There’s a growing call for eating organic and eating local. Both of these can help reduce emissions, natural resource use, and soil degradation due to fertilisers and pesticides. What’s more, over lockdown many families started using their green fingers – trying to grow fruit and veg at home!
You don’t need a huge amount of space, or even any outdoor space, to grow your own fruit and veg. It’ll take some time, and you’ll need to buy the right equipment, but growing at home is very rewarding. You get to eat fresh food (and you know exactly what’s gone into it), and gardening has important mental health and wellbeing benefits too! Children and parents can develop skills, and can try interesting recipes out once the produce is ready.
There are lots of guides and workshops (many for free) that can help you identify whatfruit and veg you want to try growing, what you need to buy, and how to go about doing it.
Standard equipment you’ll need is:
- Soil and/or compost
- Containers (plant pots, trays, old water bottles, fruit juice cartons – anything relatively solid with a hollow section!)
- Seeds
- Water
- Some space with a bit of light!
- Optional: grow bags, stakes and string
Examples of fruit and veg you can grow inside is:
- Spring onions
- Spinach and other salad leaves
- Tomatoes
- Chillis
- Herbs
- Strawberries
- Celery
- Cress
Examples of fruit and veg you can try growing on an outdoor space like a windowsill or balcony includes:
- Chives (sill)
- Rhubarb (pot/tray)
- Potatoes (pot/tray)
- Radishes (sill)
- Carrots (sill or pot)
- Runner beans (pot/tray)
- Courgettes (pot/tray)
- Sweet Peppers (sill/pot)
Here are a few sites with ideas and instructions:
- NUS 10 foods you can grow in your house or garden
- Growing Family: Container Gardening
- BBC Good Food: Fruit and Veg for Kids to Grow
There are also activity sessions run by organisations like Lewisham Local on growing your own food which are run in communities around the UK. Have a look online to see if there are any near you!
