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Growing your own vegetables is becoming more popular and more and more people are growing their own vegetables to eat. Not only is it a great and rewarding pastime, but the crops are fresh, taste better and the vitamins and other benefits they contain, such as antioxidants, are more potent. During World War II the country was told to ‘dig for victory’ so every patch of suitable ground was used to produce the crops to feed the nation. Today if space is restricted you can try a few vegetables among the flowers, vegetable plants such as lettuce, beetroot or spring onions will not look out of place in a bed full of perennial plants, or bedding plants, and there is great satisfaction in planting vegetable plants, tasting straight from the plant, then harvesting, cooking and presenting a hearty meal for the whole family. In the seventeenth century after the English Civil War, there was a food shortage and there was a group of people known as the ‘diggers’ they took it upon themselves to take over plots of land to grow fruit and vegetables and even today there is a new breed of ‘diggers’ who use areas of derelict land to grow vegetables. Allotments have been around since the eighteenth century and in the 1990’s, a fairly substantial plot cost about £20 per year this way of planting fruit and vegetables has not died, far from it, there is a renewed interest in allotments, and believe it or not it is not the image of the retired labourer that now use this method of growing, but the younger business person, furthermore there are huge waiting lists for these allotments. Many gardeners will want a variation of plants, and shrubs, in a garden, that is not to say one cannot grow vegetables, they can be planted anywhere, in containers, and many small fruits can be used as hanging basket plants, in fact strawberries look beautiful hanging from a basket and also very unusual. The gardeners of today will get great pleasure in growing different species and present themselves with challenges, but some will stay with the age old plants and shrubs year in year out, and lavender plants are seen somewhere in gardens everywhere, even in Royal gardens. English lavender yields an essential oil and can be used in balms, salves, perfumes, cosmetics, and is used more and more for culinary use, the flowers can be candied and used as cake decorations, and also used paired with sheep’s milk and goat’s milk cheeses, furthermore beautiful lavender scones and marshmallows are a sheer delight. A spokesman for Blooming Direct a horticultural business based on the Island of Jersey said, “different gardeners will want different plants and shrubs when it comes to their garden, but what we are proud of is, we can supply almost anything in the way of plants, trees, bulbs, also gardening tools, and garden furniture, we are a ‘one stop’ online shopping facility where the customer can purchase absolutely everything for their garden”. With the current concerns about climate change any reduction in the journeys taken by our food will reduce the effect we have on the environment, and growing some vegetables in our gardens is another way of doing our bit to combat global warming. For further information visit: www.bloomingdirect.com or you can visit their Facebook page to discover more offers.
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Garden plants, Bedding plants, Plug plants, Garden bulbs, Garden seeds, Container plants, Hanging basket plants, Vegetable plants,
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