As you will have picked up from yesterday’s post, I’m a big fan of Cafe Direct’s ‘Sow Your Own’ campaign.


So taking their ideas to heart, I started to have a look around what the previous tenants of our allotment had left behind.

My eyes lit up when I saw some solid old drawers from an old chest of drawers, and I immediately knew what I could do with them. I took the bottoms out of them, unscrewed the handles, and put them to use as raised beds!

It was obviously meant to be, as they are the same height as the other raised beds on my plot and fit in perfectly!

These were put to use straight away, and I planted my baby ‘Red Top’ turnip seedlings in the new raised beds.

I then turned my attention to what I could use at home to plant some more salad, as I like to do successional sowings throughout the summer to have a continuous supply.

For some bizarre reason, the previous owner of our house left behind one tyre, which had been lurking at the back of the garage for some time, and everytime I saw it, I made a mental note to get rid of it.

However, after a bit of hadywork, and a quick paint job, I had a nice little planter for the next sowing of my salad.

I’ve now got my eyes on the colander in the kitchen for my next ‘Sow Your Own’ creation, but I think my better half will break my fingers if I try!

As you know, I constantly go on and on about how I feel that everyone should grow their own veg if they can, even if it is just one tub of salad on their patio, or some herbs in their windowbox.

Well now those nice people at Cafe Direct have started a campaign called ‘Sow Your Own.’

In their own words “A host of celebrities have teamed up with Cafedirect to front ‘Sow Your Own’, a micro allotment campaign that will encourage garden-starved urbanites to give growing their own food a go this summer.”

If you have a look at their website there are lots of ideas about how everyday objects that you have never got round to throwing away can be turned into funky planters, so that you can grow and have delicious fresh veg at your fingertips, wherever you are.

Also, they teamed up with top Michelin Star Chef Michael Caines MBE to reward inventive home-grown efforts this summer. As part of Cafédirect’s Sow Your Own Campaign, the most imaginative transformation of an up-cycled everyday object into a ‘micro allotment’ will win the chance to spend the morning in the prestigious two Michelin Star Kitchen at the Gidleigh Park Hotel, including a lunch for two which incorporates some of the winner’s hand cultivated ingredients.

So now you have no excuse …. get planting and ‘Sow Your Own!’