Go organic (From Hampshire Society)

Go organic

3:56pm Tuesday 5th May 2009

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BBC Gardeners’World presenter and garden designer Joe Swift is proof that even beginners can succeed on an allotment.

With hardly any previous veg-growing experience, Joe took on a 250sq-metre allotment, a 20-minute train journey from his home in north London – and in less than a year created his own urban oasis, producing fresh, organic produce for his family.

The new series of Gardeners’World features his work in progress and Joe has also found time to chart his experiences, offering some useful advice in his latest book, Joe’s Allotment.

Yet allotments are not just about growing fruit and veg – they create communities and provide social gatherings where adults and children can connect with nature and learn from each other, Joe says.

“Most allotment holders are very chatty people and you can get a lot of information from them when you first take on a plot,” he says. Fellow gardeners swap tips, seeds and information on the allotment, he enthuses.

“Last year when I got going, people were giving me seeds and sometimes plants I hadn’t grown and bags of veg.

“For the first two months last year, all the stuff I was bringing home I hadn’t actually grown myself. It was like a free supermarket.”

The BBC is now calling the nation to Dig In with a new learning campaign encouraging people to grow their own veg, through a dedicated website and national tour.

Launching on Gardeners’World and The Green Balloon Club on CBeebies, the Dig In campaign will get growers off the ground with free seed packs available through bbc.co.uk/digin.

The starter packs will contain five varieties of plants suitable for a range of growing locations, soils and climates including ‘Gardener’s Delight’ tomatoes, ‘Lolla Rossa’ lettuce, ‘Boltardy’ beetroot, ‘Harrier’

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