Grow Your Own
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Landscape Juice Network ran a story over the weekend about the cancellation of the Edible Garden Show which got me thinking. The show was rather different in scale to the Lamyatt village fete; it was scheduled to open at Stoneleigh Park and looked pretty impressive, with sponsorship from people like the Mirror Group. The gist of the debate on Landscape Juice is to what extent the current interest in Grow Your Own is a fad. I personally think it's more than that - GYO seems to be part of a general trend in the way people are behaving and consuming. You could easily paint a different picture though:
1. It has recently attracted a disproportionate amount of lightweight media attention and advice - too much Directgov and not enough River Cottage - which will have attracted a number of fairweather enthusiasts.
2. Vegetable seeds are cheap and plentiful - i.e. there is limited commercial interest in promoting them.
3. I don't think that huge numbers of people have started to GYO because they find vegetables unaffordable. You'd think they'd just stop buying them, unless they had at least a moderate interest in horticulture itself. I would guess, though, that more people are gardening generally as a consequence of the Recession; when they get busier they'll garden less.
Let's hope we'll see the Edible Garden Show next year.