A GROUP of toddlers spent yesterday in Barnet’s very own secret garden sowing seeds as part of a campaign to restore it with the help of Lottery cash.

The 18 youngsters, aged between two and four, planted a range of plants in Highlands Gardens, in Leicester Road, New Barnet, which were once part of a house owned by amateur astronomer Bevan Braithwaite.

They were left to the people of Barnet in the 1930s, but now a Friends group has been set up to try and restore them to their former glory.

Pauline Congdon, the owner of Little Acorns Nursery, which is in the same road, said the children had learned a lot from the project.

She added: “We use the gardens a lot and we thought it would be nice to join the Friends of Highlands Gardens to give something back.

“The children thoroughly enjoyed the activity and in fact we extended it when they got back to the nursery and did some digging in our garden.”

The group is now hoping for a £50,000 Lottery grant to help restore the gardens and reopen and clean up a clogged up stream which runs through them.