Homegrown Revolution

It was my birthday a few days ago and I was very happy to receive a copy of this book by James Wong.

James says that "the whole concept of 'growing your own' has has somehow got itself stuck in a weird 1940's time warp" - how true!  He even says that the 20 or so standard crops we have been growing in our gardens and allotments since the Second World War represent less than 1% of what we can actually grow - how exciting is that!!  No longer will I struggle to grow potatoes which are not at all cost and time effective or onions which take months to grow and are pretty cheap in the supermarket anyway.  No, from now on, everything I grow in the garden must earn its keep and save me money.

Many of the plants that James suggests growing are considered "exotic" and shops exploit this by charging high prices and in the meantime, we haven't grown them ourselves because we thought we couldn't grow them in our unpredictable climate because they are too exotic.  But that is all about to change - hooray!!  

Many of the plants suggested in the book have a double purpose in that they look good in the garden and we can eat them.  Most of them pretty easy to grow and not particularly troubled by pests.

So now I'm about to start planning - the hardest bit will be choosing what to grow out of all the wonderful possibilities.....