Richard Briers: how could you, too, enjoy a bit of ‘The Good Life’?

We may be hardy seed-selling folks here at Seeds By Post (http://www.seedsbypost.co.uk), working hard to provide an in-depth and regularly updated product range encompassing the finest vegetable, flower and herb seeds as well as appropriate accessories, but even we shed a tear lately. That was because of the death of Richard Briers, better known to a generation of TV viewers as the character Tom Good from the immortal 1970s sitcom, The Good Life.

Briers may no longer be with us, but Good – and the self-sufficiency ideal of the series – remain alive and well, with many a vegetable grower down the decades having been inspired to follow in the footsteps of Surbiton’s finest. In a world that is becoming more and more urbanised, amid predictions of 75 per cent of the world being so by 2050, the programme and Briers’ character continue to tap into a deep longing that many Britons have to move to the country and produce their own food.

But of course, figures like the above also indicate just how unrealistic those dreams could be if you presently live in the city but constantly have visions flooding through your mind of growing fruit and vegetables and keeping hens and bees. However, you might be interested to read that it’s by no means impossible to live your dream while remaining exactly where you are. Indeed, many of our mail order seeds customers here at Seeds By Post live in the heart of the city, and make up a growing band of ‘Rurbanites’.

Tom Good was, as ardent fans of The Good Life are sure to remind us right now, a Suburbanite rather than a ‘Rurbanite’. But the latter term, as you might have guessed by now, is a newer one applied to those who want the best of both city and country life, as documented in a new book by the former columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, Alex Mitchell, entitled The Rurbanite – Living in the Country without Leaving the City. In it, Mitchell gives advice to city dwellers on growing food, keeping hens, wildlife and community gardening. In the process, such people are turning the UK’s asphalt jungles into something a bit friendlier to nature.

There are many ways in which you could join the rapidly expanding ranks of the ‘Rurbanite’, from placing a plastic punnet on your windowsill and using it to grow micro greens like chard, beetroot and coriander, getting involved in growing and gardening projects in your local community. Or why not find a derelict plot on which bee and butterfly-friendly wild flowers could be sown? It’s all possible, and so many of the people who buy seeds online from Seeds By Post (http://www.seedsbypost.co.uk) have done it. Take a look at our present seeds range for more ideas about how you could make the most of your newly-acquired ‘Rurbanite’ status for less!

Editor’s Note: Seeds By Post (http://www.seedsbypost.co.uk) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.