Number 10 Downing Street’s garden is following the White House and Buckingham Palace in becoming a grow your own oasis. But far from jumping on the allotment bandwagon, this is nothing new for the Prime Minister’s 277-year old half acre plot, which was "fitted with variety Walle fruit and diverse fruit trees" according to a contemporary observer in the 18th century. The Royal Parks Agency-managed garden has belatedly caught the sustainable bug, with a new vegetable plot and plans for a bee-friendly planting for this autumn.
 
 
 
Even PM Gordon Brown’s sons have been planting at No.10 Downing St.
John (5) and Fraser (3) have both planted fruit and vegetables at the PM’s London home after US president Barack Obama’s wife Michelle Obama persuaded Brown’s wife Sarah to develop a veg plot at No.10.
 
The garden is used for formal photocalls as well as a family play area with a trampoline, play house, a pond complete with fish and a plastic heron and arbor seating. This has prompted unlikely comparisons between the Browns and the Goods of 1970s sitcom The Good Life which starred Felicity Kendal and Richard Briers.

Mrs Brown is looking at more wildlife friendly areas to attract bees and butterflies - but because of her young children there will be no beehives. Mr Brown uses the garden for photocalls, as pioneered by his predecessor Tony Blair. But Mr Brown is said to be uniniterested in gardening itself, unlike his wife. She says: 
"The Downing Street garden is one of the secret pleasures of life at No.10 and I thoroughly enjoy spending time among the beautiful shrubs and flowers. 
“It's a great space for the boys to run around in, while also providing a lovely backdrop for the many official summer receptions we host. 
“The gardeners do a great job keeping everything looking so bright and colourful and we've also tried to add our own touches, such as the peat-free organic vegetable plot. 
“It is really flourishing and, in fact, it's so bountiful that we are now supplying lettuces to the No.10 cafe and the tomatoes are nearly ready too.” Mrs Brown, who never talks on the record about her children, has been tweeting about the garden in recent days, using Mary Wilson's visit and the tour of the All-Party Horticulture and Gardening Group of MPs and peers as a way to promote the softer side of the Brown family.
Twitter can have its downside though - responses to Mrs Brown about the garden range from the 'how lovely' type to the 'what a waste of taxpapers' money' more negative reaction.

Royal Parks manager Mark Wasilewski, who will not disclose how much the garden costs to maintain (independenet sources suggest £50,000 a year) says Michelle Obama said to Mrs Brown on her UK visit in April: “You know about the White House vegetable garden and you can you do one here. Mr Wasilewski adds: “We did one very, very quickly and only planted it in June. We wanted to see how we went with summer veg and expand it next year. Vegetables are being sold in the staff canteen here. The Brown's do eat it as well as in the staff canteen. We had Cos lettuce from the garden in a Caesar salad costing £1.98 but that’s all gone now.

“We’re growing tomatoes, parsnips, chard, beetroot and courgettes. Mrs Brown’s children have been planting tomatoes and peppers. It’s just a start. The seedlings came from St James Park, grown from seeds are from Mr Fothergills, Suttons and Thompson & Morgan, and were well developed before going into the raised beds at No.10.

Mr Wasilewski adds: “The veg bed established very quickly and established well. Next we’re planting a bee garden with nepeta, lavender and sedum in the borders. We’ll have a bee box around the pond and a ladybird box. Bird boxes have been successful, particularly with blue tits. A green woodpecker comes to garden. Woodpeckers are rarely seen even at St James Park. And another secret, a kestrel has nested on the side of the Cabinet Office for 10 years.” The Horticultural Trades Association’s Tim Briercliffe is sending Mrs Brown a guide to butterfly friendly gardening. He says: “Anything that promotes gardening and encourages it is good. To grow vegetables might be for political advantage but if it promotes gardening and grow your own I don’t mind.” More than three quarters of Britain’s butterfly species have declined in the past 20 years and four species; the High Brown Fritillary, Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Wood White and the Duke of Burgundy are heading for extinction. 
 
The small enclosed garden has limited wild areas because of security but Royal Parks gardener Paul Schooling, who worked at No.10 for more than 20 years, has built raised beds around the garden this year to create more secluded areas for the Browns to work and (though probably not in the notoriously unchilled Gordon's case) relax in.
 
 
 
Mr Wasilewski says: “Island beds at the back to give seclusion in the summer to avoid prying eyes. Different Prime Ministers have used the garden in different ways. It’s a formal and family garden so we mix and plan accordingly. Each prime minister in residence had an influence. Margaret Thatcher had roses planted from David Austin. Tony Blair liked to have the press in the central area, while other premiers used the garden privately. The great thing about Blair was the trampoline and footballs.” Schooling has created a path of Welsh slate at so the Brown’s can walk round the garden and built new arches and seating that Brown approved.

Mr Wasilewski says the garden has a lot more colour now than it had before Blair and Brown. Former minister Lord Clark, one of the All-Party Horticulture Group who visited last week, says: “The garden was very austere when I was working here.  It’s much better now. But increased use means the lawn, which was returfed in 1995 but is worn and full of weeds. Wasilewski says it will be hollow tined this autumn.

There was a time when the garden could have been taken an historical route rather than the current modern twist after the National Trust wrote a plan for garden a decade ago to reinstate an early 18th century formal style at the garden with straight lines and very formal planting.
 
The L-shaped half acre garden was built in 1736 shortly after Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister to move into Number 10 in 1732. 
 
Mr Wasilewski said: “We're trying to follow the principles the National Trust looked at but their plan was shelved and it was left to us to carry on as we see today.” And today, with the pond, children’s toys, birds, bees, butterflies and vegetables, No.10 is a very modern garden that would look comfortable behind any large house - apart from the barbed wire of course.