Living off the land: Become part of a growth industry

Fruit and vegetables have become such supermarket commodities that sometimes it's hard to remember they had a life before their pre-packed incarnations. The truth is, the money we spend buying fruit and vegetables is often above the odds and the only thing stopping us growing our own is lack of experience. But if you give it a go, the success will be as sweet as the food you bring from garden to table.

The first thing to do is put in some planning about what to grow: it all depends on space available and the type of soil you have. If you have a great deal of room, for instance, try potatoes because they like space (don't let that put you off if you're a potato fan with little room: there are clever ways to cultivate new potatoes in growbags). Work out the type of soil you've got, too: light soils are ideal for early crops, but tricky when it comes to later crops, while clay soils will make any efforts to plant early crops devilishly hard, but are a breeze when it comes to the later produce. Either go with the flow, and eat what your soil dictates, or give it a helping hand so that you can grow fruit and vegetables all year round - the RHS recommends with light soils that you dig shallow trenches for later crops so that they can be filled with water easily, and with clay soils that you employ containers for the early crops.

And fear not if your tiny patch of land feels a million miles away from the ideal kitchen garden. Joe Swift, from Gardener's World (who is about to embark on his own vegetable plot for the first time) says, "It's amazing what you can grow in containers - you can get a lot of produce out of a small urban space: there's always room for vegetables, herbs and fruit."

There really are myriad ways to cultivate fruit and vegetables in small spaces. Strawberries work well in growbags, as long as they're exposed to the sunlight, and you keep your eye on feeding them properly. They're great value for money too, as you can create more plants from the parent plant just by pegging down runners. As well as bags, an assortment of pots can yield tasty produce without taking up too much square footage; they're also easy to move into the shade or sun, as required.

A good tip from the Royal Horticultural Society for gardeners who want to grow organic, is that rather than using liquid chemical fertilizers, mix rotted manure into the lower half of the containers (about 20 per cent should do it) instead.

And the mysticism surrounding the ability to live off the land soon disappears when you try your hand at cultivating fruit or vegetables that positively want to grow. Choose carefully: rocket, chicory, herbs, coriander, peas and beetroot all thrive in containers.

Rhubarb will provide you with crops for up to a decade, once you put in these initial, simple steps: cover it for protection from winter frosts in October (leaves will do), and uncover it in February. In April, bed in moisture with the help of manure - and aside from making sure the plants have plenty of nitrogen and are fed and watered, you don't actually have to do much more. (Good news: the thick leaves of the plant means it crowds out weeds itself.)

For beginners, hardy vegetables are sure-fire bets too: onions, turnips, radishes and carrots are all reliable stalwarts. Just make sure not to mention that as you smugly show off to your dinner guests...

For more ideas, go to www.granddesignslive.com/gardens

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