Hand Holding With "The Playground Potting Shed"

I can't quite believe how many gardening books are out there. Or rather, how many veggie growing books are groaning on the shelves of my nearest chainstore bookshop.

I've also lost count how many allotment tomes there are, and I admit I own er....two of them. No, three. No, hold on..... Anyway, I don't know what the difference is between vegetable growing and growing on an allotment, I imagine the principles are the same but maybe it's a marketing ploy.

There is even a book, I'm delighted to say, about running your own school gardening club The Playground Potting Shed by Dominic Murphy which has been my bible in recent weeks, holding my hand through my Monday night I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO WITH THEM!!!!! jitters.

And it has been immensely helpful, if not quite as "foolproof" boasted of on the cover. The most important thing I've learnt, and which went some way to helping me relax, is that there will be mistakes and IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Obvious, I know, but something that I was blinkered about in the first few weeks in a I've Just Cost The School Fifty Quid In Plug Plants And I'm Worried It Will All Be For Nothing kind of way.

The book's arranged termly which is great and this week I plan to steal his idea of making bug hotels from bamboo canes which, knowing my lot, will take all of five minutes. Not all the weeks tally, with this half-term seemingly stretching on forrrrevvvvvverrrrrrrr and some ideas are just the wrong time but it does at least kick-start my brain. A bit. What I'd obviously love is for Dominic to pop over to the garden, have a quick look-see then pop back to tell me exactly what to do for the next five weeks (FIVE WEEKS? I'm ready to break up now, so to speak).

Still, you can't have everything so what I've got is the next best thing - hand-holding via idea generating all wrapped up in a hardcover, with a lovely picture and a cute title on the front.