Newspaper's campaign encouraging children to grow vegetables

17:32 5th October 2009

Thousands of children are discovering the joy and rewards of gardening thanks to a campaign being supported by a national newspaper in the UK.

Some 250,000 children across the country have been learning how to grow their own vegetables, encouraged by the Independent on Sunday's Let Children Grow gardening campaign.

According to the newspaper, thousands of schools across the country are participating in the initiative, which has seen children grow their own vegetables, with some already harvesting the fruits of their labour.

Kingsway Primary School in East Yorkshire is one of the participating institutions and its head Liam Jackson is full of praise for the initiative.

He told the newspaper that "the children have seen the whole concept of watching, watering and nurturing vegetables, and now they've harvested them".

"The children are very knowledgeable about vegetables – they know what they're doing now," he said, adding that families need to be roped into the campaign.

Schools can boost their agricultural produce by investing in a greenhouse.