GREEN-FINGERED children will be digging deep to grow food for the honour of their schools in a gardening competition.

The fruits of their labours will be judged a this year's Bridport Food Festival in June.

Eight local primary schools are taking part in what is being dubbed The Easy-Peasy' gardening competition, launched on Monday by Michael and Joy Michaud of Really Cool Seeds in West Bexington and Simon Holland of Washingpool Farm Shop.

Mr Michaud said: "We want to show children what fun it is to grow your own fresh food. It really is easy-peasy!

"The emphasis is on easy-to-grow salad crops and potatoes. We've given the schools seeds for radishes, lettuce and salad onions, seed potatoes, bags of compost, and pots.

"We're going to collect the bags and pots on Friday June 27 and take them down to the festival, where they will be judged to see which school achieved the best results. Criteria for judging will include the appearance and health of the plants; keeping a diary of digital pictures, and yield, especially for potatoes. The gardens will be on display for the whole festival weekend."

The schools taking part are Thorner's School, Litton Cheney; Bridport Primary; St Catherine's; Symondsbury; Charmouth; Broadwindsor; Parrett and Axe, Mosterton and Burton Bradstock.

The Year of Food and Farming is the theme of this festival, held as usual at Asker Meadows in Bridport.