Gardeners grow food for the experience

While garden and greenhouse enthusiasts will save money by growing their own fruit and vegetables, this is not the main reason many do it, it has been claimed.

According to Garden Works spokesman Kevin Waters, Brits grow their own produce for the experience of doing so.

Speaking at the Glee 2010 event in Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, he explained that the sense of achievement is what drives gardeners to tend to the vegetable patch.

"It is managing to put potatoes on the Sunday dinner plate that you have grown yourself. It is that experience that people are buying," Mr Waters explained.

The expert added that retailers in the garden and greenhouse business should try to sell customers the "end result" rather than simply displaying grow your own products.

He said that one of the main problems that garden centres face is that people have become used to making impulse buys and materials for growing your own food do not often fall into this category.