This year’s Harrogate Spring Flower Show is urging visitors to “come and have a go.” MATT CLARK gets a preview of what’s on offer.

DES Granger is rolling up his sleeves. Under a surprisingly strong, spring sun, he’s about to get his hands dirty using a technique as old as time to build one of Yorkshire’s most iconic landmarks; a dry stone wall.

They conjure visions of summer days spent in the dales, but Des and his fellow students at Askham Bryan College reckon we shouldn’t have to wait for a trip to the countryside to enjoy their beauty.

So as part of this year’s Harrogate Spring Flower Show, they will be teaching people how to create a traditional stone wall in their back garden.

It’s part of a new ‘have a go’ series of demonstrations, which includes other tricky gardening skills such as block paving and laying turf.

Des has been walling since he was a lad. Now he can build them by eye, but at the show he will be covering all the basics. And it’s something that can be learned fairly quickly.

“It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, but without a picture to follow,” he said.

“There are a few basic rules and the beauty is if people don’t like it, they can always take it down and start again.”

Martin Fish the show’s director arrives for his first walling lesson. It’s not as easy as it looks, but once the foundations are in, the job becomes less back-breaking. To cap it all Des guides Martin as he lays large, flat stones called ‘bucks and does’ which set everything in place.

“This is great fun,” said Martin. “Over the last few years, we have introduced a number of new features aimed at inspiring and encouraging more people to get involved with gardening.

“Have a go takes our range of live demonstrations and interactive activities one step further.”

The earliest dry stone wall in Britain is at the Neolithic village of Skara Brae on Orkney, while dales walls near Hawes have been dated to Viking times. Most though, were built between 1750 and 1860 under the land enclosure acts.

Des said: “Building dry stone walls is very therapeutic and anyone who’s been doing it for any amount of time will tell you the stones talk to them.

“You look at the pile and individual stones just stand out, as if to say “I'm next, I'm the one to fill that gap”.”

• The 2012 Harrogate Spring Flower Show runs from April 26 to 29. Tickets are £13.50 when booked before noon on April 17 or £16 on the gate. Sunday tickets are £11.50 in advance; £14 on the gate. For further information phone 01423 546157 or visit flowershow.org.uk