Growing Self-Sufficiency – Book Review

Enjoy chicken, eggs, fruit, veg? A simple way to grow your own

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Growing Self-Sufficiency
Realize your dream and enjoy producing your own fruit, vegetables, egg and meat.
By Sally Nex
Published by Green Books September 2017
240 pages, paperback, 255mm x 205mm
ISBN: 9780857843173

Growing Self-Sufficiency is a practical and inspirational guide for both the beginner and the experienced gardener. It explains how you can enjoy the satisfaction and pride of providing food for yourself and your family, whether you have just a small balcony or back yard, a large garden, or a homestead or smallholding.

Learn how to:

• Enjoy fresh and tasty vegetables in season
• Grow delicious fruit for eating all year round
• Produce your own chicken, eggs and lamb, guaranteed free from harmful chemicals and additives
• Preserve your produce – from freezing and drying to making jams, chutneys and pickles
• Make your own drinks: juices, cordials, cider, wine and liqueurs
• Grow medicinal herbs and make your own herbal remedies
• Provide more food from your plot than you ever thought possible!

If you ever feel a pang of guilt as you look at the label on your food, realizing that it has traveled thousands of miles to get to your dinner table, then Sally Nex’s Growing Self-Sufficiency will inspire you to make the change and shrug off of the type of 'salad crisis' we had this winter when shop shelves were bare and produce was rationed.

But not only have your fruit and vegetables from abroad traveled long distances. Even the “fresh” fruit and vegetables that you buy at the greengrocers and which do come from the UK have first been heading from the farm to the large wholesale markets and then, via some other buyers, to the greengrocers in your city, town or village, even if the fruit and veg have been grown virtually next door. That is the way the market operated, unfortunately.

Then there is the thought of the additives that keep vegetables artificially fresh for so long. Now think how much healthier you will be and how much needless pollution you will prevent by eating the most local of food, namely that that you have grown yourself.

Sally’s unique three pot method will guarantee you a supply of tasty, inexpensive home-grown food throughout the year. Not just helping to save the planet, it will help to save money too and Sally has plenty of tips on how you can feed your family at only a fraction of the cost. She explains how you can:

• start a vegetable plot on your balcony
• create a herb garden on your windowsill
• grow a mini orchard in pots

This book deals with about every aspect of growing and raising your own food, as well as preserving the harvest, collecting seeds, etc.

The 240 page are jam packed with information on every aspect of home grown and the advice about growing in containers should be of interest to all those that do not have much of garden space, by way of ground in which to grow things.

Personally I almost exclusively garden in containers though my containers are all kinds of things, from tree pots and tubs of various sizes, all the way up to shopping carts, and everything else in between, such as window boxes, hanging baskets, and any other kind of receptacle that can be repurposed into a growing container.

"Taking control of your own food is one of the easiest ways to tread lighter on the earth: as easy, in fact, as planting a seed." Sally Nex

Sally Nex has been feeding her family with home-grown fruit, vegetables and preserves for the last 20 years or so, as well as eggs from a motley gaggle of hens and more recently, lamb from her small flock of rare-breed sheep.

It all started with a few beans in a concrete handkerchief of city garden in London, but an allotment, job change, house move and several rented fields later, it's probably true to say the 'hobby' is well out of hand.

In 2006 she left 15 years as a journalist on BBC radio, television and World Service to devote her time to horticulture. She is qualified in horticulture to RHS Level 3, and has a planting design diploma from Capel Manor College. Sally now writes, teaches and gives talks about veg growing and self-sufficiency all over the country and is a regular writer and columnist for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, the RHS journal The Garden, Grow Your Own, and The Guardian.

As far as self-sufficiency is concerned we all have to bear in mind though that, to all intents and purposes, no one can ever be truly self-sufficient in all things, and that includes growing food.

© 2017

Grow Your Own still on the rise

Grow Your Own still on the rise as seed firm reports strongest ever start to retail year

Seed and plant specialist Thompson & Morgan is predicting the best ever year for grow your own following a sharp rise in vegetable seeds sales for the 2016 season.

The Thompson & Morgan seed retailing year runs September to September. The Ipswich based mail order expert has reported an impressive 24 per cent rise in seed sales through September to end of November 2015, compared to the same period in 2014. While flower seed sales remain strong it is vegetable seed that has driven the increase.

Interest in grow your own hit an all time high in 2009, when industry wide sales of vegetable seeds peaked at an historic £60million for the year. Some said the bubble would soon burst but Thompson & Morgan customers are showing no sign of giving up on the good life. Thompson & Morgan Horticultural Director Paul Hansord says if vegetable seed sales continue to perform at current levels then the firm will be reporting its best ever year for the category.

Tomato seeds sales have jumped 51 per cent in the three month period. Much of this growth has been generated by sales of Thompson & Morgan’s Vegetable of the Year for 2016 – Tomato Mountain Magic, a fully blight resistant variety ideal for a trouble-free late season outdoor crop. Akron and Sweet Aperitif join with blight buster to form T&Ms top three tomatoes.

Brassica seed sales have risen 52 per cent, while onion seeds have seen an impressive growth of 67 per cent. T&M says the loss of show bench favourite Onion Kelsae from other retailer’s 2016 catalogues (the Italian seed crop was destroyed by a hail storm and will not be available again until at least 2017) has driven growers towards other large varieties including Onion Bunton’s Showstopper, an exclusive show bench variety developed by one of Thompson & Morgan’s customers. Pea and Bean sales have risen 82 per cent, with Runner Bean Firestorm - the 2016 Thompson and Morgan Seed Catalogue cover star - alone seeing a 75 per cent rise in sales.

Thompson & Morgan’s Chilli and Pepper range has seen the biggest growth, with sales rising a staggering 111 per cent. This has been driven by a complete overhaul of the category for 2016. Paul said: “Much of our product development focus has been on making growing from seed as easy as possible. Our redesigned sweet and hot pepper range does away with the complicated Scoville Heat scale. Each variety has been given a 1-10 heat rating, from cool & sweet to explosive, allowing gardeners to make a quick informed decision on which varieties are right for them.

Thompson & Morgan is also helping veg growers to take the guesswork out of crop timings in 2016 with All Season Vegetable Collections. Each packet contains at least three top- performing varieties of the same vegetable that can all be sown in one hit but will crop at different stages to give the longest harvest window from a single sowing. The All Season Mange Tout Pea collection for example contains Oregon Sugar Pod, Sweet Horizon and Kennedy for a 16 week harvest from June through to October, while the All Season Leeks collection provides a massive 36 week crop window from August through to the following April.

Thompson & Morgan has a long history as market leader in the mail order supply of seed and young plants, direct to gardener’s doors since 1855. Its award winning website and seasonal catalogues have undergone a massive product expansion through 2015, now listing 10,000+ items covering most areas of garden supply, from sheds, greenhouses and mature plants to garden machinery, composts, fertilisers and hand tools.

Despite this, Paul says Thompson & Morgan remains committed to offering the best selection of garden seeds on the market. He says: “Seed sowing is economy-proof, remaining core to our customers’ garden experience in both good and bad years. Nothing beats the satisfaction of nurturing a seasonal crop from plot to plate, especially when you can make a huge saving against supermarket produce and slash your weekly spend.”

Source: Thompson & Morgan

This press release is presented without editing for your information only.

Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.

Living the Good Life

Great reasons for having an allotment

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Allotment sites are managed in two ways, but it also depends on the local borough; on some sites the plot-holders rent direct from the council and on others there is an association of allotment plot holders that manage the site. And depending on the “rules” set by the associations – the councils may have different ones – not only can you grow fruit, vegetables and flowers, but you can even keep chickens. Whether you would want to do the latter on an allotment that may not be near your home is a questions that only you can answer. I, for one, would not.

So and here are some of the reasons for having an allotment:

Exercise

Any way you can increase the amount of exercise you do will benefit your physical and mental health. A few hours spent digging, hoeing, bending and straightening is more satisfying than slogging away on an indoor gym cross-trainer, especially when you end up with something you can eat! In addition to that science has discovered – oh dear, have they now – that dirt is actually good for you. Not necessarily ingested, though a little of that does not hurt either, the opposite rather, but handling it apparently releases stress and such.

Stress buster

Taking time away from your PC to work on your pak choi and swapping your BlackBerry for a blackberry is an excellent way to combat stress. Gardening is often repetitive, offering a quiet space for contemplation and allows a space for your brain to take a break. You may feel more clear-headed after time spent in the allotment, even if you haven't been thinking about anything of importance.

You are what you eat It's a lot easier to feel inclined to munch down on your five-a- day if you've grown some of them yourself. You can pick and eat your crops within hours and you can decide whether to grow organic and know exactly what you are eating, reducing you and your family's exposure to pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

It's not in the supermarket

Yes, you can grow spuds and French beans (and why not if you like spuds and French beans) but one of the joys of having an allotment is growing the produce you just cannot pick up easily in most supermarkets. Whether it's an exotic crop like strawberry spinach, a forgotten classic like skirret, something the supermarket never seems to have enough of like Swiss chard or simply a more flavorsome variety of carrot, it's your domain to grow what you want.

Community spirit

The comradeship between allotment holders is tangible and yet you can be as social or as self-contained as you like. Swapping seeds, offering surplus plug plants and sage advice (pun intended) is all part of the allotment experience. And someone is always around who will commiserate when the blackfly get to your broad beans before you do and help celebrate when your first tomatillo is harvested!

If you have a backyard then you can make your allotment there instead of renting one from the council. That way you do not have to deal with any rules that some allotment sites and -associations have and you can grow what you like without interference. However, you do not get the help and advice that you will find on an allotment site.

Or do both. Have a home allotment and a plot on an allotment site. Then at home you grow the things that some association frown upon, like Jerusalem Artichokes or wild edibles, aka (edible) weeds.

If you don't have space for a garden at home where to grow food then, obviously, an allotment is the only option really if you want to, somehow, life the “good life”. But, depending on the area, there may or may not be a waiting lift for allotment plots.

Happy digging, growing and harvesting...

© 2015

Fall Garden Planning

Now is the time to plan for a productive fall garden. Here’s everything you need to know to enjoy fresh, nutritious cool-weather crops this autumn.

With tomatoes, peppers and melons now hitting their late summer stride, it’s easy to forget that autumn can be as abundant as spring and summer. But those who seize the opportunity for a second season will find the planning worthwhile as they munch on garden-fresh produce as Halloween approaches.

The steps to a bountiful fall garden are simple: Choose crops suited to fall growing conditions. Ensure your site has organically enriched soil and adequate water. And start now.

Replace spring-planted crops with new plantings that mature in fall. Seeds and transplants will take off quickly in warm summer soil. When deciding what to plant for fall, gardeners throughout most of the country should focus on greens and root vegetables, says John Navazio, a plant-breeding and seed specialist at Washington State University Extension and senior scientist for the Organic Seed Alliance in Port Townsend, Washington.

In nearly any part of the country, you can grow these cool-weather crops into autumn: leafy greens such as lettuces, spinach, arugula, chard and mâche; root veggies such as beets, carrots, turnips, radishes and rutabagas; brassicas including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale and Chinese cabbage; and peas. In many regions, some of these fall crops will survive the winter to produce a second harvest in spring.

If you garden where winters are mild, you can grow all of those crops plus heat-lovers. “Here, we set out tomato transplants in late August,” says David Pitre, owner of Tecolote Farm, an organic farm near Austin, Texas. Pitre plants okra, eggplant, peppers, winter squash, cucumbers and potatoes in August and September for winter harvest. In warm climates, wait to plant cool-weather crops until after temperatures cool—in late September or after.

Fall is also prime garden season in the Pacific Northwest, where abundant rain and cool (but not frigid) temperatures are ideal for growing brassicas, root crops and leafy greens planted in mid- to late summer. The hardiest of these crops often hang on well into winter if given protection such as row covers.

Fall Planting

To determine starting dates for your fall garden plants, check the “days to maturity” in the seed catalog or on the seed packet. Add an extra week or two to factor in fall’s shorter day lengths, which delay plant maturity. Then to determine your ideal planting date, count backward, subtracting the days to maturity from your average first fall frost date (find yours at the National Climatic Data Center).

Start broccoli and cabbage seeds indoors (summer soil may be too hot for good germination), then transplant them to the garden about four weeks later, when temperatures are cooler and seedlings are large enough to compete against weeds. Direct-seed greens, carrots, beets and other root crops into prepared beds.

Read more: http://www.motherearthliving.com/vegetable-gardening/fall-garden-planning-zmgz12jazmel.aspx#ixzz3AUQgnNUk

New report predicts value of London’s edible gardens at £1.4 million – and counting

London’s food growing gardens and urban farms are producing food worth at least £1.4 million per year, according to a new report published today by Capital Growth, London’s food growing network. Using data collected by a sample of 160 food growing spaces located in community gardens, schools, allotments, parks and farms across the capital, the report shows how veg patches all over London are putting fresh, seasonal and ultra-local food on thousands (and potentially millions) of plates.

The weights of community-grown fruit, vegetables, honey and eggs were recorded by members of the Capital Growth food growing network, which has over 2,000 registered spaces, many based in low-income areas of London. “We know that London can’t feed itself but the aim of this initiative was to see just how much food we can grow, and we have been able to use our innovative online Harvest-ometer tool to record the harvest of a wide range of different growing spaces,” explained Sarah Williams from Capital Growth. “The response has been extremely positive, with about one tenth of our member spaces clocking up over £150,000 of produce during the course of a year, and contributing portions of healthy fruit and veg to over a quarter-of-a-million meals”

The data was used to find out popular crops – which included salad leaves, tomatoes, courgettes, squash, potatoes and onions, as well as the most high-yielding in terms of weight or money, and yield per square metre. It was also used to estimate the potential value – in weight and money – of food produced across the whole of the Capital Growth network, totting up to an estimated £1.4 million worth of fresh produce, grown on our doorsteps. 

The estimate is considered conservative, as London is starting to see the re-emergence of urban farms, such as Sutton Community Farm who took part in the project and contributed almost £45 000 towards the total.   The last few years have seen development of larger sites including Sutton, OrganicLea in Waltham Forest and Forty Hall Farm in Enfield, who are all growing food to sell at a significant scale.

The work of Capital Growth through the Harvest-ometer, is a first in terms of measuring and valuing what is being grown by London’s communities. “We know that growing food is good for people’s health, community spirit, and for creating green spaces that are good for people, plants and bees,” said Ben Reynolds, Coordinator of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, “but this is the first time that a cash value has been put on the food that London’s community gardens and farms are producing, showing how they help people to save money on their food bills and contribute to the growth in food enterprise and job creation in urban areas. We hope that Reaping Rewards report and the Harvest-ometer will help food growers to get the support they deserve, whether that be funding, advice or protection in local planning policy.” 

Capital Growth is continuing to work with its members to see how much they are growing and saving and would welcome Harvest-ometer data from many more food growing spaces, including those growing at home, during the 2014 growing season. Anyone wanting to get involved in counting their harvest can sign up for free to the Capital Growth network to access the Harvest-ometer and will also be entered into weekly prize draws when they add their data during August 2014. 

The full report is titled Reaping Rewards: The full report – Reaping Rewards: Can communities grow a million meals for London? is available at http://www.capitalgrowth.org/publications/

www.capitalgrowth.org 

Capital Growth is London’s food growing network, based at Sustain and was launched in 2008 to provide practical and financial help to Londoners wanting to set up or expand food growing spaces. The scheme was funded from 2008 – 2012 by the Mayor of London and by the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food scheme.

- Data on the type and weight of produce from 160 participating community food growing spaces was collected on the unique online tool developed by Capital Growth – called the Harvest-ometer (www.capitalgrowth.org/millionmeals/harvestometer/).

- Members can record their harvest in weight, or proxy measures, like handfuls, then simply log in, add their data and this is automatically calculated into a financial value, stored and displayed as graphs as well as totals, so people can see how their harvest stacks up over the season.

- Anyone in London wanting to join the campaign and see how much your veggie patch, orchard or garden is worth can register free of charge online with Capital Growth (www.capitalgrowth.org/apply/) and visit the member’s area.

Vertical Pallet Garden Plan

Use these step-by-step instructions and build your own vertical pallet garden, perfect for growing your own food in small spaces.

Groundbreaking Food Gardens (Storey Publishing, 2014) by Niki Jabbour is a stellar collection of unique food garden plans from some of the best gardeners and designers in North America. Choose from 73 plans, each with its own theme and detailed illustration. In this excerpt, learn how to construct a kitchen garden from used pallets that won’t take up much space.

You can purchase this book from the Mother Earth Living store: Groundbreaking Food Gardens.

Pallet gardening is popular, and for good reason! With a little time and even less money, gardeners can turn an old pallet into a handy vertical garden. An upcycled pallet, mounted on a wall or fence — preferably just outside the kitchen—makes a handy planter for compact crops like curly parsley, leaf lettuce, and Swiss chard, and even dwarf tomatoes and nasturtiums.

Joe Lamp’l is passionate about getting people to grow more food—even in tiny urban lots and concrete balconies—and he has embraced the concept of a pallet garden for its incredible versatility. Pioneered by Fern Richardson in her blog Life on the Balcony, pallet gardens are typically mounted to a wall, fence, or other structure, but handy gardeners can also make “feet” or a stand so that pallets can be freestanding on decks and patios. Plus, an edible pallet garden is very low-maintenance, requiring little ongoing care aside from regular watering and an occasional dose of liquid organic fertilizer.

A pallet garden is a great project for do-it-yourself types, as well as those on a tight budget. Two people can assemble and plant a pallet garden in about an hour if all materials are gathered beforehand.

Picking the right pallet. Sourcing a pallet should be easy—many businesses are happy to share their used pallets at little to no cost—but Joe says to “look for pallets made of untreated wood and also seek out pallets marked HT, which stands for heat treated, as a safe alternative for treating pests.” He also suggests inspecting the pallet for splintered wood or stray nails. Once you’ve found one that makes the grade, give it a good hosing off to remove dirt and grime.

The best plants for a pallet. When choosing plants for an edible pallet garden, Joe advises looking for dwarf or bush types of vegetables and herbs, as well as compact fruits like strawberries. In his plan he includes a wide selection of favorite edibles: salad greens, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. “Peppers and tomatoes will need to go in the top section because they are the tallest and will need room to grow and possibly staking,” says Joe. “The big thing is to work with compact and determinate tomato varieties wherever possible.” He also suggests tucking nasturtium seedlings throughout the pallet garden for a “punch of edible color.” Other options include a pallet filled with culinary herbs or salad greens.

Read more: http://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/vegetable-gardening/vertical-pallet-garden-plan-ze0z1407zpit.aspx#ixzz3A6qADjKd

Sustainable Raised Beds

Raised beds are popular with gardeners, growers and allotmenteers. Tom Girolamo from Eco-Building & Forestry explores the need for them to be built with sustainable materials.

Can raised garden beds be part of a sustainable landscape? I've often pondered this question. Cutting down old growth cedar (or even redwoods) to construct them, using lots of other materials and doing a lot of work just to grow a few dollars' worth of vegetables doesn't sound that sustainable.

However, Sybil's raised beds (above) that I constructed for her, changed how I think. She wanted this protected and raised garden as part of her lifestyle on her property and she wanted it to fit her personality.

Lessons learned

Make raised beds fit your lifestyle and personality

Place the raised beds where you will see and use them every day

Create an outdoor 'room' with a variety of uses including relaxing and even for entertaining

Build in reduced maintenance and easy repair

Read more: http://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/sustainable-raised-beds

Grow your own – An act of defiance

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Growing your own, as well as making your own, are acts of true (non-violent) resistance and will really upset the applecart – even if you don't grow apples in your garden.

When you grow at least some of your own things and make many of the things that you want and need yourself you take away many of the measures of control from the government and the powers-that-be.

This is true even more so when you do things for yourself also on other levels and, maybe, even can get others to do the same, as individuals, families and groups.

This, however, tends to scare the proverbial excrement out of the powers-that-be and they will go to all manner of lengths to suppress such acts of defiance of the system, as they see it, is not even as terrorism.

Yes, as acts of terrorism for they even likened thriftiness not so long ago as “acts of domestic terrorism” as those that do not spend, spend, and spend even some more, in order for us to spend our way out of the recession, as just that... domestic terrorists, as they are not supporting the economy.

People who can, and are prepared to, provide for themselves, their families, and their communities, are but an anathema to the powers-that-be. They do not fit into the plan (of total control). Where would the world and the economy come to if everyone would be able to provide for themselves, their families and, maybe, even for their communities? The system would (as it should) collapse.

One of the greatest acts of defiance this is as in doing so we basically tell the government and the powers-that-be to “shove it”.

The most dangerous sentence one can ever hear is” “I am from the government and I am here to help you”. It does not mean what most people seem to think that it does but government interference as soon as the “help” is accepted.

Grow your own, make your own, and do things for yourself, including foraging and be as self-reliant as possible, as individuals, groups and communities. It reduces your reliance on the system and thus gets you away from the control mechanism of the powers-that-be.

Government is doing all that it can, though, to some degree disguised, to stop you from being self-reliant, especially in the food department. It is not in their interest, whatever they may claim, and in some places it is being made quite obvious with the banning of people gardening as regards to the growing of vegetables, of food, rainwater harvesting, and doing things for themselves up to and including homeschooling.

In Britain, and many other European countries, we can still count ourselves lucky, compared to the USA and Canada, in that respect, as far as the gardening is concerned (and also homeschooling in Britain), as we are actively being encouraged to grow our own food, harvest rainwater, and such. Albeit with restrictions as to what seeds we can use and therefore what food we can grow by the European Union. Thriftiness, on the other hand, and total self-reliance is an anathema to the governments here as well, it would seem.

When we grow our own stuff, make our own things, etc. we throw a seriously large spanner into the works of government control. Self-reliance is a powerful statement especially if we do as much as possible ourselves. Growing your own is but a part of it, though a significant part.

© 2013

Living the good life in town and city

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Growing your own food and living the good life of a homesteader is, all too often, associated in the minds of most people with living in the country, the sticks, the boonies. This is a fallacy, however, for it is a mindset rather than being dependent on location.

True, it is easier, to some degree, to do it in the boonies, especially if you have a home with a little – or more than just a little – land. That does not mean, however, that living in town has to prevent you from living it; at least to some degree.

“Living the good life” of a homesteader, as said, is dependent on your mindset much more than it is on your location and it also does not just and only mean growing your own food.

Growing your own food, or at least part of it, while being the main stay, so to speak, of living the good life, is only part of living the life of a homesteader, whether in the boonies or the city. Self-reliance in everything, as fas as this is possible and feasible, is the name of the game, and I say deliberately self-reliance and not self-sufficiency as the latter is impossible to achieve, ever, on your own.

There is more, much more, to living the life of a homesteader, whether in the country or town, than just growing your own food.

Making do with what you have got and making things you want and need as much as possible yourself is, and always has been, a very large part of it, as was and is reusing, repurposing and upcycling things that others regard as waste, be that tin cans, glass jars, bits of paper, string, rubber bands, card or pallet lumber, to name but a few. Much more than that can be reused, repurposed and upcycled and our parents and grandparents, and not just in the country, did just that. Everyone, in fact, bar the very rich, was doing it.

It is very much a mindset and one that we must redevelop for the good of the Planet and for our very survival on this Planet. Like then it also can and will save money but it will do more than just that. It will allow us to live a much more fulfilled life and it will save vital resources on a global scale. The good life is about that too.

All too often the other aspects of what makes up homesteading are forgotten and not only when being considered for an urban or suburban environment. Too many eco-warriors are still in a consumer mindset rather than one of producer.

We have to learn once more to make and produce things for ourselves, with the resources to hand, rather than popping to the stores for everything, even if the things we look at buying are ethically produced, are “green”, etc.

An old friend of mine, now sadly deceased, was a great example of a homesteader in an urban setting. He lived in an apartment but canned all manner of things for his pantry and made much for himself, including clothes, and much more besides.

While I know that he would have much rather have preferred to live in a shack in the mountains the fact that he did not did not let it stop him from pursuing his dream of self-reliance and self-sufficiency, as far as possible, in town and that very successfully.

It can be done and do it we must.

© 2013

Growing carrots in containers – yes, it can be done!

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Most people believe that carrots, potatoes and other root crops (as well as cabbages) cannot be grown in containers and need large beds of one kind or another. That, however, it not true.

It is easy to grow carrots (and other vegetables) in containers, be those large “flower” pots or other tubs. In fact, as far as container types are concerned the sky – or better your imagination – is the limit. Do NOT, however, plant any vegetables whatsoever in tires unless they did have inner tubes. The steel radial belted tires are not suitable as they leach cadmium into the soil which is taken up by the plants and is harmful to health. In fact, my advice is to leave tires well alone and use only, if you want to, for the growing of flowers, cut or other, but not for food. That means also no nasturtiums in tires as you may want to use the leaves and flowers as they are edible.

In order to grow carrots – and other veg – in containers all you have to do is get the container you want, and this can even be an old bathtub, fill with compost and this can be compost you have bought in or made yourself (or use the lasagna gardening method (and no, you won't be harvesting lasagna, however nice this would be), and then sow the carrots, or other veg. Or you can use plugs you have grown yourself from seed or bought. Do not, however, do this with carrots or their relations as they do not like to be moved.

If you use a round tub you can sow, I tend to do, in a circular fashion and don't fall for the instructions that you have to thin them out. You don't have to.

As I have said, the containers that you use are basically irrelevant. Just ensure there is enough depths of soil.

I have very successfully grown carrots in shopping carts converted to planters and, in fact, this year has me using a cart for this again where last year there had been pole beans growing in them.

Container vegetable growing with carrots has a lot going for it as the environment is so easy to manage, and this goes for about every kind of vegetable imaginable. It is the easiest way I know for how to grow carrots and any other vegetables. I also grow successfully potatoes in containers of various kinds and sizes and,, another word of wisdom from myself: You do not have to use seed potatoes either. Just use any that have sprouted, even supermarket bought ones.

Carrots in containers are target for the dreaded carrot (root) fly in the same way as those that are grown in beds. However, when the planters are about waist height off the ground the problem seems to be reduced to averted, as I found with the ones grown previously in a shopping cart.

If any roots of the carrots begin to show above soil level earth them up to cover the them in order to lessen the chances of a carrot fly attack. The fly is apparently attracted by the carrot smell and also you do not want the tops to green off.

Talking about greens. The greens of the carrots are also edible and make good soup so do not discard the leaves but use them instead. Waste not want not was the old adage of my grandparents and has seen them well through the lean years.

Sowing your carrot seed

Sown over the months from mid-February to July you can be eating carrots from early June to October. Storing this vegetable correctly can increase that period even longer. Below is a list of the average sowing and harvesting dates that will act as a rough guide on how to grow carrots at the correct times in the British Isles. They will vary in other areas, such as the USA, mainland Europe, and especially Down Under.

• Sow mid February and protect with a cloche. Grow an early variety which you can harvest in early June.

• Sow March and protect with a cloche. Grow an early variety which you can harvest in June/July.

• Sow April - no protection necessary. If you grow an early variety expect to harvest July/August. A main crop variety will be ready August.

• Sow May. Grow a main crop variety and harvest in August.

• Sow June. Grow a main crop variety and harvest in September.

• Sow July. Grow a main crop variety and harvest in October.

Remember that for container the spacing does not apply and, as said already, do not worry, necessarily, about thinning them. All too often you end up pulling those that you do not want to pull out with those you aim for.

Caring for your carrot plants

As you are growing them in a container using a hoe, with the exception of a small wire hoe, such as the Agralan Threadhoe, is not possible and thus you will have to remove any weeds by hand.

Water enough to keep the ground damp as splitting of the root can occur if the watering is too irregular. Also water with a liquid feed on a regular basis. They respond well to this.

Carrot pest control

The carrot fly is the carrots' worst enemy. It is a small black fly which lays its eggs in the soil at the base of the plant and it is the small maggot that hatches from those egg that causes the damage. The tell-tale signs of carrot fly infestation are reddish leaves which droop in sunny weather.

As the maggot eats out the carrot root the foliage turns yellow and the root is liable to rot. Needless to say seedlings are shown no mercy and are soon killed. The fly tends to be most common in May.

There is no known treatment against the carrot fly, even if one of the other chemical claims so and thus preventive measures are the only safeguard that you can undertake. It is essential to learning how to grow carrots and indeed any vegetable that you get to know your enemy.

• Cover seedlings with a plant fleece in spring.

• Destroy thinnigs immediately - bury, burn or trash can.

• If carrot fly infestation is bad in your area then harvest early varieties no later than August and do not sow main crop varieties until June.

• Infestation seems worst on dry soils so keep the ground damp at all times. This also prevents root splitting.

One thing to remember in learning how to grow carrots is that the carrot root fly's 'flight path' is low and in a straight line. It is for that reason that I said about placing the containers above ground at about waist height. Also makes it easier for your back in dealing with the plants.

If you grow at ground level then try erecting a low 'fence' around your carrot growing rows – about 30 cm (12") high. It could be made from fleece, fine netting or similar.

Harvesting your carrots

You can start harvesting the earlier varieties sown from about June onwards. Careful, even if grown in tubs, loosen the soil around the plants – you won't be able to use a garden fork, not even a border one, but a hand one will work – if necessary.

If you intend to store some of your crop of carrots for over winter then October is the best month for doing this. Lift the main crop varieties, clean off any soil – use only undamaged carrot roots – and cut the foliage back to about 12 mm (1/2") above the crown of the root.

Using a stout box place the roots on layers of sand – ensuring that the carrots do not touch each other and then store this box with the carrots in the sand in a dry place and inspect regularly to remove any that may have started to rot. This way they should keep until March.

Canning your carrots in a variety of ways is another great option and thus learning the skills of canning is also a good idea.

© 2013

Starve the system

Starve the system and grow your own food

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

In fact, grown your own food and make as much yourself as possible. That way you are beating the system and doing it your way.

It is becoming pretty clear that industry and the powers-that-be do not care what the people think and want as regards to genetically modified, or should we better say genetically engineered, organisms. Many of us, no doubt, know where we are headed if this madness does not stop.

It is all about profit for some companies and control over seeds and has nothing whatsoever to do with trying to combat world hunger. In fact it has been proven that GE foods will do nothing to curb world hunger.

The only true answer to this, as far as foods are concerned, is to grow and raise your own. Self-reliance and self-sufficiency, as far as the latter is possible, is the ultimate protest against this. As long, I hasten to add, they will not make it illegal, as they are already trying in some location where the growing of a food garden, even in the backyard, has been outlawed under local ordinances.

Henry Kissinger said some decades ago – in fact just before the so-called oil crisis – that if you want to control nations you have to control fuel (enter the oil crisis, which was nothing but nicely engineered) and if you want to control people you have to control food (enter Monsanto & Co.). We could also add to the people control mechanism water, could we not.

Growing your own means that every vegetable that you do not have to buy takes away from their profits. We have the power to take away their power and we have to do it and the way to do it is through our pocketbooks.

We are the ones who, ultimately, control the system as we have founded it though our purchases. By withdrawing our purchasing and growing our own we can take a stand and send a message.

Aside from growing your own food there are also other methods where big business can be sent a message and also the powers-that-be that we, the people, are no longer going along with the system.

You can make do with what you have got for starters. You co not have to get a new smartphone each and every time that a new one, or a new version of your current one, be it iPhone or other, comes onto the market. If it ain't broke there is no need to replace, and the same applies to computers and other goods.

Furthermore there are many things you do not have to buy at all. You can make them yourself by proper DIY, and by upcycling and reusing and repurposing items of waste or such.

As not everyone is going to travel the same route as which we may be taking there are still those that will stay in the system and buy new things and there, therefore, will be the things that they, often still working or needing just a little TLC, are tossing out and which we can liberate from the trash. There are many people who already live that way and do this for most of their needs.

It is amazing what people actually do throw out and lose, accidentally or deliberately, in parks, open spaces and elsewhere, in way of clothes, bicycles, and many other things, most of which can be reused directly or by passing it on to someone else, with just cleaning or, at times, a little TLC and a tiny bit of repair.

My Blackbery came to me that way as did my Leatherman Wave, and most of my bicycles. The latter where rebuild from a number of thrown or trashed bikes and the two former items were simply thrown away.

My drinking glasses are repurposed glass jars, whether for beer, water, or spirits, and my reusable water bottles from tap water also are reused glass bottles that came with drinks, or where found and cleaned.

My notebooks, and I carry at least one at all times, are homemade from paper that was but printed single sided and the amount of pencils that I have found beggars belief.

I also do grow a garden and also make use of edible weeds, either foraged or actually grown on purpose. A weed is, after all, but a plant whose virtue and uses have not as yet been discovered. Truth is though that for many plants that are commonly referred to as weeds the virtues and uses have been discovered and the edible ones are often better eating than their domesticated cousins. And there are also many weeds out there that are medicinal herbs in fact and have many uses. Just because it grows somewhere where you may not want it to grow does not mean that it does not have a use.

Growing your own food and, where you can, keeping chickens (hens) for eggs, and raising chickens and rabbits for meat, is the easiest way to beat the system. That, and making do with what you have got and making as much as possible yourself. Let's do it and send a message to the powers-that-be that be that we no longer support the system which is not broken; it was designed this way, and therefore we need a new system. One that benefits both man and Nature.

© 2013

No Yard? No Problem?

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Many people believe that in order to grow their own vegetables they need a large garden but container growing is a great way to have great tasting fresh vegetables even if you don't have the yard space for a full garden.

Container gardening is the answer for those that are short of space as regards to gardening, whether flowers, or as far as we are concerned, vegetables for the table.

Growing in containers, with loose and deep soil, also allows the plants to be closer together and thus the density of them does away with an over-amount of weeds and also makes for a larger harvest.

The type of containers for this kind of growing is legion and you can go out and buy decorative ones at a cost or, alternatively, repurpose any other kind of container, including old bathtubs, sinks and the like. It just depends as to whether you want a certain look or just simply a food garden for as little outlay as possible.

Aside from putting your planters on the ground you can also use containers in the vertical, by hanging them up, putting them on old stepladders, etc.

certain trailing tomatoes, for instance, do well in hanging planters and hanging baskets and some plants can, actually, also be grown hanging upside down.

Pot and other containers hung on a fence or a wall can be used to grow herbs and spices and the do do very well in such situations. Also much easier to harvest if they are at the right height.

I have filled my yard, even though I could have been digging or using raised beds, with containers of all kinds that have been repurposed into planters, including so-called builder bags or tonne bags, plant buckets and tubs from tree planting, etc. Even old shopping carts have been drafted into use, lined with barrier fabric and such, as planters.

The latter are ideal for use with growing carrots as they are above the height of the carrot fly's vector and thus are more or less out of its reach to it.

That does not mean, unfortunately, that a container garden will be immune to pests. It is not, and neither to weeds. However, you have a little better access to each and every plant to check and manually destroy pests or remove weeds.

Using containers in your yard you can still have a garden and grow at least some food for your table even if you do not have the space for a proper garden.

So, go and dig some dirt and grow some tasty veg. You no longer have any excuse.

© 2013

Now is the time to think about vegetable seeds

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Now is the time to think about which seeds to sow and plant in your vegetable garden for the year.

The choices are great but there are some varieties of vegetables that are best for all year round cropping and also don't forget the humble edible weeds. They grow better than anything else and are sure worth “cultivating” too.

This notion may seem silly to many a gardener but why battle with your weeds when you can eat them. (More later).

When it comes to the, if I may say so, ordinary vegetables to sew and plant, as said, there is a great variety out there but, alas, at times the choice is limited.

Let's look at beans: While there are many different kinds of beans that can be grown, including in the British Isles, all we seem to see if different “varieties” of runner (Lima), broad (Fava), and French beans, with a few other kinds. The rest of the great armory of beans that exist cannot be found with the great majority of seed companies in Britain.

Asking a representative of one of them one day I got the answer that there was no one interested. Really?

Also amazing is the fact that most people, including avid gardeners, have no idea that they can actually use the beans inside the runner beans after they have become stringy and can no longer be used in the way that they have become accustomed to. Those beans are the same as the dried Lima beans that are found in stores.

Other vegetables, as far as seeds and plants are concerned, also can be rather limited in Britain, and I mean here the kind that are commonly used elsewhere, including mainland Europe.

The same is true for, so at least I have found, potato varieties, but, then again, I do not, generally, buy seed potatoes and there is absolutely no need to do so. I know everyone – or almost everyone – keeps telling us that we must buy seed potatoes in order to grow healthy spuds. Really? I beg to differ here.

I have had nothing but problems with seed potatoes, especially with so-called blight resistant ones. Got a load of them from the Garden Press Event 2012 and they were the ones that, actually, the first ones that had the blight that year. The ones that I grew from cheapest Sainsbury's potatoes that had grown eyes were much more resistant. Sorry, but no more seed potatoes for me.

So, let's now look at what I mentioned before, namely the use of weeds for food. Many common garden, pardon the pun, weeds are edible and, in fact, are very good for us, and they are indeed legion.

Dandelion is one weed that, I am sure, everyone knows and regards as rather pesky. But not so. It is very edible indeed and great in salads or as spinach. I live the look on the faces of folks that ask me – being a professional gardener and forester – as to wht they are to do with the dandelion in their garden when I tell them to eat the stuff.

Another very useful weed is stinging nettle, Again it has many uses and should be used rather than wasted. Sorrel is another one which is, basically, a cut and come again spinach and I use it as it and don't just gather it in the wild, where it is mostly found, but have actually planted some of it in my garden.

Another very common weed in the garden that will take over if not checked but which is nutritious and good to eat is chickweed. And another one is Fat Hen, aka Lambs Quarter. The latter is, yet again, a most versatile one the leaves of which can be used as spinach, but also the stalk and the flower spikes can be eaten, the former steamed like asparagus and the latter like broccoli.

So think seeds and weeds for food in your garden and see how it can work out.

© 2013

Don't throw out your leaves!

Do-it-yourself leaf mold is great to improve your garden's soil

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Instead of raking the leaves in your yard and garden together, putting them into plastic bags and setting them on the curb to be picked up and added to a landfill, where most will end up via the municipal waste stream unless your council operates a green waste recycling scheme, turn them into leaf mold.

The dark, crumbly finished product of leaf mold is a great soil amendment and conditioner and if we are going to be dealing with droughts in our gardens in the future, which no doubt we will, increasing the moisture retention of our soils is important. Leaf mold is better still than wood chip mulch in this department as it improves the soil much better and quicker.

Finished leaf mold can be used as a mulch to suppress weeds and trap moisture, blended into the soil of garden beds, and added to container gardens and making leaf mold is, in fact, ridiculously easy. If composting seems too complicated and involved for you: give making your own leaf mold a try. All you need to create leaf mold is a space, leaves, water and time.

The easiest way of making leaf mold is to rake all of your leaves into a pile in the corner of your garden or yard. Once you’ve gathered the leaves into place, wet the pile down and keep it moist for the next six months to a year. If your leaf mold pile is at risk of being thrown about by kids, pets or the wind create pen to keep it in place.

Make a round or square frame out of chicken wire, reclaimed wood or similar to the DIY compost bins the designs of which you find all over the Internet. You can also put the leaves, ideally shredded, into black plastic bin liners, moisten them and then tie up the bags.

If you have a mulching mower you can speed up decomposition by riding over your leaf mold pile and shredding the leaves into smaller pieces.

A few years ago while watching one of those cable documentaries on the drug trade, I saw a cocaine farmer use a weed trimmer to shred cocoa leaves to process them faster. And you know what? It works! After you’ve corralled all of your leaves in place you can run a weed trimmer through the pile to break it down. Shredded leaves not only break down faster, but you have room for more leafs and taller piles.

All leaves you collect in autumn are good candidates for making leaf mold, though some are better than others when it comes to breaking down and decomposing. Smaller leaves, such as birch, alder and Japanese maples, can break down in as little as six months. Oak and hornbeam leaves similarly break down rather fast.

The bottom of your leaf mold pile can be ready to be mixed into your soil, used as a mulch, or mixed into your favorite container gardening soil mix in as little as half a year. Therefore, take some time this season to rake up your leaves – and those of your neighbors – to improve the soil in your garden. You will be keeping valuable organic matter out of landfills and preventing your neighbors from making burn piles this autumn.

The leaves have sequestered carbon over the year and this carbon is released into your soil when added to it and will feed your plants. So thus you should not waste it.

If you grow your own – vegetables that is – in the way that I do in “containers” of various sorts you can use the so-called lasagne gardening method and, in fact, add the leaf mold after six month to the bottom of the container and spread a thin, about four or five inches or so, layer of soil and compost above in which you sow your seeds or plant your plugs.

Waste not want not is the old adage and it applies also to those autumn leaves.

© 2012

Growing your own has many advantages

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Growing your own food is becoming once again more and more popular though, while in some areas an allotment cannot be had for love or money in other boroughs they go begging.

When you grow your own you can choose to grow for your own tastes rather than the supermarket conformity and in time you will also chose what to grow because it grows OK in your garden rather than trying to grow everything only to fight a losing battle.

I have just come to that conclusion with regards to my food growing in my at home allotment as some things just will not do well here. There are the slugs and snail to contend with and then the location of this garden – with the property being surrounded by trees – lacks the right light condition for some foods.

Potatoes do well, as do Jerusalem Artichoke (aka Sun Chokes). Beans of all types seem to do fire as do carrots, as long as they are grown “at height” to be safe from the root fly. Some abandoned shopping carts do invaluable service there.

Cucumbers, courgettes (zucchini), marrows, etc., also do well. Tomatoes on the other hand do not and brassicas time and again fall prey to the pigeons and the snails and slugs of all types and sizes.

So, I will be, for the next year, chose carefully what I will bother with and what not, as wasting my time I do not wish to do, as I did with the brassicas this year, once again.

While I know that nets would be fine to keep some things at bay, such as the pigeons and the cabbage white butterfly, etc., the snails and slugs seem to be a great menace that even nematodes and slug pellets have problems dealing with.

One the positive note, as said, growing your own is beneficial in many ways and taste, as far as I am concerned is a great reason, aside from the fact that you can save some money.

One skill I advise anyone to learn who thinks of starting or who has started to do his or her own food growing and that is preserving the harvest in which way ever. Pickling, canning, and all the other ways of old – plus freezing – are the skills to have to not waste the harvest.

So, get to it and touch the soil.

© 2012

Grow Your Own at RHS Flower Shows

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Grow Your Own is more and more in evidence at the various RHS shows and not just this year.

While Grow You Own (GYO), in “speed mode”, has been around for some time now, it is getting more and more main stage at the shows now. This was certainly not the case some years back

That GYO is reaching the main stage of the shows could very much be seen by the RHS Edible Garden at the 2011 Hampton Court Palace Flower Show as well as by a similar RHS show garden at the show last year.

GYO is, we all know, not new at all but the interest and the phenomenon os how it is taking off nowadays certainly is.

Allotment gardens have been around for now some time and the Diggers were the first who were trying to archive the GYO already centuries ago.

Seed merchants, gardening equipment manufacturers and supplies, etc., all are gearing up more and more to this market, including the many books on the subject now being produced. Even gardening suppliers, such as Haxnicks and seed companies such as Marchalls have brought out “grow your own vegetables” guide books.

As said, the grow your own vegetable “movement” is not a new one. During the two world wars there were the “Dig for Victory” campaigns and many of those images are being used by seed companies and others to promote the growing of your own vegetables. The Mr. DIGWELL Seeds are but one example of using this kind of retro as regards of grow your own veg. It must be welcomed, however, as this is the way things should be, in order to also ensure some kind of food security for the nation as a whole.

© 2011

Grow your own small vegetable garden

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Even the smallest space can produce plenty of vegetables, and this has been shown by several “studies”, for lack of a better words, such as the square foot gardening idea of the RHS in Britain. It works.

But in order to work the way they did it feeding an family of four from a very, very small space of raised beds, you have to have a way of groping plants on as plugs, ideally, bar those that cannot and should not be done that way. You cannot, period, grow carrot plugs. They do not work.

The advantages of growing your own vegetables are written about on a regular basis and some authors, no doubt correctly, have pointed out that not only do people waste less food by being able to go pick fresh vegetables when they need them, but the cost of having a small garden compared to buying fresh produce from the grocery store can save us a lot on food.

To make a statement, however, saying that a tomato plant can be worth $50 and then backing it up with a comparison that says that if you harvest 30 pounds at $2 per pound, that plant is worth $60 and when the plant costs only $2.90 to buy the plant, a few cents for water and 15 cents for the fertilizer, then that would make it at least $50 worth. I would like to see a tomato plants that will produce that amount in weight in fruit. Yes, tomatoes are fruit not vegetables. I have yet to get more than a couple of kilograms from a single tomato plant. So, such a comparison does not add up, except when grown either in an area where they can produce well or in the greenhouse and then other costs have to be factored in.

Plastic Tub Gardening

There are a number of “ready-made”solutions on the market, such as Earth Box and I do like the idea, but the price tag (almost $50 a piece) is a definite turn off, and not just to me. I should assume than many poorer families have looked at the ready-made solutions and decided that small space backyard gardening is not for them because of the cost.

However, you can make your own Earth Boxes out of Tupperware containers for about $12 a piece, and if you use other materials and sources too for even less.

Do you have to go out and buy stuff? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends what you can make and what you can scrounge and what you can find thrown away.

First of all, some vegetable do not need much in the way of depth of soil. Lettuces do best with little soil depth and thus they can be grown in shallow containers such as old washing up bowls, whether round or sort of square or rectangular or other containers.

Another great way of making rather deep raised beds, without using boards or anything like that, is using so-called builder bags, which are large woven polypropylene sacks in which sand, etc., is delivered to building sites and especially to the home builders. In this country they now are no longer returnable – they once were – and will end up in the skip outside the site and are destined for the landfill.

Fold their sides down to about half – you don't need more soil depth than that for growing vegetables and fill with earth. They make great planters, can be had for nothing or next to nothing from out of the skips and can, if need, rolled or folded up when you don't need them anymore or when you move.

In addition to all manner of vegetables – only chose, for starters those that you definitely like and those that are, according to books like “Down to Earth” are easy enough to grow – you can also grow herbs for use in the kitchen and in medicine.

Space is not an issue

The do-it-yourself Earth-type boxes are perfect for roof-top gardening 9just ensure that your roof can handle whatever amount of soil and remember that wet soil is several times heavier than dry soil), apartment balconies, small courtyards or a yard without a lot of sun. Another benefit is that when the growing season ends, it can all be taken down and stored until next year.

In all cases, ensure how much weight you roof or balcony can take. There is, obviously, not problem like that with courtyards, backyards with hard standing only, patios, and such like.

In fact, by using containers, and there are many kinds that can be used, just let your imagination go wild, there is nigh on no place where you cannot grow some food.

You like to grow some flowers too, for color and such. No problem. Just plant veg in with the flowers or vice versa and some benefits can be had by planting some flowers with some veg. It's called “companion planting” and some flowers are most beneficial when planted with vegetables.

So, go on, start a vegetable garden.

© 2011

GROWING ONE'S OWN STOOL

Christopher Cattle

A retired lecturer in furniture design, in the mid eighties I started to wonder what contribution I could make to the 'save the planet ' debate. Settling on the problem of our seemingly ever increasing demand for energy, I decided to see what one could do to reduce the amount used to make furniture. An early decision was to concentrate on the use of wood, an attractive and popular material, and biodegradable.

I was aware of the annual races for solar powered vehicles run in Australia, which attracted such elaborate and complex vehicles. Suddenly it struck me that of course tree growth is also solar powered! The energy we use to make furniture is simply that required to convert trees into the forms we use for our chairs and tables. If only the trees could be persuaded to grow into the right shapes in the first place . . . .

But people have been training and grafting trees to shape since we know not when, so no new skills are required. To grow furniture would simply involve using well known techniques for a different purpose.

To prove that it could be done however, I would have to do it myself, so I designed the simplest item of furniture I could devise, a three legged stool. I also devised a simple plywood frame or jig, on which to train the saplings as they grew. (Having practised as a designer of furniture for industrial production for the first half of my professional career, I was having to start from scratch.) In 1995 I approached the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Reading with my scheme. They rented me a suitable small plot of land and with their help, I planted and grew my first batch of stools. Five years later I harvested my first grown stool frame.

Having shown that it could be done, where was I to go from there. Should I go into business and sell them?

I decided that the outcome nearest to my original intention was rather to publicise the idea, and to enable others to grow such stools. In this way I hope to persuade people - particularly the younger generation - to change their mindset, and realise that it is possible to achieve useful and practical results simply by the intelligent use of natural processes.

Over recent years I have promoted the idea in a variety of ways. The experiment originally received wide coverage in the press both in Britain and abroad. Each year I attend several relevant public events in Britain, from exhibitions in London to environmental gatherings in Scotland. The stools were exhibited at Expo 2005 in Japan and more recently in Paris. I have been interviewed for the radio in the UK, USA and Canada.

I have a website ( www.grown-furniture.co.uk ) and anyone can buy the flat pack plywood jig and instructions. Stool growing has proved popular for young families and the kits are frequently in demand as Christmas presents for retired parents. (You can be sure they haven't got one of these!) All you need is the enthusiasm, the patience, and a local supplier of suitable 'whips' or young saplings. Nature does most of the work, and as she's been doing it for millions of years she's pretty good at it.

I recommend Sycamore as a suitable species, as it tends to grow and graft well. The whips are normally sold in bundles of twenty five, so you have a good chance to select three (or multiples of three) which are evenly matched, and slim enough to be bent and trained well. They should preferably be no thicker than a traditional wooden pencil. The kit comes with a planting guide which enables you to plant your saplings accurately, so that they fit snugly to the corners of the jig. With gentle persuasion the stems can be carefully bent to shape and secured to the jig with plant ties. If you can plant in November or December it gives the roots a chance to establish themselves before the Spring, but any time up to the end of February has proved satisfactory.

By about the third year you should be able to make the lower grafts where the stems touch. Cutting away the bark and the green cambial layer beneath it at the point of contact , you must hold them gently but firmly together for a few weeks. This can be done by binding or drilling through and inserting a rivet of some sort. If the graft bonds well, the sap will start to take the shortest route between the leaves and the roots, and each 'leg' - the lower half of which consists of one tree with the upper half of its neighbour - will start to grow as one, while the horizontal sections - joining the legs at their mid point and becoming the 'rails' - will cease to grow and remain at their existing size.
Although it will probably be about five years before the frame grows to its required size, the time you spend tending it will be minimal. I expect to spend less than five minutes on each frame every three weeks during the growing season.

Before 'harvesting' your frame, you should decide whether you prefer the 'rustic' look, by retaining the bark, or the perhaps a more elegant look by stripping it off. If you choose rustic you should harvest in the winter when the tree is dormant . If you harvest when the tree is actively growing, it is quite easy to strip off the bark. The thickness of the legs is such that any splitting as the wood dries out shouldn't be a problem, but it should be left to 'season' naturally, out of doors but under cover for about a further year. You can then give it a top of your choice and sit on it!