I chat to gardener, blogger and sometime Youtuber Mr Richard Chivers of Sharpen Your Spades. We discuss how he got into gardening, how he created his allotment. Why he started to blog what he does in the garden and how he thinks the best way to get children gardening with his daughter Ava.

Richard Chivers is a Grow-Your-Own enthusiast and blogger living in Cardiff, UK, mostly found in his family allotment, wearing wellies and getting his hands dirty.

When he’s not on the plot, he’s reading as many kitchen gardening books he can get his hands on, engaging with the gardening industry and looking for ways to inspire and support other people to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

His eight-year-old daughter, Ava, loves spending time on the allotment too and says “It’s wonderful to see her excited about the crops we grow together. I want her to grow up with a strong relationship with food, understand where it comes from and be thrilled to eat it. I want other families to join in too”.