Why Grow Your Own?

1. Better taste – there is nothing as tasty as freshly picked food; from the traditional homegrown tomatoes and herbs to more exotic bananas, aubergines, ginger and chillies. Choose which varieties to grow based on taste; varieties stocked by supermarkets are selected for their shelf life and uniform characteristics not for their taste.

2. More nutrition with every bite – we all know that fruit and vegetables lose vital vitamins from the moment they’re picked. How quickly can you get from your garden/greenhouse/conservatory/patio to your kitchen?

3. Know what you’re eating – the best way to be certain about what has been sprayed onto your fruit and vegetables is to grow it yourself.

4. Greater variety – up to five different plants can be grown in one hydro system – so you can grow five completely different ingredients or five very different varieties of your favourite ingredient.

5. Get five-a-day – nutritionists recommend that we get five different portions of fruit and veg every day – 5 different plants can be grown in a single one metre long hydro system.

6. Reduce food miles – even locally sourced food can travel hundreds of miles between supplier, distribution warehouse and retail store before it gets to you. Grow your own and you know exactly how far your food has travelled.

7. Get the kids interested – children who grow their own food have a greater understanding of the importance of food to health, the relationship between food and seasons and the environmental impact of the food they eat.

8. Sense of achievement – there is nothing more rewarding that growing your own food and then eating it with friends!

9. Never run out of your favourite ingredient – have a constant supply of your favourite ingredient so you never have to dash to the shops mid-preparation. Especially true with a hydro system that typically produces 3x greater yield than is achieved with soil.

10. Reduce packaging waste – The average household throws away 14 kilograms of food packaging per week. The food you grow yourself won’t have any packaging.

We just couldn’t resist giving you an extra reason

11. It’s now really easy – if you use a Greenhouse Sensation hydro system to grow your own you can grow in a greenhouse, conservatory or on a balcony, and the hydro system automatically provides the plants with all the water and nutrients they need when they need them so even the least experienced grower can enjoy bumper crops.

Picked when ripe – many retailers pick their fruit and vegetables before they are ripe so that they have a longer shelf life, this reduces the time the plant has to develop its flavour.

Tastiest varieties – there are so many varieties of each fruit and vegetable but supermarkets only stock a few, and they are selected for uniformity and shelf life – not taste.

Your own taste – with so many varieties to choose from you can grow varieties that
suit your own taste and texture preferences. For example you can select which tomatoes to grow do you like a sweet tomato, one with a soft and thin skin or a super-refreshing variety?

The perfect temperature – to ensure fruit and vegetables survive their long journeys they are chilled, even those foods that like a tropical environment such as tomatoes – this reduces their flavour.

What counts as one of your 5-a-day?
   
 Apple: fresh 1 medium apple
 Apricot: fresh 3 apricots
 Apricot: ready to eat 3 whole
 Avocado Half an avocado
 Banana: fresh 1 medium banana
 Blackberries 1 handful (9 to 10 blackberries)
 Blackcurrants  4 heaped tablespoons
 Blueberries 2 handfuls (4 heaped tablespoons)
 Cherries: fresh 14 cherries
 Clementines 2 clementines
 Damsons 5 to 6 damsons
 Fruit juice  1 medium glass (150ml)
 Fruit salad: fresh 3 heaped tablespoons
 Fruit smoothie 1 medium glass (150ml)
 Gooseberries  1 handful
 Grapefruit segments: canned 3 heaped tablespoons (8 segments)
 Grapefruit: fresh Half a grapefruit
 Grapes  1 handful
 Kiwi fruit  2 kiwi fruit
 Lychee: fresh 6 lychees
 Mandarin orange: fresh 1 medium orange
 Mango  2 slices (2-inch slice)
 Melon 1 slice (2-inch slice)
 Mixed fruit: dried 1 heaped tablespoon
 Nectarine 1 nectarine
 Orange 1 orange
 Passion fruit  5 to 6 fruit
 Paw paw (papaya): fresh 1 slice
 Peach: fresh 1 medium peach
 Pear: fresh 1 medium pear
 Pear: ready to eat 2 halves
 Pineapple: fresh 1 large slice
 Plum  2 medium plums
 Raspberries: fresh 2 handfuls
 Rhubarb: cooked 2 heaped tablespoons
 Satsuma 2 small satsumas
 Strawberry: fresh 7 strawberries
 Tangerine 2 small tangerines
   

Why do I need 5-a-day?

Eating 5-a-day (400g of fruit and vegetables) provides protection against super oxide radicals; meaning that they help reduce the risk of heart disease, some cancers and stroke.

Superfoods - some fruits and vegetables are supercharged with health benefits. e.g. watercress, pomegranate and pumpkins. Vegetables provide more benefits than fruit - up to twice as much.

Eating a variety of fruit and vegetables will give you plenty of vitamins and minerals, as many of them are naturally high in folic acid, vitamin C and potassium. They’re also a good source of fibre and antioxidants. These are important for your health now and in the future.

Fruit and veg are generally low fat, low calorie foods (provided you don’t fry or roast them in lots of oil). So by choosing to eat them over less healthy foods that are high in fat and added sugars, can help you to maintain a healthier lifestyle and weight.

Eating 5 A DAY will keep you looking and feeling good inside and out.

Eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables in as wide a range of colours as possible provides the best health benefits. Growing your own enables you to experiment with new things - such as multi-coloured carrots.

Growing your own helps us to reduce food miles. A food mile is how far food travels from the farmer who produces it to the consumer who eats it. Even food grown in the UK can travel 1000’s of miles from farmer to processor, to distribution warehouse, to supermarket and finally to your home.

Transporting food large distances uses a lot of fuel, that means more carbon dioxide emissions and more global warming.

The longer it takes to get fruit and vegetables from the farm to the plate the more vitamins are lost.

Since 1978 the amount of food transported within the UK by HGV has increased by 23% and the average distance for each trip has jumped by 50%.

Imports of indigenous foods rose from 13.5m tonnes in 1992 to 16.1m tonnes in 2002.

95% of fruit and 50% of vegetables eaten in the UK are imported.

If all foods were sourced from within 20km of where they were consumed, the country would save £2.1bn in environmental and congestion costs.

The amount of food air-freighted around the world has risen by 140% since 1992.

The average consumer travels 136 miles each year to shop for food. That means that the average household of 2 adults and 2 kids generates 500 miles of car emissions in the quest for food.

It is estimated that 25% of HGV mileage in UK is accounted for by food haulage.