any trends in children's gardening that, might present new opportunities?
Ross:
I think for the getting parents into it, you need to make it stand out there and explain to them what it does for children with the mental health aspect, the exercise aspect, learning about ecosystems, learning about germination and propagation. And you need to push, why that's good, why that's cool, if you get what I mean.
Kate:
Why isn't it on the curriculum? Just hearing you say that Ross. It's just… this is a subject. It's such a great subject. It's just, don't get me sad, but it's just madness that it's not part of the curriculum.
Ross:
So, my argument is you can bring horticulture into everything. So rather than when you're doing first years educational maths: rather than seeing how many seashells are there? Why can't it be how many plants are there? Then science would be ecosystems looking at root growth, looking at rhizome bacteria, you know, getting the plants under the microscope and dissecting them and seeing the different parts of the plants.
You know, most schools out there have got the equipment to do that and have got the microscopes to do it. And I'm sure if they didn't, there are ways that the schools can get the microscopes from the government. And explain why they need them, and why it will open up, more education, for the children.
Kate:
I mean, history as well. Geography. Look at plant hunters. The whole thing behind plant hunters in the Victorian times is I mean, it's just fascinating. People get eaten, people dying in bogs. I mean, kids would love all that gory stuff. So, you know, as you said, I used to use tulips in a how to measure for maths. You know, how deep does a tulip need to be? It's just such a no brainer.
Phil:
Lee they've done quite a lot of work at garden centres. I know you were doing your roadshow at various garden centres over the summer. So what sort of things did you find, you know, from doing that? Did you, you know, to try and encourage, young people and parents bringing their kids along?
Lee:
I think the biggest thing from what I found was and that there's two sides of this. Right? So when I was at the garden centres, you're speaking to generally people that were already into gardening as parents. The biggest thing that I tried to do there was to, again, connect children and parents together, so they’re doing an activity together, which is really important.
And one of the things that we are really good at, is we all we all know that gardening is great for parents and children to do together, right? But, we are all in the industry and we all, like, know this. There's a big proportion of people that don't even know where their local garden centre is. That we're missing out on.
So one of the things I learned from that was, there's a big, a big proportion of people that do, sometimes they have a bit more money than others. But we're not tapping in at the moment to the people that are just going to the big sheds to get their plants or to Poundland. Which, you know, is not the same as going to a garden centre.
So I think we really do need to try and, have more initiatives which go into garden centres, and try and attract a new audience in which is really important. Which is this school thing, has the possibility of doing.
Ross:
We need to get education into the garden centres as well as in, like, staff education.
And we need to push more horticulture apprenticeships. RHS courses. Because people that, have got a wealth of knowledge, have got 40 years of knowledge in the next ten, maybe 15 years will be retiring and going out. So that knowledge goes with them. And we need to do in-house knowledge sharing as well. So if you don't want to send your staff to colleges and to do apprenticeships, do in-house courses. Get those people that have been there for them years who really know what they're on about and get them teaching the staff that are coming.
Phil:
Love that Ross.
Kate:
I used to go round to garden centres and teach about free compost, and it's so important the education is in fact, maybe that's what I need to start doing. Set up my own little training. Training? Ross, I'll be talking to you later.
Ross:
Talk to me I’ll help you.
Lee:
That whole subject is really fascinating Kate as well, because we talk about, peat and peat free so much within our industry. Yet, outside of our industry. If you ask some people, they don't know the difference, it's just compost, right?
Kate:
Or dirt! Compost if you’re lucky.
Lee:
I mean, we know that it's important that we go peat free and some people are just getting dirt. So you know, Why is it even still a subject? Why have we got to go around educating? It’s just what we use, sorted..
Kate:
Yeah, you’re absolutely right.
Lee:
If only it was that easy - but yeah.
Kate:
No I do know what you mean. Right. Well let's them let's start winding things up. Let's change the subject a bit. What's the funniest or most unexpected thing you've heard from kids? Or even parents. Who’ve been trying to grow things in the garden. Let's go to Lee first with that one.
Lee:
I think. My favourite. I love this. I get this a lot in, October. It start starts in October. Is, I always get parents asking me, oh, how do I, plant that my pumpkin seeds ready for Halloween? It’s my favourite, and every single year I love it so much.
Kate:
Oh. So they so they were expecting a pumpkin seed to be grown in October to be ready for Halloween. Oh, okay. I'm with you. Right. Oh, my!
Lee:
That's what I’m talking about. That's hilarious to us? Ha! As we scoff us gardeners. So parents that don't, it's like, oh, Halloween's coming up. Oh, we should plant a pumpkin seed for Halloween. And, it's amazing to be able to... and I'm sitting there thinking, you really think it's going to be ready don’t you, but…
Oh, my gosh. We keep going back to education. But patience! Gardening can create so much patience for children and parents, and that's something we can teach through it. So yeah, it's it makes me. It makes Lee Connelly scoff at the idea, of parents thinking that.
Kate:
So we need to start pushing Halloween in March then, don't we? March. April?
Lee:
I'm. I'm trying to think of a way of doing it. I I was thinking about doing, some more activities around autumn time and Halloween and I'm like, oh, how can I bring pumpkins into it when we're when we really should be going around… Yeah. We should be going around in our fancy dress in March time.
Kate:
Got to think on that one. How about you, Ross?
Ross:
Christmas trees for me. And I only just said about pumpkin for Halloween but Christmas trees. And people don't understand how long it takes to grow a Christmas tree.
Okay, so you can go to the garden centres and buy a little sapling in January for £10, and it goes in the garden and they think, we’ll cut this in December and use it. You can't do that. And so I actually tell them it's 10, 15 years sometimes before you can actually use them
Kate:
Interesting, So unless you want a bonsai Christmas tree. But we're all about instant gratification aren’t we these days. You know, we want it, we want it now. And usually we can we can have it now.
Lee:
On a personal note, the funniest thing a kid said to me at school this year was, I went in as the Skinny Jean Gardener, and this little boy turned to me and went “you're not very skinny!”
Kate:
Well, that is a risk. That is a risk when you take on that name, isn't it? As you get older.
Lee:
Yeah, I know. I’ve been on a diet ever since!
Kate:
So what’s one myth about gardening, I think you've almost said it really haven’t you, about gardening with kids that you'd like to debunk.
Ross:
That they find it boring.
Kate:
I like that one. That's great that they find it boring.
Lee:
Hmm, That's a good one. The one I always, and I want a massive campaign for my entire life for this, is that radishes are a really great way to get children started in gardening. I don't stop talking about this, I think I've talked about it a lot this year, but I don't think… Children don't like radishes. I don't know how many times I've got to say it
Kate:
It's true. They might grow quick, but they're not going to eat them and this is going to put them off, isn't it? If you're saying let's grow food, let's grow this and it's a radish. And okay, you can get some really pretty looking ones and interesting ones. But yeah, I mean, really, you want to be talking sugar snap peas and mange-tout and strawberries.
Things that tastes great. I mean I love radish now, but as a kid, god no!
Lee:
So yeah don't say radishes to me on the street.
Kate:
I love that, I love that.
Phil:
All right then here's a, here's, a final question for you both. So if you could invent any crazy plant growing gadget for kids, what would it be?
So I thought about this, and I know were saying about bringing children off screens, and I totally agree with it. But do you remember Tamagotchis? The virtual pet. So what if we could do one as a virtual plant? But you program it, so when you plant a seed, it's there. So if you don't go out and water, your real plant, your plant will die on the Tamagotchi.
Phil:
Oh, okay. Nice. Okay, I like that.
Now, interestingly, at the weekend, I saw something called a plant-agotchi. Which is very similar. It's actually a plant pot which you put your, your little plant houseplant in at the top, and it's got eyes on it and it measures the watering and all that sort of thing. And it smiles when it's when it's happy and, when it needs watering it, and I don't know, changes its expression. So that was quite fun.
Ross:
I'm going to look that up.
Phil:
Yeah I thought about getting one for my for my son. And then I saw it was £75 and thought, maybe not.
Kate:
Oh okay.
Ross:
And there we go again with the affordability.
Lee:
And annoyingly, that is quite close to my idea, I had the, I thought, what would be amazing, both of those ideas are quite close to mine actually. But having a plant label that, there is a digital label that goes next to the plant, says what it needs, but also has a screen on it that shows how many weeks is left, and, and shows a picture of the plant.
So if you've got a carrot, it's showing underneath how the carrot’s growing. But also an end result as well. So children have to go outside, actually physically be next to the plant to see how it's getting on and, and be able to water it and care for it. So, all very close ideas.
Kate:
Yeah, that's interesting. But it's all about encouraging and educating as well. Both of those ideas, which is what we've been talking about all morning really, isn't it.
Ross:
Can I just say as, I don't know if you guys agree with me, but for education purposes and, Lee, I don't think you can use this in Parliament. Hopefully. My idea is with horticulture. It can end world hunger and the dirty water crisis. Because you hear the, old expression, if you give a person a fish and they can eat for a day, you teach a person to fish and they can eat for life.
So if we give a person fruit or vegetables, they can eat for that day. But if we teach them to grow fruits and vegetables, they can continue to use them fruits and vegetables to feed them and their families. With the dirty water crisis that the world is facing at the moment, most nurseries now have reed beds. And what these reed beds do is any chemical that's left, if you're spraying, can go into them reed beds, and by the time it comes out the other end, it's good water to go back into the streams. So why can't we use that idea to clean and purify water?
Kate:
Wow. Thank you. Ross, I think we need to end there because that's something to really, really think about. That's taking your idea of teaching children to grow sun flowers, to kind of teaching the powers that be to use horticulture as a power for good, I think no more need to be said. Really.
Thank you so much for, coming and taking up your time this morning and talking to us about this… You know, it's such an important subject because, as Whitney Houston said, children are our future. And let's. Yeah, let's just get them going.
Phil:
Yeah. All the best, Ross, with your, campaign to Get Children Growing and I hope it all goes well and. Yeah. Brilliant. Speaking to both.
Ross:
Thank you
Lee:
Thank you.
Kate:
I'm feeling quite emotional now.