Allotment or veg patch, why do you do it?

[paradoxicalInterruption]

I was up at 6 yesterday on allotment watering before work and in GH this morning dealing with toms.

I love it but my Dh is tolerant and as far as he is concerned we can easily buy veg, I don't produce a lot/or way too much of some stuff and it eats into time we could spend on other things.

But I find it endlessly relaxing, I love that first potato of the year and seeing things grow from seed..

Why do you do it?

Because it's relaxing and I find vegetable growing more satisfying than other gardening. It's nice to "achieve" something.

Stuff like mowing the lawn and pruning is boring!

• Exercise
• Our plot is in a lovely village location, beautiful place to spend an afternoon
• I grow unusual veg I can't buy in the supermarket
• It's sociable as I'm on the committee

Definitely for relaxation, but I also love being able to nip out for some fresh veg for dinner. It also depends on the crop - I generally don't bother with potatoes, onions etc as these aren't much different to supermarket ones but soft fruit is so much cheaper and I'm able to grow things like mulberries or unusual apples that you can't get in shops. I like James Wong's approach of only growing stuff that is much better when homegrown as it means I'm making better use of the available space and effort.

I love the fact that I can grow parsley and take armfuls of it to have tabbouleh.

And blackcurrants by the bucket load. But battling with pigeons and other pests I do sometimes wonder!

I only have limited space (and time!), so the main thing I grow is fruit. It seems less effort than growing vegetables, and I've never come across homegrown fruit that didn't taste much better than what's sold in the shops. Also, I think it's very important to show kids where their food comes from.

When I was a child, we used to grow so many strawberries that we had to have them with everything. I never grew tired of that! In contrast, eating French beans 4-5 times a week was a lot less exciting.

It tastes so much better!
Cucumbers,tomatoes & lettuce,straight out of the greenhouse are just delicious.And I find it relaxing.

How do you veg growers keep the pesky bugs at bay?

Please and thank you.

I am trying to grow things so we can have ttomatoes, fe, when I forget to buy them.

I like growing potatoes - first earlies - as they taste so good and are relatively trouble free. Pop in ground and that's it - only need watering if really dry. Pumpkins are pretty trouble free too - though they need more watering.

I also grow Purple Sprouting Broccoli because I love it - but it does need protection with netting to keep the bugs away.

Keeping a watchful eye for slugs helps with salads etc.

I try and companion plant too which is supposed to help.

I love the feeling that I am watching a miraculous process: water and sunlight and earth conspire together to produce a tomato where there was none before.

I love the almost meditative nature of it, and the tremendous one-off for relatively little effort; I have giant raspberry canes and a massive grapevine with zillions of grapes, after a mere 3 years (but only around 6 hours of actual effort in that time)!

Basically, I just love it.

It's the process more than the produce for me, I find the whole thing interesting and relaxing, anything good to eat is a bonus. My DH doesn't really get it, but is happy for me to do it.