RHS Grow Your Own for Kids : How to be a Great Gardener

Renowned garden writer Lia Leendertz (Guardian and many books) and children's television gardener Chris Collins (BBC's 'Blue Peter'), show junior greenfingers everything they need to know to get the gardening bug. RHS Grow Your Own for Kids embodies the 'Grow Your Own' ethos of food provenance, self-sufficiency, and healthy eating. It shows how to sow and grow up to 12 key vegetables including tomatoes, aubergines, peas, potatoes, monster pumpkins, mustard & cress, runner beans and courgettes. It also includes child-friendly fruits such as strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, along with other plants such as sunflowers and edible flowers. Specially commissioned photography featuring children gardening illustrates the projects and introduces young gardeners to the science behind gardening.

Edinburgh-trained Chris Collins has been the Blue Peter gardener since 2004. He has fronted and run the RHS Campaign for School Gardening that gives over 1 million UK kids access to school gardens. For adults, Chris presented the six-part series The Plantsman on BBC2 in 2003 and has just finished a new series of Garden Invaders for BBC1. He has just finished a series on Secret Gardens for ITV1's This Morning. The Royal Horticultural Society is at the forefront of a gardening revolution in which received wisdom is questioned and updated. This great gardening book for kids is the combined effort of the UK's biggest gardening charity and 40 years of Blue Peter gardening. Lia Leendertz writes about gardening for the Guardian's Weekend magazine. She is the author of several books, including The Half-hour Allotment and Conservatory and Greenhouse Gardening. Lia studied horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and now lives in Bristol, where she has a garden, an allotment and is on the residents' committee of her local park.