Gardening
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Creating a Peter Rabbit garden
The story of Peter Rabbit's escapades in Mr McGregor's vegetable plot is one of the most well-known and well loved children's stories with a gardening theme. So much so that gardeners at RHS Garden Harlow Carr in Harrogate have recreated Mr McGregor's vegetable patch for visitors both young and old to enjoy
"It has been great fun creating the plot", said Amy Lax, Gardener at RHS Garden Harlow Carr, "the visitors just love it; and just as in the story we've had rabbits trying to eat the vegetables, but rather than trying to catch them for a pie like Mr McGregor did, we opted for bunny-proofing the whole kitchen garden with netting!"
The Peter Rabbit garden at Harlow Carr is a 1m by 3m raised bed, and could easily be recreated at home. In this year's garden the following were planted:
- Strawberry 'Hapil'
- Strawberry 'Honeoye'
- Carrot 'Fly Away F1'
- Leeks 'Musselburgh'
- Lettuce 'Crufia'
- Tomato 'Sweet millions'
- French beans 'Cherokee Trail of Tears'
- Sunflower, Helianthus 'Pacino'
- Potatoes
- Parsley
- Sorrel scutatus
- Rocket
Amy suggests that one of the fun things about doing this project at home is 'accessorising' the garden to make it a true Peter Rabbit plot. Read the story together with your grandchildren and try to pick out things in the story or pictures that you can use.
The obvious one is Peter's little blue jacket that gets displayed like a scarecrow, but what about a terracotta flower pot amongst the vegetables, or perhaps train peas over on old gate. What vegetables does Mr McGregor grow, perhaps plant the same ones, as it will all add to the authentic look.
