The veg growing movement gains momentum

[Capsid]

People growing own fruit and vegetables to beat recession as Good Life returns - Telegraph

B&Q report a 27% increase in veg seed sales and send their staff on training courses to advise customers on growing veg. Expect a deluge of new members.

Good thing I say, I have this utopian idea that we all need to get back in touch with nature and the seasons and where our food comes from. It gets people interested and educates.

[magz.mccarthy]

indeed, that is great news! I must say bar last year, I haven't grown anything since i was a kid helping my Mom, but now can think of nothing else and my flat is awash with little seedlings and chitting potatoes. Something must be in the air!

[Pumpkin Becki]

I've felt for sometime now that society needs to turn away from the emphasis on 'global', and return to a 'local' if not 'self-sufficient' way of life. It's almost like 'Dig for Victory' during WWII, we each need to be responsible for providing what we can for our families from our own back garden or allotments, and source other produce from local suppliers. A bit of rationing might be what the country needs to curb the obeseity trend and needless food wastage we see everyday.

I attended a talk at my local Garden Society last night on growing veg for shows, and I was quite surprised by the speaker's attitude. He suggested amongst other things, that mis-shapen runner beans should be chucked on the compost along with excess courgettes - I say 'no, sell/barter them with your neighbours, freeze or preserve anything you can't eat immediately. Perhaps thats what B&Q staff should get training on, what to do with your produce once its harvested.

I'll stop ranting now...

[Capsid]

I like the self sufficiency ideal too, yet it went too far in Cambodia. On the news this morning about the trial of a Khmer Rouge leader, the regime of Pol Pot returned everyone from the cities to a rural lifestyle and a farming self sufficient life. All the intelligent people got killed.

[Two_Sheds]

I don't want B&Q staff to have proper training ... I get loads of half-dead bargains because they don't realise they have to water their plants

[Two_Sheds]

Expect a deluge of new members.

I'd already noticed a lot of new faces on the Vine

Brace yourself for the "can I grow bananas" threads

[Pumpkin Becki]

I'd already noticed a lot of new faces on the Vine

Brace yourself for the "can I grow bananas" threads

Yes, or the 'How do I grow parsnips?' classic.

[magz.mccarthy]

ha ha, cool i'd love to grow a banana tree. I actually have some seeds that I got on holidays last year that I was going to send to my brother in australia, but when I was told that shipping in live seeds to australia will probably get us both shot, i decided against the idea.

i read an article before though from a lady in england somewhere talking about her banana tree. she says she got it to flower and broduce the inklings of bananas, but nothing else. this was after 15 years or something.

[JamesA]

Grow your own does seem to be on the increase doesnt it. I had a go last year as id just had enough of the ever increasing food prices! My parents grew loads when i was a kid, i didnt realise just how much of our food was home grown until recent gardening conversations with mum. Having recently become a dad myself its focused my mind a lot on what we eat and where it comes from and i want to try and give my little girl some of that too.

Will be growing in containers and growbags in my small garden at home, but mum wants to expand her plot so we will be ripping up more of the lawn and i'll be helping out with it all. Cant wait!

[Pumpkin Becki]

Grow your own does seem to be on the increase doesnt it. I had a go last year as id just had enough of the ever increasing food prices! My parents grew loads when i was a kid, i didnt realise just how much of our food was home grown until recent gardening conversations with mum. Having recently become a dad myself its focused my mind a lot on what we eat and where it comes from and i want to try and give my little girl some of that too.

Will be growing in containers and growbags in my small garden at home, but mum wants to expand her plot so we will be ripping up more of the lawn and i'll be helping out with it all. Cant wait!

Good for you! It certainly is addictive once you get started isn't it? We have an allotment, and we are planning a kitchen garden at the new house as well where I can grow soft fruit, salad bits and keep chooks. I can't wait either!!

[Capsid]

I must have got the bug from my father who had an allotment when I was a kid. I didn't help him much but would rather look for slow worms under corrugated sheets left on unused plots. He even grew spuds in the back garden too, although it messed up our football games (and our ball messed up his spud foliage). I did learn however, where the veg that was put on our plates came from and how it grew, something that seems to have been lost today.

Then we moved house with a bigger garden and he used part of it for veg. Now he has given up mostly due to problems with squirrels and pigeons but he does share a veg patch with a friend's garden and we exchange details about what we are sowing, growing and harvesting. He does still grow tomatoes and runner beans on his patio; last year his beans were some of the tenderest and best tasting just like he always grew.

So he inspired me to have an allotment and then when I moved house, to grow veg in the garden. Like father like son. Oh and my sons love my runner beans too!

[Plot17B]

At one of my jobs, there's a lot of us working here. I knew of only one chappie who had an allotment for years, before we finally got ours @ start of 2008 and we been full on ever since. Given away/eaten loads of our own veg/fruit and talked endlessly about it.

And Now?
More than half my colleagues are either growing veg at home, starting/waitlisted for allotments, some have now got chooks, i have bees, and others are growing green stuff in pots at home. 2 peeps have started small holdings. More than enough to start an allotment group for swapsies and advice.

It's all really, really taken off in the last 12 months. "Veggies" are the new rock 'n roll. Long may it last! And i think it will!

[Capsid]

But maybe not

Oh dear, now I read that there is an increase in people turning to cheap fast foods to save money. Not sure how that works anyway.

Jon Henley: Is the recession ruining our health? | Life and style | The Guardian

Are veg growers and fast food eaters mutually exclusive? My need to partake of such culinary delights (?) has not altered and only look to fast food as a rare convenience rather than a way to save money.

[BrideXIII]

I'd already noticed a lot of new faces on the Vine

Brace yourself for the "can I grow bananas" threads

Yes, or the 'How do I grow parsnips?' classic.

that's twice i have read this thread now, and i have to say, both those comments i would find very offputting if i was new here.

I think i may need a break, i fail to see why new faces should be a 'problem' nor why any question deserves a rolleyes sarcastic smiley.

[bluemoon]

I have a theory that GYO is like one of those weird genetic diseases that skips to alternate generations. Both my grandfathers were almost obsessional about it, yet my parents found just mowing the lawn a chore. Our own kids have shown little enthusiasm, with one deliberately buying a flat in preference to a house just so he doesn't have to bother with a garden. He says he'll buy a house with a garden when he has kids.......but he'll concrete it. Our grandson though is already showing an interest and on his first ever visit to our lottie was wide eyed, but started chatting immediately about seeds and growing. I didn't know he even knew about stuff like that and he could barely talk at the time. It was almost like he felt he'd finally arrived home.