Results from a recent survey from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), have found that parents are lagging behind when it comes to gardening knowledge; with children and grandparents leading the way, mainly thanks to school intervention.
The survey, commissioned by the UK’s leading gardening charity, asked 500 parents, grandparents and primary school-aged children about their gardening habits, to discover if there is a ‘lost generation of gardeners’. The survey found that fewer than 1% of parents were taught to garden while at school, compared to 55% of grandparents and 40% of children.
Sue Biggs, Director General of the RHS says, “These findings suggest that today’s parents, who attended school during the 1980s and 90s, missed out on a huge opportunity, especially as gardening dropped off the agenda. When children learn to garden it is a skill that stays with them for life, something they will use and fall back on as they grow up. This is evident from the grandparents we surveyed, among whom nearly 80% say they like to garden, and more than a third of them grow their own fruit and vegetables.
TEl 0207 821 3356
www.@rhs.org.uk