For 2010, Londoners will continue to grow-their-own-everything with a _____ vengeance, whether in garden, allotment, on balcony or rooftop.
“In the uncertainty of a recession we want soil, roots, and a sense of place and belonging,” notes horticultural historian Christopher Woodward, curator of Lambeth’s Garden Museum, where The Good Life exhibition (with the popular TV show on a continuous loop) looks at the past 100 years. Penelope Keith puts in a Iunchtime appearance with Alan Titchmarsh at the museum next month; you are advised to book early.
These are the books to coax us into our gardens this spring: Creating Your Garden Farm; a reissue of the 1945 Dig On for Victory, and an expanded version of the John Seymour classic, The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, so you can learn how to forage for free in the hedgerows of Totteridge as well as espalier pears and grow soya beans. In the last year or so, resourceful Londoners have shown that, if you want to grow your own, space is not an issue. Eco architect Justin Bere has a wildflower meadow and beehive on his Islington roof (get buzzing with the beginners guide from www.britishbee. org.uk); landscape designer Deborah Nagan has turned her front garden on the Brixton Road over to beans, broccoli, artichokes and asparagus, much to the delight of passers-by, and reports that urban pollution has no effect on the sublime taste of home-grown. Julia Stephenson, Green parliamentary candidate for the Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham constituency, keeps ex-battery chickens amongst the veg and herbs on the roof of her mansion block flat, a mere flutter away from Peter Jones. “Rare breeds can be too posh to push,” she says. “My three rescue chickens are incredibly reliable, pro¬ducing three eggs apiece, daily.” The new Eglu Cube from Omlet houses up to 10 chickens (www.omlet.co.uk).
The smart way to grow veg in 2010 is to go tabletop. Ideal for the courtyard or patio, the new raised-bed tables and V-shaped mangers offer plenty of planting space – and no back strain.
For lazy Londoners, there isn’t a veg that isn’t available to buy as a baby, whether climbing bean, cucumber, or even orange-fleshed canteloupe Sweetheart. You can choose your cuisine from the vast array of seed packets: Oriental (lemongrass, mizuna, pakchoi); Mexican (tomatillo, poha, cilantro); all regions of Italy (sample Seeds of Italy’s radicchio Palla Rosa of Verona and bean Meraviglia of Venice).
Berries for the new decade hail from Sweden and Siberia respectively: welcome lingonberry and honeyberry into your patch, sold as plants from Dobies www.dobies.co.uk), where boffins have been busy raising a robust new generation of “turbo” veg. By grafting veg onto vigorous rootstocks, they are producing top quality, resilient produce that you can buy as young plants for me first time, this spring. The turbo-charged tomato to try: voluptuous Italian beefsteak, Belriccio. Productive trees are what we want, so why not try a truffle tree? Single Italian truffles reach up to £200,000 at auction – quite an incentive to grow your own. Hazel seedlings inoculatedwith Burgundy truffle spores can be”Is the current boom just a credit-crunch fad or do we really want to change the way we eat for good?” ponders Woodward. Will it last? For this year,and probably for this decade, yes, yes, yes. It’s too exciting not to.