READING that one in three people in the United Kingdom grows some sort of fruit and vegetable is inspiring. The statistic was published in January in a survey commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and with many allotment sites having waiting lists, is proof that more and more people are turning over patches of garden to growing their own.

Add to this the rise in community based garden movements, garden share schemes, and the welcome news of the example set by the National Trust which plans to have established more than 1,000 allotment plots by 2012, and you have growing interest.

Visitors to the exhibition in London will discover that growing your own food, eating seasonal fruit and vegetables, reducing imports, recycling and healthy nutrition were just as topical in 1940 as they are today. While everyone was encouraged to dig up their lawns to ‘dig for victory’ in 1940, you don’t have to be quite that drastic today, though of course, it is one idea.

But what the exhibition does do, is highlight that you can grow simple crops like lettuce, tomatoes and herbs in window boxes and in containers on balconies, providing you with your own healthy salad throughout the summer. Perennials in flowerbeds can be interplanted with lettuces and if you choose colourful varieties like Red Oak leaf can complement your planting scheme. Herbs can be grown successfully in pots indoors. There is really no excuse for everyone not to grow something edible.

The Ministry of Food exhibition runs until next January and the admission price is an affordable £4.95 for adults with concessions for children and families.

Award winning gardener and writer, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, has written the official book to accompany the exhibition. She will be giving a talk reiterating how families today can survive the credit crunch with a bit of wartime wisdom as part of Salisbury International Arts Festival, on Thursday, May 27, at the Playhouse Studio in Salisbury.