For the first time for many years, the sales of vegetable seeds have exceeded the sales of flower seeds, which represents a pretty smart feat of timing by gardening guru Sarah Raven, who has just produced a lavishly illustrated new book called The Great Vegetable Plot.

There was a time, of course, when nearly every house, especially if you lived in the country, had a vegetable plot in the back garden. People grew their own or much of their own.

It was unheard of for the rear of the house to be taken over by a paved patio, a stretch of lawn and a water feature.

Now, with supermarkets offering perfect apples all the same size, ready washed potatoes and long, straight carrots, the temptation may be to shop there.

But the vegetable garden is making a comeback; possibly due to the popularity of gardening programmes and the constant drip, drip of publicity that convinces you organic - probably with a bit of dirt on - is best. People are having a go at gardening the way their grandparents did.

So Sarah Raven's book is extremely opportune.

Publishers BBC Worldwide even make the claim it can enhance your life, but I'd bridle at going that far.

However, if you have the space or can make it by negotiating with the kids they can play the World Cup final or Ashes test on a reduced area of lawn, vegetable gardening can be very satisfying.

In that sense Sarah taps into the modern lifestyle by saying: "I aim for minimum input for maximum reward from my vegetable garden. I don't want it taking over my life."

She divides her vegetable growing into three branches - those you grow for their taste, those that can't but can usually be bought in shops and those she calls "desert island plants", the ones you would grow if you had to grow something to survive.

"There are certain vegetables that are almost immeasurably different in flavour if you grow your own," she says. "Like tomatoes, peas, carrots and asparagus."

Among the range of "unbuyables", Sarah lists purple, blue or crimson fleshed potatoes, purple podded peas and edible flowers, which look impressive in the garden as well as on the plate.

On her desert island she would grow courgette, salad leaves, herbs and kale. Plants that form the backbone of any vegetable garden.

However, her book is not about growing for self-sufficiency or making it hard work.

"It's about growing for pleasure," she adds. "I can't stand a glut of one thing, so I sow small quantities of things many times a year.

"I don't bother with main crop potatoes, cabbages or parsnips which are easy to buy and don't suffer when they are stored.

"Also, I avoid things that are tricky to grow, like celery. I concentrate on the real life-enhancers, vegetables that are easy to grow and make every meal more fun to cook.

"For example, where can you buy lovage, sorrel, lemon verbena and chervil, each one invaluable in the kitchen and a cinch to grow and yet rarely seen in the shops?"

Sarah admits it has taken her a while to get things right in her kitchen garden - "to produce the right amount of vegetables in a drip drip supply".

"For the first two years there was too much feast and famine," she explains, "but now it's all there waiting. All year round not just in the summer."

Her aim, as she puts it, is to turn a kitchen garden into a market, a haven and a playground, interspersing the vegetables with colourful flowers, some of which are even edible.

I know it is much easier to push a trolley around a supermarket, but eating something you've grown yourself is a special feeling and I don't mean the horror of the bug still on the lettuce leaf.

So if you want to have a go, just like your granny did, Sarah Raven shows how. Join the in-crowd with their dibbers.

l The Great Vegetable Plot by Sarah Raven is published by BBC Worldwide at £20.