Great “Easy Lucrative Garden Crops” Hunt: What costly foods can you grow with ease?

milliemonster

Courgettes!!!, they are so easy to grow and are prolific croppers too, and cost a fortune in winter to buy!!!

PeteW

Asparagus is a particually good value as each plant will provide you with fresh asparagus for 20 years!

KBS59

Rocket is expensive in the supermarkets, but very easy and quick to grow from seed. It has self seeded for us well into the autumn, but better to eat it young.

tabbzter

MSE_Archna wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]This week the BBC Dig it campaign is giving away free seeds
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Applying for seeds

Due to a huge response, the Dig In free seed packs available through the website have now run out

You can still pick up a pack at one of the Dig in on Tour events, though.

Or, you could buy your own - the five Dig In

vegetable varieties are cheap to buy and widely available,

and there'll be plenty of help and tips from the website.

..................:mad:

JimJim

Looking for seeds Then pop in a Poundland quick see if the have any of their Mixed veg seeds left. You get six varieties in one packet and you could share with friends. Pondland also had two types of Tomato seed kits on sale and a few onion sets left.

I bought a pack of salad leaves mix in Poundworld yesterday.

Lidl, see if Lidl have their seeds still on display packets all below 50p

Aldi Also do cheap quality seeds and Netto but not sure if Netto still have any in stock.

B&Q in Bury do a value range of 35p seeds, Maybe your store stocks them to.

Organic gardening: Seed-saving
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3345098/Organic-gardening-Seed-saving.html

Growing fruit and vegetables: Small spaces offer big rewards

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/fruitandvegetables/5038361/Growing-fruit-and-vegetables-Small-spaces-offer-big-rewards.html

JimJim

Veg patch from scratch: Part One

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/5089920/Veg-patch-from-scratch-Part-One.html

Veg patch from scratch: part 2
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/5130040/Veg-patch-from-scratch-part-2.html
How to Grow

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/


You have the Internet use it! read all you can.

Churchpolly

Hi, why not start a seed swopping service on the site? It would save everyone pounds in buying them every spring! I save seed from my runner beans every year, choosing the best ones of course!

wallyberry

I've grown runner beans for years up bamboo poles, and find Scarlet Emperor the best variety. Usually we're giving them away as we get so many. Hoping for a heavy crop of damsons this year as the tree is covered in blossom. I'm a bit bewildered by the BBC suggesting carrots and beetroot though, I've never had any success with either!

Most of the pea and bean family sprout easily and crop well. This year I'm trying courgettes and giving my cucumbers another go, though in previous years the cucumbers I bought as little pot plants have perished as they grew. I've even bought a few raspberry canes and a blueberry plant, as I've had a blueberry before and it did quite well though I killed it by not watering it in the greenhouse over the winter!

THen of course there are the strawberry plants, which weren't from seed but were bought cheaply and my children would happily live off them. Considering the 12 plants I bought and the fact that I've just paid £3 for two punnets, I'm hoping for a bit of a saving in years to come, though they have a limited season at home.

Jenni

brownfrog

jpwhittle wrote: »

I am a beginner to enough so that my mum laughed when i said id just put them straight in soil without drying them out

That's the best way to plant seeds that are encased in pulp; they're designed to be eaten by an animal and carried away from the parent plant before being - well - deposited elsewhere. Basically, if the plant doesn't dry its own seeds (for wind-scattering, mainly), it doesn't need drying, and by drying you're just extending its storage life. If you don't need to store and you can plant straightaway (and keep free of frost if necessary), it's usually better do do so.

As for types of veg, I agree with everyone else - the most money-saving ones are salad veg (especially things like rocket and mizuno), herbs (especially the expensive oriental ones like lemon grass and kaffir lime), bush fruit and expensive veg like asparagus and rhubarb. They're also generally easy to grow and don't take up much room.

As for the rest - nothing beats the taste of growing your own and it's much healthier, but don't expect to save money doing it. If your priority is to save money, try your local farm shop/farmer's market/pick your own farm instead of the supermarket. I've checked out ours on several occasions now, buying the stuff at the farm shop and then going straight to the supermarket to check the till receipt against their stuff. Every time, I've had a few things where the supermarket's been cheaper by a couple of pence, but the farm shop's beaten it on more things and by more money - in a couple of cases (seasonal veg plus eggs and meat) by up to 50%. On average, I reckon it's 20% cheaper to shop in the farm shop than the supermarket, and it's better in pretty much every way!

bucklap

To maximise space used in the garden when growing veg, there is a system called the three sisters which comes from native americans. Three veg are planted in the same space - Sweetcorn, Beans (runner or broad), and Squash (pumpkins etc). Plant sweetcorn in a block about 18 inches between plants, and when the plant starts to shoot through, plant a bean seed next to it. When the beans start sprouting plant a squash seed (1 for every 6 sweetcorn/beans). The sweetcorn will grow to about 1.5 to 2 metres tall, and the beans will grow up the stalks (saving money on canes). The squash will grow covering the ground and stop weeds from getting any light, saving time on weeding. Starting the sweetcorn toward the end of April is the best time. You get a really good crop of all 3 and it maximises the space superbly.

:beer: