Grow Your Own fever hits London

Mon, Jul 27, 2009

Climate Change, Grow your own

It appears that  Grow Your Own is gripping the capital this summer.

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The desire to harvest crops of runner beans , tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, parsnips and much more is being fuelled by the daily musings of the London Standard newspaper which is running a “Grow Your Own” campaign. Every day a different story highlights the delight and ease with which Londoners are embracing and re-inventing this addictive gardening habit.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23714776-details/London+is+full+of+people+growing+their+own+produce/article.do

Latest news is that the Browns are now producing veg that is appearing on the menu at the No10 staff canteen – cos lettuce in a Ceasar Salad costing £1.99.

Although the Browns self sufficency arrived late this year – they only planted their raised beds and giant tubs in June using seedlings from a demonstration allotment in St James’s Park – the whole family are involved with sons John, five and Fraser, three, busy digging out the weeds.article-1201628-0552c305000005dc-254_468x286

Inspiration for the idea originated from Michelle Obama during her visit when she explained to Sarah Brown how she has built a very impressive vegetable garden at the White House with the help of local school children. They are pictured here taking a tour of the No 10 gardens together.

The White House Garden is much more impressive than the UK version at No 10 . Some 1,100 square feet of sprawling lawn has been dug up to create the first vegetable garden at the White House since the Second World War.

The Obamas created their organic community garden, a ‘Victory Garden’  –  named after America’s wartime equivalent of Britain’s Dig For Victory campaign  –  in March, well in time to secure a good crop from the seeds that local children helped Michelle Obama to plant.The results look spectacular as you can see from this photo.

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Sarah Brown is not beaten yet – as she explains ” We wanted to see how we went with summer vegetables and then expand it next year.”  Follow this blog for more news of No 10 allotment plans.

This post was written by:

- who has written 872 posts on My Climate Change Garden.

I am not an experienced gardener - more of an enthusiastic amateur who learns by trial and error and who is keen to "manage" the effects of shifting weather patterns on my garden. Writing this blog is my passion and it has evolved over 12 years to inspire engagement with climate change outside our back doors, in our personal gardens and green spaces. My mission is to fertilise and expand this platform to grow a community of global gardeners communicating about the effects of climate change on our plants and exploring how each individual can make small changes in our lives to become more sustainable. The future of our gardens and #OurPlanet is in our hands - please plant your own seeds for our collective sustainable future.

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