You’re never too young to catch the gardening bug!

Are you green-fingered or do you stay well away from house plants, seeds and gardens? How excited do you get about a trip to the garden centre? Do you know how courgettes are grown? How confident would you feel about growing a plant from a seed?

It comes after a study of 2,000 adults found Brits get the bug for gardening at just 26. Despite the pastime having an ‘older’ stereotype, young adults are gaining a new-found love for it, with 56 per cent putting this down to its mental health benefits. Others enjoy gardening because plants can brighten up a home or a garden or find it therapeutic to watch something grow. And 66 per cent want to do more fruit and vegetable growing from seeds and plants to keep themselves fed.

But many feel they are stopped from pursuing an interest in gardening more by a lack of time, not having any outdoor space and not knowing enough about how to do it.

One in four don’t believe they have the right equipment to successfully grow their own, while 23 per cent are too frightened of bugs and spiders to get their hands dirty.

A spokesman for seed and plant producer Mr Fothergill’s, which commissioned the research, said, “Gardening and growing your own from seed can be super rewarding and great for your wellbeing, so it’s great people are getting stuck in at such a young age. But many feel there are a few barriers in their way, including a lack of outdoor space. This isn’t the case though, as it’s possible to grow a great range of things indoors, if you can put in a bit of work.”

The research also found 47 per cent of those polled feel there is something ‘special’ about eating things they’ve grown themselves. Carrots, onions and peppers were included in the top 10 vegetables people would like to grow themselves. And 64 per cent would prefer to grow their own veg than buy it from a supermarket, according to the OnePoll.com data.

The main reasons for this are wanting to ensure it’s the freshest produce possible, finding it rewarding to monitor its progress and knowing exactly where it’s come from. But for those who feel held back by a lack of outdoor space, 47 per cent have tried growing something on their windowsill. And of these, 79 per cent believe their attempt was successful.

TV gardener David Domoney, who is heading up the Mr Fothergill’s Windowsill Gardening campaign to encourage new people to grow veg indoors and save money, said, “Growing plants on the windowsill is many people’s first experience in gardening. The more experience we develop with growing plants indoors, the more our windowsills become populated by a variety of plants that brighten our homes and purify the air indoors.

“Growing plants indoors has many benefits, including feeding the family with fresh, healthy, and flavoursome produce, generating excitement at the first signs of germination, and the true happiness at watching it grow before our eyes.

“There are significant mental health benefits of tending and nurturing plants, and the enhanced vitamin enriched flavour of picking fresh and making use of the produce in meals within your own home results in physical wellbeing also.”

Fly Tipping Incidents Have Dropped

n The number of fly-tipping incidents in the region has fallen, new figures have revealed.

In the wake of government findings, a rural insurance specialist is calling on landowners to double down on their efforts to keep environmental criminals at bay in a bid to maintain the positive trend.

According to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), a total of 75,664 fly-tipping incidents were recorded across the region in 2021/22. This was down from 79,726 in the previous year.

Anderson Fossett, of rural insurance broker, Lycetts, said, “The figures are very encouraging, but it is important that landowners continue to remain vigilant if the downward trajectory is to continue. Making it difficult for environmental criminals to access land is one of the most effective preventative measures you can take.

“Gates should be locked when not in use, fences should be in a good state of repair and hedges should be cut back to allow good visibility for property owners. Flytippers tend to operate under cover of darkness, so exterior lighting should be installed, if possible.

Security cameras can also be an effective deterrent, and can help secure successful prosecutions.”

As well as posing significant and environmental health risks, flytipping can be a legal and financial burden. While local authorities will pay the clean-up costs of clearing waste from public land, farmers and other landowners have responsibility for cleaning and removing waste from private land. With 564 incidents of agricultural fly-tipping in the region, and with clean-up costs averaging £1,000, and large-scale incidents costing £10,000, it can be an expensive business.

Failure to comply can result in prosecution.

Fossett advised a combined farm insurance policy, which covers the clean-up costs, typically capped between £10,000 and £15,000 for the insurance period.