GARDENING FOCUS: GROW YOUR OWN
BRITAIN’S GROW YOUR OWN REVOLUTION CONTINUES BUT NEEDS A LITTLE EXTRA HEAT
Our national interest in growing our own fruit and vegetables has always been a cornerstone of the allotment growers and some dedicated gardeners but, since lockdown, the surge of interest has increased to all walks of life. By Graham Paskett.
S
eed companies report that sales of fruit and vegetable varieties have continued to grow. The pressure on
the Great British Purse and the spiralling cost of living will further add to the demand and, increasingly, consumers
are seeking ways to
reduce food air miles. People also want to know the provenance of what they are eating.
Grow Your Own
What better way to achieve this than growing it ourselves? I’m a massively keen F&G gardener and lucky enough to have a large greenhouse, enabling me to grow almost everything from seed. We are almost totally self sufficient in this area. We have just finished
the broad beans and last year’s chard and are already tucking into runner beans, various cabbages, kale, potatoes, this year’s chard and even spinach. I still even find the odd picking of asparagus. to come will be courgettes, butternut squash, Brussel sprouts, leeks and sprouting broccoli. My wife also grows a wide variety of herbs for the kitchen. In the greenhouse we have just had our first picking of the delicious Sungold tomatoes and the main Vanessa crop is beginning to ripen. In addition, we have sweet peppers, cucumber and aubergines, all coming along nicely. But I believe
the greenhouse
is an essential part of fruit and vegetable gardening. You need one for a prolific tomato crop and being able to grow everything from seeds is not only very rewarding but also highly cost effective. In addition to the F&G I am also able to take various shrub cuttings and grow a wide variety of flowers from seed.
Glasshouse growing Linda Lane is Managing Director
20 DIY WEEK JULY 2022
of the family company Griffin Glasshouses and is the daughter of the founder. She is a firm believer that the continuation of the ‘Grow Your Own’ revolution is key to sales success for the firm. “The Covid lockdown heralded
the start of the mass explosion of interest in growing your own fruit and vegetables and this has continued as restrictions have been lifted. We have seen particularly strong growth
in our National
Garden Scheme greenhouses and also cold frame sales. Customer feedback highlights the health of GYO, not only the eating of home grown fruits and vegetables but also the physical and mental benefits of working in the greenhouse and garden as plants mature and grow, right through to harvesting,” says Lane. “Customer interest is so strong that I write a monthly online guide to GYO gardening.
I believe the
key factors behind this are health, reducing air miles, getting back to nature and the confidence in knowing precisely where the food has come from and what it has
About the author
Paskett Public Relations is Britain’s longest
established specialist gardening PR consultancy and after almost 50 years there is no signs of things slowing down. MD, Graham Paskett – also the blogger Graham The Grumpy Gardener – is a former newspaper journalist and he and his former reporter wife Jennie love and look after a four acre garden in rural Staffordshire.
www.diyweek.net
been grown in. A greenhouse is essential when starting these plants from seed. It also enables the gardener to carefully select only the strongest growing seedlings. Food
and cooking
are major factors in modern life and being able to see fruits and vegetables through from the seed to eating is something that will only increase in interest,” Lane concludes.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
