Growing your own food can be good exercise and could save you money. It can also provide you with a healthy supply of fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables. It’s easy to get started and there are lots of places you can grow plants, even if you don’t have a garden.

More people are getting interested in growing their own fruit and vegetables, for many different reasons:

It could save you money on expensive items like salad leaves

Gardening is a cheap form of exercise and a great way to burn calories and get some fresh air

It helps children understand where food comes from, and could encourage more interest in eating fresh fruit and vegetables

Growing your own can help you get your five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables

Gardening can be a sociable activity which involves you in your local community.

You may only have a small balcony, or a space on the windowledge, but it needn’t stop you taking your first steps at gardening. You can grow herbs indoors or salad leaves outside in a pot.

If you are thinking about growing vegetables on your windowsills, pick the ones which get the most sun during the day. Watching your vegetables grow every day is fun, but be careful not to water them too much .

Plant pretty rainbow chard and lovely smelly herbs for the most beautiful, fragrant windows. Start by planting the fruit and vegetables you eat the most like tomatoes (the tumbling kind for window boxes) and lettuce –you’ll notice the difference in taste straight away

Root vegetables like beetroot and chard are really easy to grow and don’t need much attention. Plus it’s easy to tell when they are ready as the pink or purple bulbs pop out of the soil.

If you have a garden but no space for a dedicated food plot, you can try planting fruit or vegetables among your flowers.

You could ask a neighbour with a large garden if you could cultivate a patch of ground, and maybe offer some of your produce in return.

If you don’t have a space at home or want to grow a larger amount of crops, you can search for local community gardening schemes or rent an allotment.