A third of Britons now growing their own

A third of us are growing our own fruit and veg, according to a recent Yougov survey. Remarkably, 44% of growers just started this year, making it something of a boom. The research group attributes this sudden rise in interest to the recession, rising food prices, and high profile growers and chefs on television.

The survey of over 2,ooo adults found that 34% of us are involved in growing of some kind, equally spread across all sectors of society, although not across all the regions. Wales has the most growers at 40% of adults, twice as high a proportion as Northern Ireland.

Just as interesting are the reasons given for not growing. 23% said they weren’t interested. 17% cited lack of time, and 22% said they had no land available to them. That suggests that take-up could be much higher, if less time-consuming ways of gardening were encouraged, and garden-sharing was encouraged.