Gardens: the British weekend

Lots of British homes have a garden, and spending half of Saturday mowing the lawn or pruning the roses is completely normal. People with no room to grow food at home can rent a separate small plot of land just for fruit and vegetables. This is called an allotment.

There are gardening and flower shows everywhere, from big national events to village competitions. Many towns also have a garden centre, a shop that sells plants and all kinds of garden tools.

Each of the four nations has its own famous gardens. It helps to learn which nation each one is in:

• England: Kew Gardens, Sissinghurst, Hidcote
• Scotland: Crathes Castle, Inveraray Castle
• Wales: Bodnant Garden
• Northern Ireland: Mount Stewart

Allotments had their big moment in the Second World War. Britain imported much of its food by ship, and German submarines sank many of those ships, so the government ran a campaign called Dig for Victory, asking people to turn parks, lawns and even front gardens into vegetable patches. Today's great gardens are treasured in a different way: Kew Gardens in London has been a World Heritage Site since 2003, and its collection of plant species is one of the largest on Earth.

Four nations, four flowers

Each nation of the UK has its own flower, and people sometimes wear it on that nation's patron saint's day:

England
the rose

Scotland
the thistle

Wales
the daffodil

Northern Ireland
the shamrock

Chapter contents: Leisure and Places of Interest