Grow your own food

Grow-your-own fruit and veg is rapidly gaining popularity. And for good reason.

Growing food at home means you know exactly what you're eating. You can choose to grow organically, avoiding chemical pesticides and feeds. Your food will be deliciously fresh and full of nutritional goodness. Home growing is also kinder to the environment, saving unnecessary packaging and long-distance travel.

You need less space than you may think to grow your own food. A wide choice of fruit, vegetables and herbs can even be grown in containers on your patio or balcony, and more and more ingenious products are appearing on the market to make this even easier.

The picture on the left shows a yellow squash plant growing in a container. If you'd like more inspiration for growing food in containers that are as decorative as they are tasty, check out this and other container gardening ideas by Pamela Crawford.

Want help with growing your own food?
Whether you want help to set up a vegetable garden, advice on which crops will work in your growing space or have somebody help you develop your growing skills, all you have to do is search the Plant Concierge database to find the people in your area who can help.
Simply select "Advice & Coaching" and "Edibles" in the search box.

Want somebody else to grow the food in your garden?
There's no rule that says "growing your own" means you have to do all the work yourself. If you want the benefits of home grown produce but not got the time or inclination to tend to crops, you can always have an experienced gardener come around and do it all for you!
Simply select "General" (under maintenance) and "Edibles" in the search box.