Cornflower

Growing up in the Garden

    RHS Wisley are currently staging the exhibition Growing up in the Garden, looking at "the way children use gardens as a place to connect with and explore the natural world".

Highlights include: 

• A rare chance to see puppets from 1970s children’s TV classic ‘The Herbs’, including Parsley the Lion and Dill the Dog. 

• Miniature children’s garden tools from the Victorian era. 

• Children’s gardening advice books through the ages, containing information on how and what to grow. 

• Children's literature with beautiful illustrations, including The Secret Garden, Alice in Wonderland and The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Some of the exhibits are available to view on the RHS Digital Collections platform.

    To end, a quote from Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers: "For a garden, as Bacon observes, is the purest of human pleasures and the greatest refreshment to the spirit of man..."

Summer stitching

    The first two in The Potting Shed 'seed packets' series of embroidery kits from The Stitchery.