National Trust urges flat owners to grow veg on windowsills » Housing » 24dash.com

People living in the UK's five million flats are being urged to get gardening and grow their own veg - on their windowsills.

According to the National Trust, there are some 600 acres of space for window boxes across the country, making it possible for householders with no garden or allotment to join the current trend for "growing your own".

The available windowsill space - equivalent to 344 football pitches - could be used for vegetables and herbs including tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot, chard and rosemary.

The Trust, which is launching a campaign to encourage the conversion of windowsills to "vertical vegetable gardens", believes it is a good way to address concerns about prices and sustainable food production.

Just two window boxes provide enough space to grow cheap - and very local - food for a meal, the organisation said.

The Window Food campaign is backed by Gizzi Erskine, chef and food writer, who is creating recipes which use ingredients grown on her East London windowsill.

She said: "I love cooking with fresh ingredients - it makes all the difference to the taste of the food and you can't get fresher than picking straight from your own windowsill.

"Living in a flat, I never thought I could grow so much without a garden but my windowsills look pretty and are really productive.

"Hopefully I'll never find a soggy supermarket bag of leftover lettuce at the bottom of my fridge again - everyone should give window food a go."

The National Trust's director general Fiona Reynolds said: "Growing 'window food' is an easy way to ensure your vegetables are local and bursting with flavour without breaking the bank."

And she added: "When it's pouring with rain outside, there's no need to brave the weather - you simply open the window and pick what you need."

The Window Food drive is part of the National Trust's Food, Glorious Food campaign, which has seen it unveil plans for 1,000 allotments at its stately homes and other sites.

Proposals for the plots of land at 40 different locations range from renting out allotments for individuals to cultivate, to restoring walled kitchen gardens at Trust properties for communities to use.

The Trust has also announced a seed give-away which could produce up to four million pumpkins, 26 million bags of rocket leaves and 70 million lettuces, as part of the Food Glorious Food scheme.

Lucy Bendon, campaign manager for the National Trust said: "We know from research that the two barriers people identify preventing them growing food are a lack of space and a lack of skills.

"To tackle the space issue we announced the creation of 1,000 allotments but a lot of people living in urban areas still won't have the opportunity to have an allotment or a garden.

"If we can share our expertise from our farms and our kitchen gardens and make that available to people who only have a couple of feet on a windowsill, that's a really good start."

She said growing vegetables and herbs on the windowsill could give people an "enormous sense of satisfaction".

The Food, Glorious Food campaign is supplying information about growing your own on its website and through hundreds of events all summer at National Trust properties.

Mrs Bendon said the Trust was heavily involved in food production and supply through its farms, restaurants, cafes and shops.

The organisation was facing a "huge threat" from climate change to its work to conserve special places, and recognised that food production and consumption was a major source of carbon emissions.

As a result the Trust was trying to encourage local, seasonal food which had not travelled far or used intensive production methods, she said.

:: For more information about the Food Glorious Food campaign, people can log on to www.foodgloriousfood.org.uk