A GIYer’s new year’s resolution

As we enter a new year we’re sharing a new year’s resolution suggestion from Michael Kelly in an except from the first diary entry in his new book, The GIY Diaries:

1 January

New Year’s resolutions sometimes get a bad rap because they seem to represent the folly and flightiness of the human spirit. We start off the year with grand intentions to eat only salads and run a hundred miles a week. But then by mid-January we’ve quietly and guiltily abandoned our good intentions and reverted to type.

This year, make a simple resolution that can transform your life: grow food. And before you think that sounds like a resolution that might involve significant effort, life changes or all-round hassle on your part, fear not – you won’t have to buy a pair of Birkenstocks (though they are cool again in case you didn’t know). It doesn’t have to be a huge amount of food. We’re not talking 100 per cent self-sufficiency or living off grid. It’s not scary or daunting.

Here are the Don’ts: Don’t spend a load of money on expensive garden equipment, books or tools. Don’t grow a goatee. Don’t dig up your garden or sign up for an allotment. Don’t learn Latin for reading the plant names. For now, we’re keeping it small-scale, achievable, practical. Unlike most of our resolutions, this one is about working with (rather than against) our limitations – our lack of time, our lack of space, lack of knowledge.

Just grow food. Grow some salad leaves in a container. Stick a pea in some potting compost in a pot. Grow your own garlic. Or some herbs on your balcony. Start small. Pick three vegetables that you like to eat and learn how to grow those. How about setting yourself the target of producing an entirely homegrown meal? Just one little meal. That’s easy, right?

Keep this in mind as you start. Research shows that if you grow some of your own food (even if it’s only a little amount) your food habits may change. And this is down to the deeper understanding and connection with food and the food system you will have because of your food growing experience – in GIY, we call this food empathy. You will be welcoming optimism and happiness into your life and saving some money in the process. You will also be out and about in the fresh air, getting some exercise at the same time. And you will have access to the most delicious, nutritious, seasonal food.

So forget about the Bikram yoga. This year, just grow food.

buy the giy diaries

Head to our online store to buy The GIY Diaries by Michael Kelly – a beautifully illustrated diary of a year in his vegetable patch. Month by month you will learn how to create a space that gives you fresh, wholesome fruit and veg that tastes far better than anything you can find in the shops.