Free salad leaves and vegetables are ripe for the picking thanks to volunteer gardeners from this year’s Farnham in Bloom campaign.

Containers outside South Street Sainsbury’s are packed with herbs, salads, vegetables and edible flowers that are all available to be picked for free.

Councillor Stephen Hill, lead member for Farnham in Bloom, said: “Whoever said there’s no such thing as a free lunch hadn’t seen our amazing containers packed with herbs, salads and edible flowers which are literally there for the taking.

“We would like shoppers, office workers and visitors to enjoy the plants by helping themselves to the harvest and adding some flavour and fresh veg to their lunchboxes or evening meals. Farnham in Bloom is very much about benefiting our town - whether that means brightening it up with attractive planters like this or providing home grown veg for people.”

The free food has been grown thanks to the time and commitment of a group of gardeners who support the Incredible Edible initiative, a nationwide movement which aims to increase the amount of local food grown and eaten in towns.

The project is just one of the Farnham in Bloom activities enabled by sponsorship from Specsavers in Farnham, which also helped buy the plants and containers. Among the produce ready to be harvested are carrots, beetroot, celeriac, French beans, lettuce, onions, chard, sweet peppers and tomatoes.

All the gardeners involved in Farnham’s Incredible Edible initiative have their own allotments so are a dab hand at growing varied and high-quality produce which looks attractive too. Farnham joined the movement after seeing an example of how well it works in its twin town Andernach, Germany.

There are similar containers along Upper Hale Road which can also be harvested. Visit www.farnham.gov.uk/bloom to see a film about this year’s entry.