Now is the time to take cuttings from many of your garden plants including lavender and rosemary.  With a 60 – 70% success rate it does make sense to take cutting and grow on more stock for the garden.   You will need A pair of secateurs or sharp pruning knife Several plant pots filled with peat free compost A garden tray for placing the pots on to hold the water Plastic bags or 2ltr plastic drinks bottles Rubber bands or string A pot of rooting powder    Method 1. Take a 2 to 3 inch cutting from the tips of the plant 2. Remove the lower leaves and trim the lower part of the cutting. Dip the base end in the pot of rooting powder. 3. Place the powder end into the damp compost towards the edge of ...

There is a good piece on the River Cottage website under the topic, ''Why Grow Vegetables''. I wish I had read this before heading off to a party in my old stomping ground in North West London. Cornered in the kitchen (it was a party after all), two guys, an old friend and a new acquaintance, were asking me how I filled my time now ''out in the sticks''. Without hesitation, I began to regale them with accounts of our new allotment venture, yet half way through it began to dawn on me that they didn't quite get it. Damning me with unintended feint praise, my good friend concluded it must occupy a good bit of my time – and money. Money? No way!, I protested. A packet of seeds is a pound-fifty, onions sets and potato chits a f...