Growing your own is becoming a popular pastime

The popularity of using gardens, greenhouses, coldframes and allotments to cultivate food is increasing, it has been asserted.

Demand for room to grow fruit and vegetables is at an all-time high, but the number of available spaces is reducing, a 2006 study showed.

The Greater London Assembly research, carried out in October 2006, was the most in-depth survey of the subject ever carried out in the capital and found 1,500 plots had disappeared in the ten years preceding it.

Grow Your Own magazine editor Lucy Halsall said it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place in a community garden due to the demand, hinting that those with their own outdoor space and greenhouse in the capital were in a fortunate position.

"Its hugely popular," she explained. "The last couple of years theres been a massive increase in the popularity of growing your own food – fruit and vegetables."

The pastime is set to become even more fashionable, with mayor of London Boris Johnson promoting cultivating eatables in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.