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Daily Mirror

Lifestyle

Sarah Lumley

Take our gardening quiz to find out what type of gardener you are

Mental Health Robert Sanderson

Are you green-fingered or do you stay well away from house plants, seeds and gardens? Take this quiz to find out just how your growing skills fare.

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% putting this down to its mental health benefits.

Others enjoy gardening because plants can brighten up a home or a garden (63%) or find it therapeutic to watch something grow.

Many find gardening to be therapeutic - and claim it's benefited their mental health (Robert Sanderson)

Nearly half of Brits feel there is something special about eating something they've grown themselves (Robert Sanderson)

And 66% 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 (39%), not having any outdoor space (37%) and not knowing enough about how to do it (35%).

One in four don’t believe they have the right equipment to successfully grow their own, while 23% 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% of those polled feel there is something ‘special’ about eating things they’ve grown themselves.

Carrots (27%), onions (22%) and peppers (21%) were included in the top 10 vegetables people would like to grow themselves.

And 64% 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 (67%), finding it rewarding to monitor its progress and knowing exactly where it’s come from (both 61%).

But for those who feel held back by a lack of outdoor space, 47% have tried growing something on their windowsill.

And of these, 79% 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.”