boom in the grow-your-own effect

[Guest guest]

Coming up roses? Not any more as UK gardeners turn to vegetables

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/22/food.gardens

 

Price rises, food miles and Jamie Oliver spur

seed sales and demand for allotments

 

* John Vidal, environment editor

* The Guardian,

* Saturday March 22 2008

 

Call it the new dig for victory. Rising food

prices and television lifestyle shows are turning

Britons into some of Europe's leading home

vegetable growers, with increasing numbers of

gardeners digging up their flowering borders to

replace them with veggie patches.

 

Leading seed companies yesterday said that UK

buyers were shunning their traditional summer

orders for flowers such as sweet peas and cosmos

in favour of tomatoes, lettuce and other crops to

grow at home.

 

" Five years ago the split between vegetables and

flower seeds was 60:40, " said Tom Sharples, the

technical manager of Suttons, which distributes

nearly a third of seeds in the UK. " This had

switched by last year to 60:40 in favour of

vegetables and now in some places it is at 70:30

vegetables.

 

" There has been a pattern building for a few

years now. The growth in vegetable seeds used to

be related to health concerns, especially about

chemicals. It's shifting. Now it's care for the

environment generally, and people wanting to take

control back of what they eat and [reduce] food

miles. "

 

Thompson & Morgan, another major seed merchant in

the UK, said there was " a definite shift " towards

vegetables. " We are selling more vegetables than

flowers now and there is a real boom in the

grow-your-own effect. Sales of seed potatoes are

already up 10% on the year and sales of other

vegetable seeds continue to grow year on year, "

said Clare Dixey.

 

The burgeoning slow-food movement and growing

interest in local, seasonal produce are factors

in the rise of the vegetable patch. But the seed

supply firms also say that food and fuel price

inflation is helping to drive the shift to

vegetable growing. Following last year's poor

summer crops and a doubling of many commodity

prices, food prices have risen 10%-20%.

 

" You can plant your garden with veggies for the

price of filling your car up with petrol, " said

Sharples. " £50 of seed is a lot of vegetables.

People tell us they are planning to spend more

time in the garden now because they cannot afford

to go out so much. "

 

This, according to the Horticultural Trades

Association, is partly a result of the influence

of food gurus including Jamie Oliver and Hugh

Fearnley-Whittingstall. Sales of vegetable seeds

rose 7% last year and Britain, with a population

of more than 60.5 million people, may now be

growing as much at home as it did during the

second world war, when lawns were dug up.

Vegetable growing declined steeply during the

1980s and 1990s as supermarket food became more

popular.

 

This week the national lottery has been

overwhelmed by applications for grants to develop

local food groups wanting to grow their own

produce. Around £50m is to be to spent over the

next five years promoting community gardens,

school farms, box-and-compost schemes and the

reclamation of derelict land, with grants of

£2,000-£500,000. More than 1,300 groups applied

for grants in the first four days.

 

" The idea is to make local food more affordable

and accessible to communities " , said Kelvin

DeSena, of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts,

which is administering the scheme on behalf of 13

groups.

 

The Easter weekend is traditionally the start of

the gardening year, although conditions may not

be ideal this year.

 

" We are just waiting for some decent weather. I

haven't been able to get out into the garden all

year. Now it looks like it's sleeting and the

temperature in my greenhouse is down to -5C

[overnight]. I've hardly planted anything. I'm

keeping my fingers crossed it gets better, " said

Geoff Stokes, the secretary of the National

Society for Allotments, adding that although most

vegetable growing is still done in back gardens,

demand for allotments has rocketed.

 

Stokes sees this as a backlash against

supermarket food in favour of fresh produce and

seasonal fruit and local vegetables.

 

" There are roughly 330,000 allotment holders in

the UK but waiting lists are growing fast, " he

said. " Demand has increased considerably in the

last few months alone. It seems there is a

complete lifestyle change taking place. We had

the 'good life' factor in the 1970s, but the

phenomenon seems more sustainable now. "

 

As many as 100,000 people are on allotment

waiting lists, said Neil Dixon, the chairman of

the National Allotments Trust. " In Scotland and

some towns in northern England, the waiting list

is nearly as long as the number of people holding

allotments, " he said. " Almost every council is

now under pressure to provide more. Many are now

trying to cuts plots in half or less. "

 

Demand outstrips supply most in Yorkshire, where

six towns have a combined waiting list of more

than 3,500 people. Sheffield has 1,400 on its

list. Elsewhere, Manchester has 850 people on the

waiting list for allotments, Edinburgh has 1,150,

Plymouth 1,000 and Blyth Valley, in

Northumberland, has more than 1,200. In Swindon,

there is now a five-year waiting list.

 

Councils are obliged to provide 15 allotments for

every 1,000 households and no more than six

people are meant to be waiting for a plot at any

one time. " They are failing to provide them

because they sold off land when demand was not so

high, " said Stokes. " This will go on because

developers are now building houses with much

smaller gardens. "

 

Interest in local food is soaring, say groups

promoting home growing as a community activity.

In Middlesbrough, a pilot scheme last year

offered vegetable seeds and containers to more

than 2,000 individuals, as well as more than 80

community groups, voluntary organisations,

schools, housing associations and health

organisations. This year the project is expected

to get bigger after the council dug up part of a

park, turning it over to growing vegetables.

Top 10 grow-your-own vegetables and fruit, 2008

 

Potatoes

Tomatoes

Lettuce and salads

Runner beans

Peas

Carrots

Onions

Garlic

Herbs

Fruit bushes

 

Source: UK seed companies, garden centres, Horticultural Trades Association