How to grow
If you start with four beds, each 3m x 1m, you can go a long way to producing a good range of fruit and vegetables. The late John Seymour (author of The Self Sufficient Gardener) worked out that nine square metres of deep bed could keep an adult in vegetables all year.
Deep beds encourage the roots to grow down, not sideways, resulting in bigger vegetables that you can grow closer together. Edging the beds with chunky timber to raise them 20cm or so above the ground, makes it easier to achieve a good two spades deep of workable topsoil (with homemade compost, manure or loam).The office vegetable patch should become part of the working environment as part of a National Trust drive to get more people growing their own fruit and vegetables.
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The Trust is calling for allotments to be set up by employers in a move which will also help workers 'reconnect' with the land and enhance food security.
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"In the past growing fruit and vegetables tended to be a hobby for the older generation who had had the time to practice and perfect their growing technique over a period of time whereas now we're seeing a swell of popularity for grow your own across the whole population and particularly with younger generations who haven't had the time to practice," he said.
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