One of the most satisfying and rewarding aspects of gardening is growing your own vegetables. Not only do home grown vegetables invariably taste better than supermarket alternatives, they also are a lot cheaper too and with food prices on the rise this can only be good news.

Another more important point is that you will know exactly where your food has come from and how it has been grown. The fresher the vegetables, the more goodness they contain and they can be picked, cooked and on your plate within minutes! Supermarket produce may look good, but do you really know how long it has taken to get from field to plate - and also how many miles it has travelled to get there? You can be sure that your food is truly organic if you grow it yourself.

Involve the whole family in your new hobby and it will encourage them to sample what they have grown. Producing their own food is encouragement enough to adopt a healthier diet, but they may also benefit from the extra exercise!

So where do you start?

The first thing to consider is the size of your growing area - some people devote large areas within their garden to growing vegetable crops, but others may just have a sunny windowsill or a few pots to play with. I would recommend starting small with a couple of different varieties, but whatever you do, make sure the size of area you choose is not too big to easily maintain - this is supposed to be fun!

A major consideration has to be the quality of the soil - but if you are not lucky enough to have soft crumbly soil, then even heavy clay type soil can be transformed with a bit of work. The soil will need to be prepared before planting and you will also have to decide what type of fertilizer you wish to use.

The biggest decision of course will be deciding what you want to grow and it obviously makes sense to grow what your family enjoys eating. Learn about the seasonality of vegetables to enjoy the food that should be in season - you can plan your vegetable patch so you have crops growing all year round.

So what are you waiting for? There is a great deal to learn but growing your own vegetables is extremely rewarding and nothing is more pleasurable than eating your own, homegrown food. Once you've sampled your own vegetables, you won't be heading back to the supermarket counter in a hurry.

If you would like to learn more about growing your own veg the easy way, just click here

About the Author

Jayne Lewis is a keen and enthusiastic gardener, bitten by the gardening bug after giving up work to bring up her children. Also concerned with the effects our actions have on our environment. 'A million small changes can make one heck of a difference'