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

Primrose

BigBosh - nice to have some input from somebody who is based further afield. I've never even heard of acai. Can you tell us in greater detail what it is. Is it a berry / fruit? I suspect even if we were able to get hold of some it probably wouldn't thrive in our very intemperate climate here.

thebigbosh

I can't say it any better than wikipedia really:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acai

Loving the statement As of March 2009, there are no controlled studies backing up any of these claims. You do generally feel a bit more energetic though after having açai na tigela :j

I guess with the UK climate getting warmer due to climate change I could always find some açai palm seeds to bring back on my next visit to the parentals

Muffin99

B-girl wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for all the posts.

I usually do flowers and even though they are not going to save you money on the food bill. You can grow your own sweetpeas, daffodils (and so many more!) and have fragrant cut flowers for free at no cost to the environment and very little cost to yourself.

After reading all of these posts I'm going out this weekend to get some tomato plants and putting them in a container on my deck. The fragrance of tomato leaves on your hands is one of life's true joys.

Oh I agree, smells great, but you wouldn't think we'd be attracted to it being a poisonous part would you?

Amused by your post Primrose - I guess you can have too much of a good thing!

Hello thebigbosh in Brazil! I tried a smoothie with acai berries, but it cost a fortune! Be good if it were poss to grow here!

Hatster

I reckon that winter salads are the easiest thing to grow which is expensive in the shops - I've been picking salad leaves from a couple of £1.49 seed packets all the way through winter rather than buying bagged salad from the shops. Summer salad is also pretty cost effective, but shop bought salad seems much more expensive in winter.

buxtonrabbitgreen

Primrose wrote: »

B-girl, I had to laugh at your post about the fragrance of tomato leaves on your hands! My first ever summer vacation job was working in acres of tomato greenhouses on a smallholding. My sole task for 6 weeks was nipping out the sideshoots of tomatoes. . By the end of six weeks even item of clothing I owned was permanently stained green-yellow, and myskin looked as if I was suffering from yellow jaundice. I was 16 at the time and those six weeks certainly taught me that money didn't grow on trees! .Couldn't face eating a tomato for months!:rotfl:And I naively turned up on my first day wearing a smart dress because I had visions of doing the "Victorian Lady" bit walking down the aisles with a small watering can!

My first job was in a nursery. It put me off gardening for years. And put me off geraniums for ever. My job all that first summer was watering geraniums in extremely hot greenhouses. I can't bear the smell of them now

MoneyMeanie_2

I agree with many of you that the important thing is to plant what you will eat. My favourites which are easy to grow are courgettes, purple or white sprouting broccoli, climbing french beans, herbs, red onions (from sets), salad leaves,carrots(easy if you have a sandy soil or if not, as I do, mix some sand with the soil in a narrow trench 2 or 3 inches wide and plant your seeds in this - the carrots will be able to grow down into the trench and will not fork). If you like rocket, buy a wild rocket plant from a garden centre, I paid £1-60. These are perennial and mine has lasted 4 years so far - it is now a small bush over 2 feet in diameter.

Give it a go- happy planting!

Primrose

MoneyMeanie - I've been growing rocket for some time and never realised that it was perennial so perhaps I've been sowing the other version. I'm amazed that you now have a small bush of it over 2 feet in diameter. I'll look for a packet of wild rocket seeds instead of the domestic variety and see if I can emulate you because we get through a load of it in our house.

Topaz_3

Well I've just read thru everyone's posts having just bought a gro bag, 2 tomato plants and ordered seeds from Digin. All the advice will be acted on when I get the seeds. Thanks to all.

karenb31

this is great i was just thinking about growing my own veg. Where do you buy the seeds etc, can you just go to Homebase and places like that?

Thanks

RAS

At the moment, check out Lidl - 29p to 49p per packet, Netto may still have some which started at 19p but were small packets and a limited range. Poundland or Pound something were doing some decent £1 packs with 6 different lots of seeds - basic veg, spicy selection etc.

Then look at Wilkos and at www.alanromans.com.

That my listof cheap seed suppliers. Lidl for peas and beans is particularly good price wise but the range is limited.