The Great 'Green-fingered tips for growing your own' Hunt Revisited

Former_MSE_Debs · 27 February 2014 at 3:21PM

The Great 'Green-fingered tips for growing your own' Hunt Revisited

Are you a green-fingered guru? Share tips for growing fruit and veg cheaply in gardens, allotments or window boxes. What's best to grow? How much do you save?

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scmp · 4 March 2014 at 11:04PM

I would say no matter what you decide to grow and your crop has been disease free... SAVE YOUR SEEDS! Over the years it will save you a fortune

Rummer · 4 March 2014 at 11:28PM

Courgettes are a great crop to grow! In one pot you could have a plant that is big, bold and produces oodles of courgettes all through the summer.

A planter filled with cut and come again salad also saves a fortune.

The most important thing though is to grow the things that you eat that cost the most to buy

jinger_2 · 5 March 2014 at 12:32AM

I save empty loo rolls to sow my beans and peas into. I plant them still in their loo rolls to save disturbing their roots and are completely biodegradable. Have done this for tomatoes in the past too and planted them 'as is' in growbags.

If using growbags, at the end of the growing season, spread the used compost around the garden.

Even if you have a small garden, have a compost bin. Even one made out of reclaimed broken pallets will work brilliantly (instructions to make one can be found on the internet easily). You don't need to buy expensive compost activator stuff, just make sure you turn it over regularly with a fork and alternate layers of wet stuff like grass cuttings with ripped up old newspapers so you don't end up with a stinking sloppy mess. Mine's placed on soil so the worms can get in and work their magic too.

tenuissent · 6 March 2014 at 8:57AM

Loo rolls are good for parsnips, too, as long as you plant them out the instant a root is visible at the bottom.

It is useful to "chit" many seeds before planting out. For example, parsnip seeds become unviable very quickly, but if you fold them in damp cloth/paper in a plastic box, the viable ones put out short roots and should be quickly put into compost in loo rolls. It is amazing how many seeds in a batch never germinate, and how long some of them take to germinate compared to others.

Chucksmum · 7 March 2014 at 7:28PM

I use a lot of flower pouches; I find the easiest way of inserting the plug plants into the holes is to use the mesh bags that garlic comes in. I cut off a length leaving the metal staple on the end (this helps to push through the hole) as the mesh is streatchy I pull it over the leaves and push it through the holes in the pouches from inside out, grasping the staple and pulling it through the hole leaving the root on the inside.

redfox · 7 March 2014 at 10:50PM

I make a veg and tomato food/fertiliser from nettles. Totally free and full of the nitrogen which plants need, it's every bit as good as commercial tomato food which costs a fortune!

You just need some nettles, a watertight container (like a bucket) some water and a fairly heavy weight. Pick some nettles and crush them by scrunching up the stems (using gloves, obviously!) Place them in your container and put a heavy weight, like a brick or similar on top of the crushed stems.Then fill the container with water sufficient to cover the nettles and leave it to 'brew'

It tends to get rather smelly as it ferments so place as far away from the house as you can. After 3/4 weeks, strain the liquid and it is ready to use on your veg plants, especially tomatoes/peppers etc. The solid matter left behind from this can be incorporated into your compost heap.

The mixture must be diluted when using as it is very concentrated - I usually dilute around 1 part nettle liquid to 10 parts water.

Dizzy_Ditzy · 7 March 2014 at 11:04PM

I get as many empty pots as I can from garden centres- most of them have bins where people leave unwanted pots and you can just take them

I have 2 compost bins, one in the front garden and one in the back

Save your seeds in envelopes

Buy bits for next season at the end of the current one when the shops and websites have clearances

I had a huge glut of tomatoes last year (think 17 different plants!) and couldn't give them all away, so I roasted them up with some garlic and olive oil and blitzed them down into a sauce- I don't have to make any tomato sauce for pasta, chilli or pizza for about a year now, I just take a bag out of the freezer

Beanette · 10 March 2014 at 11:41PM

Raising plants from seed is usually cheapest but if you do want to buy veg plants, then try local Village Fetes first - or WI markets, school fetes, scout fundraisers, charity stalls on the high street - you get the picture. Look in the local papers to see when they're on. There are usually loads of them on in May and the plants are a fraction of the cost of those bought in shops. Only go to a garden centre as a last resort!

tangojulie · 12 March 2014 at 11:32AM

Some plants root very easily from cuttings in a jar of water. Tomato and basil particularly. They can be difficult and/or time consuming to raise from seed, so if you only want (say) a few tomato plants your best bet may be to buy a single plant with lots of side shoots, snap them off and put them in a jar, and pot up the shoots when they've rooted. You can make a single pot of supermarket basil go on for ever this way.

And talking of supermarkets, you can make a huge instant lettuce patch from one box of growing salad. Much quicker and easier than growing from seed.

tds · 12 March 2014 at 6:07PM

I buy growing salad all the time from the supermaket. How can I make a huge instant lettuce patch from one box? I spend a fortune on lettuce throughout the year so any savings would be good

The Great 'Green-fingered tips for growing your own' Hunt Revisited

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