At a time when allotment waiting lists are as long as your arm and people are looking for different ways to get their own bit of ‘The Good Life’ by growing their own veg, National Trust has come up with the perfect solution. Window boxes.
With 600 acres of window box space across the UK, National Trust have launched a new campaign that aims to spread the word about using this potentially valuable space to provide fresh vegetables and herbs for the kitchen. There are many options available for growing in small spaces, with some varieties of lettuce being particularly good for growing in pots, especially varieties you can cut to come again; tumbling tomatoes that grow well in hanging baskets or window boxes providing fresh cherry tomatoes through the summer, and even beetroot. If you don’t fancy growing vegetables, there are plenty of varieties of herbs that you could try your hand at.
National Trust advise that just two window boxes producing fresh tasty vegetables could give you the ingredients for a meal. With five thousand flats across the UK, the potential for increasing the amount of people growing their own vegetables and enjoying the benefits of fresh, homegrown goodness is huge. Food writer and chef, Gizzi Erskine, is showing her support for the initiative by growing a wide variety of vegetables including radishes, rainbow chard, cabbages and courgettes. She said,
“I love cooking with fresh ingredients – it makes all the difference to the taste of food and you can’t get fresher than picking straight from your own windowsill. Living in a flat, I never thought I could grow so much without a garden but my windowsills look pretty and are really productive. Hopefully I’ll never find a soggy supermarket bag of leftover lettuce at the bottom of my fridge again – everyone should give window food a go!”
Other items you might find of interest:
- National Allotment Week Encourages People To Grow Their Own
- A Growing Concern – National Trust to Create 1000 Allotments
- National Trust Launches Campaign To Save Britain’s Orchards
Tags: container gardening, Grow Your Own, herbs, national trust, vegetables, window boxes