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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Grow your own: The seeds of change
  • Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:52:28 -0700



Grow your own: The seeds of change
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/grow-your-own-the-seed
s-of-change-1418921.html
Sunday, 18 January 2009

As shoppers feel the pinch, more Britons are tearing out the decking and
turning their lawns into vegetable plots. Rachel Shields reports

The nation's landscape is changing before our eyes. Record numbers of
people are preparing to dig up their manicured lawns and privet hedges.
Even the most modish gardens are sporting freshly dug vegetable beds,
sapling fruit trees and nascent compost heaps.

Fruit and vegetable seed sellers last week reported record sales, with many
saying that they cannot keep up with a sudden rise in demand. Meanwhile,
the landscape gardening industry is in crisis, with many firms laying off
staff.

The Association of Professional Landscapers has appointed a new chief
executive officer, Jason Lock, in its search for strategies to tackle the
downturn. "Without exception all our members are feeling the pinch. There
has been a drop in enquiries and work booked," said Mr Lock.

The vogue for landscape gardening was spurred on in the late 1990s by
garden makeover shows such as Ground Force, headed by Alan Titchmarsh. It
has been replaced by a fashion for "edible gardening", with celebrities
such as the Blur bassist Alex James espousing self-grown "five-a-day"
healthy eating.

"Because the housing market is slowing down, there just isn't the movement
through the chain that usually turns up landscaping work," said Mr Lock.

The UK's leading seed sellers, Tuckers, Marshalls and packetseeds.com, are
struggling to cope with the number of orders coming in. The Horticultural
Trades Association put UK sales of the seeds of edible plants at £40.3m
in 2007; new figures expected shortly are likely to show significant
growth.

In March the Royal Horticultural Society will unveil the latest stage in
its "Grow Your Own" campaign, this time turning its attention to
fruit-growing. The campaign, which aims to show people that they don't need
acres of space to begin growing, and that gardening can reduce the amount
of money spent on food, claims to have inspired half a million people to
start cultivating fruits and vegetables.

As the trend grows, so does the demand for space. Allotments, once largely
the preserve of the retired, are now hot property among young
professionals. There are 330,000 allotments in the UK, and 100,000 people
on waiting lists in the hope of securing one. The true number of people
seeking allotments is thought to be much higher as some councils have
closed their lists.

"There has been a phenomenal rise in the amount of people wanting
allotments. There aren't enough because lots of the land was taken away in
recent years, but because local authorities have a statutory duty to
provide allotments they have to look for new land," said Karen Kelly, of
the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners.

Local authorities are obliged to provide 15 allotments per 1,000
households. Many authorities came under fire in recent years for selling
off land once used for this purpose to property developers.

"Everyone, from every social group and level that you can imagine, has
allotments – doctors, the unemployed, the elderly, families. It is
growing in popularity because people care about food, their carbon
footprint and the economic situation – allotments address all of these
issues," said Ms Kelly.

Home-grown happiness

Gill Dickers, 59, from Headingley, Leeds, says: "I started growing my own
because I wanted a supply of fresh salad and herbs. It's lovely being
outside in the spring and summer doing something pleasurable and
productive. I planted leeks, kohlrabi and potatoes, too. I like knowing
that what I'm feeding my family is organic. I've taken over the area where
my son usually plays football and I'm expanding my production this year.
The cost of buying supermarket fruit and vegetables is crazy – that is
one reason people are growing their own. It's also about being more
productive. The world's resources are limited and people want to do their
bit. As you can use lots of your household waste as compost, it encourages
recycling, too."







  • [Livingontheland] Grow your own: The seeds of change, Tradingpost, 01/19/2009

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