Grow your own at work and home (From Smallholder)

Grow your own at work and home

8:50am Friday 5th March 2010 in

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Over 20,000 people have signed up to latest wave of the RHS Grow Your Own campaign in record time – exceeding the charity’s expectations and setting a new trend for the nation; growing your own at work.

Gordon Seabright, Acting Director General of the RHS said, “We know that growing your own is a popular activity, but we never thought it would capture the nation’s imagination so dramatically and quickly. Within in the first 48 hours over 15,000 people had pledged to get growing – an absolute record.”

Launched with the support of the nation’s largest suppliers of top quality books, The Book People, the campaign was expanded this year to encourage businesses to support their staff to grow at work. Since its launch, it has now attracted the support of over 100 companies including big names like Cafédirect and Sekonda through the pledges of their staff.

Gordon continued, “In a recent online survey, over half of our respondents said they would regularly use a workplace garden or allotment if they had access to one, while 73% said they found gardening to be a good way of unwinding from the pressures of work. With this in mind we expanded our campaign, believing it would help to create a better work-life balance for employees and in turn increase their productivity while at work; and judging by the response of the public, it seems they think so too.”

Whitney Kakos, Impact & Sustainability Manager for Cafédirect, explains, “At Cafédirect, we understand that the tastiest crops are home-grown and handpicked. This Summer, inspired by the passion and pride of our smallholder grower partners from across the world, we are planning to grow our own fruit and veg on the balconies at our London offices.”

The RHS campaign launched last week with a nationwide ask for people to pledge to grow their own food either at home or at work, as allotment waiting lists continue to grow and people are spending longer hours at work*. People were asked to indicate what they would grow from a list of ten popular fruit and veg, and the first 10,000 individuals and 50 companies were offered free starter packs as a way of helping them to get growing.

For more information on the RHS Grow Your Own campaign and to pledge to grow your own, please visit www.rhs.org.uk/growyourown