According to new research released by the Royal Horticultural Society, children who garden are more engaged with their learning and do better at school.

At the Secret Seed Society we believe gardens are full of stories, mystery, adventure, and surprises, keeping young childrens’ minds active, playful and curious.

On the back of this research the Financial Times suggests: “If you want to help your children make the grade this summer, scrap the extra maths-with-Japanese coaching and get them to do the gardening!”

Little Jessica says: “Every night we go to our allotments at the bottom of our garden to see if there are caterpillars on the cabbages and then we tell our dad when he gets home.”

In the fourth Seed City tale, ‘What Will I Be?’, Carla Carrot is on a journey of self-discovery and finds herself in the Seed City Museum being inspired by great vegetable-beings of past and present including Tutankha Mung, Parsley Bussell, Florence Nightingkale, and Socarrotes.

We’ve had so much fun that we’ve decided to do it.. yes, we’re going to create an online Seed City Museum Gallery featuring the most wild and wonderful seedizens of all time. Who would you like to see there? Jamie Olive? Okra Wimpfree? Christopher Cucumbus? Once you start its hard to stop!

So here’s what you do.

Wait there’s more! The winning entry will be sent a dinner voucher for two at a delicious organic restaurant in London.

And look, here’s our very first entry!

Tina Turnip - by Amy Cooper

A honeybee. Photograph: Judi Bottoni/AP

Bees keep themselves busy pollinating flowers which is great for us as it means that we get to eat delicious fresh food. In fact bees are key to 1 in 5 bites of the food we eat. Unfortunately billions of bees have been dying. Thankfully some clever folk have come up with some ideas of how we can help save the bee. Here’s the ones we liked best:

What you can do?

So let’s get buzzing, it’s not too late!

Why is this happening?

Most scientists agree that the widespread overuse of pesticides is one of the main causes. These days there are around 120 different pesticides found inside bees, wax and pollen. “We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies,” said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS’s bee research laboratory. The Soil Association has been trying hard to alert us for years about this.

Why are bees so important?

Other than being sort of cute, bees are one of the most effective pollinators on the planet. The honeybee pollinates crops, fruits, vegetables.. everything from apples to nuts, sunflower, coffee, soya beans, carrots and alfafa (used in cattled feed). Turns out that 1/3 of everything we eat depends on bees. Without bees we will face the collapse of the food chain!

Our range of gardening gifts for children are specifically designed to encourage kids to enjoy what Mother Nature has to offer. There are so many reasons why spending time in the garden is good for your children and our activity books give you and the kids something fun to do together whilst you’re there. They can help take the strain off you by engaging imaginations and plus, the organic seeds and Seed Agent Kit that come with the illustrated story book can provide weeks of excitement even if the rain does decide to come down.

All of our story books are written by different authors, as we know how kids can get bored easily. Each book is a brand new, refreshing adventure ready to be enjoyed and plus, with our 100% post consumer recycled paper and vegetable oil based inks, you don’t have to renege on your eco-friendly principles for once.

Why not explore our website today to find out whether your little vegetables would benefit from one of our children’s gifts. Our website is packed full of information and articles designed to give you hints on healthy eating and tips on making the most of the sunshine this summer.

Clearest, punchiest, funniest talk we’ve seen in ages. Do you remember a time when hardly anything had more than one ingredient because it was an ingredient?! New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now. He makes some great points on why we should be eating less meat, more plants, less fast food, and more home cooking. Our demand – not our need, but our wants – is putting our health and the entire planet at risk. The evidence is overwhelming.

Mark Bittman we make you an honorary Seed Agent!

You can bet that gardening is something all kids will love, once they get started. Without our help it’s perhaps not something that children would think to do. But in our range of gardening gifts for children you’ll find various activity books and accessories which you can use to get kids digging, potting and growing.

At the Secret Seed Society, it occurred to us that there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain from growing up outdoors. We looked at the wealth of research that shows the great value of sunshine and fresh air to all of us, not just kids. Children who enjoy gardening are more alert, perform better at school, and eat more vegetables. But we also believe that you don’t need statistics to know what’s good for you and your children. You can feel it too. A healthy dose of exercise in the garden can leave you feeling fresh and invigorated, just the way nature intended.

In truth, that’s why we’ve developed this range. We wanted to devise children’s gifts that made a difference. Starting from just £5.50, you’ll find our activity books well written and beautifully illustrated. If you’re concerned that your son or daughter hasn’t enough creative outlets in their life, our children’s gifts can engage creativity in an exciting new way.

Yesterday, the sun actually felt warm. This means the soil in your pots and garden will be getting some energy from the sun to get warm. It is important for the soil to be warm before you plant your seeds as seeds are a little like us in that they need warmth and care to grow well.

If you want to help the soil gather the sun’s energy more quickly you can do a couple of things. Firstly if you have some black polythene you can lay this on the soil and it will gather more of the sun’s energy and put it into the soil. Secondly if you have some clear polythene or a clear squash bottle you can make a little tent or cloche. This acts like a mini-greenhouse and captures the heat of the sun and prevents the soil losing heat at night.

A smart way to start is with a few seeds on the windowsill so that they are ready to plant out later in the month. A very good and easy seed to grow like this is Broad Beans. We roll up little tubes of newspaper and fill them with warm compost and put one bean in each tube. As the bean grows the newspaper disintegrates and we can plant the whole thing into the ground without disturbing the roots.

Another good thing to get growing now is radish. In the picture above you can see some of our finest from last year! And don’t forget if you want to become friendly with radish you might want to start by reading the story of Rudi Radish in Seed City! The pack comes with organic seeds, growing instructions and kit.

Happy growing!

Following a recipe is certainly a worthwhile skill but children need the freedom to experiment with tastes and to learn how to use available foods to create tasty dishes and reduce food waste.

We believe the home is the perfect environment for kids to learn about cooking. Sometimes they may follow a recipe but for young children this is very restricting and reduces the fun of trying different taste combinations, and seeing the effect of different cooking methods. Secret Seed Society promotes growing and cooking food for the very young. We have designed recipes that are highly open ended for a cooking system we call ‘Creative Cookery’.

By working with your children they become aware of the different tastes and nutritional values of a variety of foods. Creating a meal with them from fresh produce, whether home-grown or bought, stretches the household budget and learning to use what is available in that season reduces the carbon ‘food print’.

Earlier in the office Shena Cooper (our seedy founder) was telling us “Last week I was at a meeting talking to a guy whose son had grown a single runner bean. Keen to support his interest in growing the bean was carved and shared between the whole family so they could all get a taste”. Brilliant but such is ‘grow-your-own’ and this highlights one of the main problems for veg growers. The first tasty courgette savoured by the whole family is soon followed by tons of courgette and no-one can bear the sight any more. Feast or famine that is the grow-your-own way but there is always someone to share your glut with.

Secret Seed Society wants to show young gardeners how to use the single bean or the tons of courgette to make healthy and tasty food. Their recipes guide them to make their own signature dish using spices and ingredients that their culture and diet allow.

The reasoning behind ‘Creative Cookery’ is not entirely to do with availability. The greatest chefs don’t follow a recipe, they concoct, devise, and experiment. Young children are the most able to do this, their thought processes are not restricted by rights and wrongs, weights and measures and fear of getting it wrong. They are eager to try things out. In Britain today there are more types of fruit, vegetable, spices and seasonings available than ever before. No doubt there will be some inedible dishes produced and we all ‘Love Food Hate Waste‘ but children will learn from these experiences. Enjoyment of food is about taste blends, texture, combinations and cooking techniques.

The Seed City tales from Secret Seed Society familiarise children with a range of vegetable characters who have lots of exciting adventures. Reading the books, growing the seeds, which are included in each pack, and then cooking them into a tasty meal encourages them to have a positive outlook towards their 5 a day. Secret Seed Society works towards engaging children in an active and healthy life-style which will ensure they have the best chance of avoiding diabetes and heart disease in later life, sustainable living for the individual and society.

Secret Seed Society encourages every-one to have fun learning to use food that is seasonal, local and available and often home grown and cooked up by the youngest member of the household (with a bit of help of course)!