Valuable lessons in the school garden - THAT'S how you do it. That's how you make sure children eat vegetables. You make sure they grow them themselves.

"I tell them, If you grow it, you try it'," said Tanya Batkin, in the sort of voice that brooks no dissent.

"And they do. It's amazing how children will happily pull carrots from the ground and rub the dirt off and eat them, but they'll turn their noses up at the same vegetable if it's bought from a supermarket, pre-washed and plastic wrapped.

"I suppose it's all to do with being something they've made themselves. There's a sense of achievement."

Tanya, a parent, runs the gardening club at Broadwas Church of England Primary School in the village five miles west of Worcester and, this summer, the pupils have been looking after the permanent children's garden at the Three Counties Showground.

This weekend they will be out in force for the last time this year at the Malvern Autumn Show, pulling up some of the vegetables they have grown there.

Like potatoes, sweetcorn, tomatoes, onions and curly kale, plus more exotic items such as lemon grass, aubergines, chillis and ginger. From their garden at school, they will bring carrots, parsnips and some more sweetcorn.

"It's actually been quite a difficult summer for us because it's been so wet," Tanya added. "Some things have grown better than others, but it has been very interesting and given the children a chance to enjoy themselves in public."

Each year, the children's garden on the showground is superintended by a different local school and the pupils from Broadwas made their first appearance at the Spring Gardening Show in May.

"We went over there in the weeks leading up to the show and the children found it fascinating to see how the experts built their gardens from scratch especially for the event," she said. "Everyone was very helpful and they picked up some good tips. I think they've had a really great time."

The children also tended the showground garden during the Three Counties Show in June and will probably be sad to see their time in charge come to an end. The autumn show is always the harvesting one', when the vegetables are pulled and the fruit is picked. For anyone who has visited the children's garden over the summer, it will also be a chance to see how the Broadwas tenure has developed.

"The school sponsors a little girl in India," Tanya explained. "So we have given one end of the garden an Indian feel. It has a jungle area with jungle plants and a sculpture of the Hindu god Ganesh.

"The other end of the garden is more traditional, with an image of the Green Man, who is a pagan symbol for the ever-returning energy of vegetation and wild nature."

Alongside is the vegetable patch where all the goodies planted in the spring are now being picked, pulled or dug up.

"Really through, it's much more than growing plants," she said. "Gardening teaches them how to work as a team, how to take care of the environment, pick up litter and keep things tidy. Then there's learning about the Ph of the soil, about the insects and birds that contribute to a garden's development and, of course, the organic side too. It's a great learning tool for children."

The Broadwas pupils will also have the chance to wander ground the showground and see how their efforts compare with the experts.

BEST VEG ON OFFER AT SHOWTHE Harvest Pavilion at the Malvern Autumn Show, where the best, biggest and most beautiful fruit and vegetables can be found, is always one of the highlights of the event and some of the finest produce from Worcestershire and Herefordshire will be used in the show's Cookery Theatre by chef James Martin on Sunday.

The Three Counties Agricultural Society is committed to promoting and supporting food producers in the region and, as he puts trainee chefs from Worcester College of Technology through their paces on stage, James will be looking for their success in sourcing local ingredients for their dishes.