When a little goes a long way

But now help is at hand in the shape of Square Metre Gardening.

The initiative was unveiled recently to visitors at the first Grow Your Own Show at Loseley Park, Guildford, by Hull-based social enterprise Probe, which runs a Big Lottery Fund-backed grow-your-own food project, and East Yorkshire inventor Robin Rose.

The product will come in three sizes and feature an easy-to-assemble wooden frame, a supply of 15-litre, peat-free compost grow bags and assorted packets of seeds.

The largest “garden”, which comes with nine bags of compost, will cost £39.99, with the half-metre and quarter-metre versions selling at £29.99 and £24.99 respectively.

Probe general manager Steve Alltoft says: “It’s a really easy way to set up a fruit and vegetable garden and, with three different sizes, they should fit in the smallest of spaces.”

The product is being made by Recycling Unlimited, a Hull-based company which helps unemployed people, users or ex-users of mental health services, ethnic minority groups or individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, to gain skills.

Robin Rose, the man who came up with the idea, says: “This product will create sustainable training opportunities and jobs in manufacturing for people like those being helped by Recycling Unlimited, who are trying to return to the workplace.

“This is an important element of what Probe and I are aiming to do with the Square Metre concept.”

Visit www.squaremetregardening.co.uk