Information about growing your own fruit and veg
Our aim is to provide you with basic, practical information about food growing.
Involve the whole family. Children will benefit enormously from learning where food comes from, and they may like to have their own little patch. Some of our greatest gardeners started out by sowing a packet of carrot seed on a tiny patch of earth.
You can work on any scale that suits you, not just in a conventional vegetable garden. Grow some delicious cut-and-come again salads in a window box, start a 'square foot' garden on a four-foot square plot or use your flowerbed to grow decorative vegetables and flowers together.
If you garden organically you won't be using sprays that could harm children, pets and wildlife. You'll be working with nature, rather than against it, managing pests and diseases with good husbandry and vigilance. You'll learn how to make compost from garden and kitchen waste, so as well as reducing the waste that goes to landfill sites you'll be producing a useful organic soil improver, which will make your garden more fertile without costing you a penny.
Growing your own food doesn't have to be time-consuming or expensive. A few packets of seeds and some basic tools - a spade, fork, hoe, rake, trowel and watering can - will provide you with all you need to fill a plot with vegetables. Second-hand tools can often be both a bargain and a pleasure to use.
If you become a keen grower, and need more space, you might consider taking on an allotment.
We can help with all the information you need to take your first steps as an organic gardener - so why not start growing your own food today?
Food growing and sustainability
Don't forget that, as well as being fun, growing your own food is a healthy, productive and sustainable activity. Why not get a group of friends together to run one or several allotments, approach your local school, health authority, or housing association and ask them to help you develop a food growing project?
Food growing fits the government's criteria for sustainable communities, so it can be part of a Local Agenda 21 strategy.
Local Agenda 21 grew out of the Earth Summit at Rio de Janiero in 1992. It is a commitment by many of the world's governments to working towards a way of living that doesn't rob future generations of the beauty and resources of the earth. Most local councils have a Local Agenda 21 or an Environmental Initiatives officer who may be interested in helping you to set up food-growing project.
Help us spread the message
Join Garden Organic and/or help us in our valuable work. As a Garden Organic member you'll receive a quarterly newsletter packed with practical information and news about the organisation. You'll also obtain access to our members-only telephone helpline, and will automatically receive the Organic Gardening Catalogue, and information about our courses and fact sheets.
Top of pageGarden Organic is the working name of the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA).
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