This week the Royal Horticultural Society, revealed results from a survey it carried out, questioning 1300 teachers and 10 schools, which taught gardening to its pupils, that gardening makes children happy and teaches them new skills.

When I watched a group of school children who participated in a show garden for Gardeners’ World live, on BBC 2, you could see their pride and sense of achievement, at growing and nurturing the plants themselves, it would be hard not to agree with the findings of the survey.

It’s never to early to get children involved in growing plants and especially vegetables and as the survey showed, children are more inclined to eat the produce they grow, which is something I wish I had tried with my two children when they were little, as they have grown up to be salad dodgers. I ask you, how could anyone not like the taste of homegrown lettuce and juicy tomatoes!

A good way to start your children growing edibles would be micro leaves. As mentioned in my previous posts, my little experiment at growing salad leaves, to the first true leaf stage, on damp kitchen roll is going fairly well.

(Just like growing cress as a child) The beetroot hasn’t completely been a success with many of the seeds refusing to sprout and my rocket has suffered a little with damping off (a fungal disease which causes the seedlings to flop over and rot).

I think this has happened because I sowed the seeds too thickly. Still, live and learn and I will still get a tasty crop from the seedlings, within the next week or so.

You can still sow peas up until the end of July, for a crop this year and these big robust seeds are ideal for little fingers to handle.

Peas like moisture retentive soil, so improve the soil with compost before planting and water well in hot spells.

Peas are happy in pots too and the shoots can be harvested and eaten as well as the pods and most importantly, whether growing them in the ground or pots, give them some support to climb up.

Lettuce seeds are a bit more fiddly but will be up in no time at all.

Cut and come again take up less room, as you can just pull off the leaves as you need them and leave the rest of the plant to carry on growing and there are even salad leaves which don’t mind the colder conditions, like mizuna and mibuna which can be grown during the winter months if not too cold.

It’s not just children who get a sense of well being gardening. I have been very happy this week, harvesting my first crop of potatoes.

I have grown them in sacks, especially designed for growing potatoes. I didn’t have as many little beauties as I had hoped for but with two more sacks to harvest over the coming weeks, I hope those will do better.

My sweet peas smell delicious and now their perfume is wafting around my kitchen table as well as my vegetable patch.

My three sister bed (sweetcorn, climbing beans and squash) are growing in beautiful harmony. The climbing beans have found their way to the sweetcorn and are now climbing happily up the stalks.

The beauty of growing plants and vegetables and getting children involved is two fold. It teaches you skills like following instructions (something I am still trying to master at the age of 45!) planning and patience.

Getting your hands dirty and being close to nature makes you feel part of this wonderful planet and as if it couldn’t get any better, the results of all your work, means you get to eat fresh healthy vegetables and feast your eyes on the beauty of flowers. Now who would not want their children to be a part of that?

Now to cook some spuds!