Babs Beetroot gives us her top tips on growing plants from cuttings.

“Imagine being able to cut a limb off, an arm or a leg, plant it in water and watch a new person grow from it. As a human this sounds crazy. However with some plants you can cut off part of the living stem and with a bit of care and patience you can grow a new plant. While a human would need to go to hospital if they cut an arm or a leg off, if you are careful when taking a cutting from a plant it will remain healthy. I would recommend asking people before you take a cutting from their favourite plant, most people say yes, and then within a year you’ll have your very own.”



Using a Propagator to grow cuttings

Order your Secret Seed Propagator Kit
Make an upcycled propagator from old packaging

Great news! Thanks to a group of very talented final year film students from the University of Northampton you can hear the story behind the creation of the world’s only underground club for kids – Secret Seed Society.

Behind the scenes Secret Seed Society HQ

Stumbling Goat Productions went behind the scenes of Secret Seed Publications to see a Social Enterprise in action.  With the help of Bright Horizons Nursery and Caroline Chisholm School, they were also able to follow the team spread their love for vegetables through gardening projects and their interactive theatre production ‘What’s the Big Secret?’.  We all had lots of fun filming together, especially the children who became film stars for the day!

If your propagator does not have pots you can easily make them from newspaper.

Fill your pots with a light seed compost(if your compost has dried out spray gently with water, this may take a little time to get moist again.) Please check that it does not contain peat. Firm gently.

What seeds are you planting?

Seeds where you want to produce small plants for pricking out and planting on eg cabbage, chard, broccoli, kale and leeks can have 3-4 seeds in a 2cm pot. The first 2 leaves you will see on ‘greens’ are ‘seed leaves’ ot cotyledons. When they have 4-6 proper leaves (or with leeks when they are about 10cm tall) these can be planted on into larger pots or outside to grow into full sised vegetables.

Seeds for root crops, carrots, radishes, parsnips 2 seeds per pot and when they grow remove and throw away the weakest leaving one plant. These crops are more difficult to plant out and sometimes are better planted directly outside.

Grandpa Swede always starts his peas and beans in a propagator as they love the warmth and moisture when they first start to grow. Press one ‘seed’ per 2cm pot into the compost. Broad beans can go out before the frost has passed but French and Runner beans are not frost resistant…look on the seed packet for advice.

Ask us if you are not sure fun@secretseedsociety.com

When you have finished sowing water well and cover with the lid. Place on a sunny windowsill and keep a watch for the plants to come poking through.

Today (12/08/11) I went to see Lily-rose’s plot where she grows her vegetables. Last week-end she got a cup and certificate as the judges thought her plot was amazing.

She attracts wild-life to help her grow good veg. She has a home for a toad but he wasn’t home when we visited. She has flowers to attract insects.

Whilst I was there, she dug up her potatoes. She loves Jacket potatoes with cheese best and she found the perfect potato for her supper. She also loves sweet corn and she has grown some of this as well but it is not quite ready to harvest.

She comes up to her plot with her mum Rachel……. they love to grow things together.

Do you have a plot like Lily Rose’s? Tell us what you are growing this year….fun[at]secretseedsociety.com

The first one is a composer...

...and the second one is a composTer! hahaha!

Can you spot the difference? (We can’t).

Time to get dirty, Seed Agents!

Make sure you put on a pair of wellies, some old clothes, and a thick pair of gloves.

Compost is useful: it makes plants grow faster than normal soil because it has more nutrients inside.

We’re going to teach you to make compost. Have you ever made compost before? It’s a lot easier than composing a concerto…

The first thing to do is collect a barrowful of leaves and place them in a heavy-duty bag. This is helpful – not only will this help you grow lots of veg but you can get rid of all those old leaves too!

Don't get the bag confused with your laundry though.

Into each bag of leaves not laundry, put one to two spadefuls of garden soil and two spadefuls of manure.

Now apply enough water to moisten the leaves, and have a drink yourself because you must be thirsty after all that spade-work…

Have a little whistle too if you can, composting often puts me in the mood for composing.

Carefully poke 10 to 15 holes in the plastic bag. This lets air circulate through the leaves. Compost needs to breathe too you know!

Turn the bag upside down once or twice and if you need to, add water to keep the leaves moist

Store your bags of composting leaves in an out-of-sight place. After about 2 weeks of patient waiting you might want to open the bags to check on the composting process. Usually the compost will be ready for you to use between 6 and 8 weeks. Good compost comes to those who wait…

And in the Spring you will have rich compost! You can sow your seeds and grow heaps of delicious veg!

There was once a poor hungry farmer…

All he owned was small plot of land and a handful of old peas that were too hard to eat.

‘What shall I do?’ He thought and thought, with his tummy rumbling.

Then he had an idea. He went outside and carefully pressed the old peas that were too hard to eat into the ground. Then he watered them with a watering can.

A few days later some little shoots appeared in the ground and he made a bit of netting to protect them.
Then he carefully removed some different, grassy leaves that he noticed coming up among his pea-shoots.
Everyday the farmer watered and protected his plants, and watched them grow.

Soon flowers appeared and these turned into round pods. The pods swelled and the farmer picked them and had a delicious crunchy lunch.
More pods appeared and he still cared for his plants and he still had some lovely lunches.

Autumn came along in October and he stopped picking his pods and let them grow and grow. The peas grew big and round. They bulged inside their thin pods.

One day the farmer went out and picked all the pods that were left.
He took all the big round peas out of the pod and put them in a big bowl. He left them to dry and go hard.

The next year at Springtime, he got his bowl of old peas that by now were too hard to eat out and what do you think he did?

In a few years time the farmer’s fields were full of pea plants, and his tummy had stopped rumbling all the time. He took all the ones he couldn’t eat himself to the market and was very happy to share his tasty fresh peas with everyone.

Learn more about Seeds

An apple is a great place to meet ladybirds, Seed Agents.

At first glance it looks as if the ladybirds are eating these apples but usually they prefer to eat other insects. You might not think it, but ladybirds are carnivores, in other words they are hunters who eat meat, well juicy little insects.

Gardeners like ladybirds (or as some people call them, ladybugs) because they hunt down the pests who live off the plants. Ladybirds wear pretty polka dots and waddle up and down in a way that’s harmless to us, but not to the smaller vegetarian pests like greenfly or aphids (which is the name for young greenfly, before they grow wings).

These are aphids. You

So what did eat those apples? It’s likely to have been a wasp or two, who started to eat from the apple and then flew away. The ladybirds are probably just licking up the left-over juice because they’re thirsty.

Look at this sugar-loving wasp filling its belly!

If you want to know more about garden insects you can check out this website.

But don’t blame all your half-eaten fruit on the wasps! There are a lot of other creatures who might have chomped on that apple you were saving…

Can you see who is eating this one?

Look at these maggots having fun, doing a wriggly maggot dance inside a plum! It must be nice to be a maggot.

Some fruit is lived in. If you’ve just picked something from a tree it’s a good idea to open up your fruit instead of just biting in straightaway.

What’s the only thing worse than finding a maggot in your food?

Finding half a maggot!

Yuk. Imagine that…

Take a peek inside our books here.

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.“