Allotment - will it save me money?

Primrose

In the short term, probably not as you obviously need to equip yourself with some good basic tools. We don't have an allotment but allocate a fair proportion of our front & back gardens to growing vegetables and soft fruit and reckon for at least part of the year we supply most of our own vegetable needs. Be sure only to grow things you will eat. This sounds obvious but it's very tempting as a new grower to get carried away with trying to grow things just to fill spaces (unless you can share with friends/family). Not only will you need to become familar with growing food, you will also need to increase your skills with preserving/freezing, making chutneys and tomato purrees, etc so that you can maximise the usefulness of what you have grown. But it is enormously satisfying to eat what you have grown. It will be fresher than supermarket produce and you also have the satisfaction of saving some food miles in the process. For example from our garden we have been self sufficient in tomatoes since late July, and we have enough beans, chillis & peppers & tomato purree in the freezer to last a year, and a similar supply of soft fruit, as well as enough celeriac, leeks and beetroot to last us through until Spring. To get some idea of the money you will save, keep a weekly note of the cost of vegetables you buy from the supermarket and then you will have some idea of the actual savings you can made. Good luck and have fun.

tim_n

Of course it'll save you money.

Borrow tools from friends, rifle through your recycle bin, take tips off websites and it's dead easy.

There are plenty of crops that require little to no attention whatsoever which will pay for the five minutes you spend planting them like purple sprouting brocolli and rhubarb (last year when mine was growing, for non-organic rhubarb it was £9.44 a kilo in tescos and I had 12 kilos)

If you paid £9 for a year for a 3sq foot plot, dug a hole dead in the middle, planted a rhubarb root in it, piled it high with manure and left it for a year you'd have about £60 of organic rhubarb and have spent no time on it.

Loads of crops are better cash crops - raspberries, purple sprouting brocolli, courgettes, tomatoes, lettuce. All require minimal effort and can grow perfectly fine with very minimal input. The seeds are cheap and you might get them free from others - or if you're lucky from something like the dig in campaign.

You'll get plenty of other benfits if you do spent time down there - you'll make friends, get a good work out somewhat like you get down the gym (free) and the satisfaction of knowing where your food comes from. There won't be food miles either.

dawn_rose

unsure i grow veg in big pots in my back yard the kids help ive done it the last 2 years now and will again this time. theres defo no comparison between homegrown and clocked up the airmiles food. home grown wins. i love nipping out the back door and picking the veg and herbs for the meal im gonna cook in ten mins time.

babyshoes

As others have said, it depends largely on what you grow. Overall, I doubt it will save you a significant sum, though if you like foods that are expensive in the shops you could make some saving, purely in cash terms not in terms of what your time is worth.

One bit of advice I would give you is to put effort into growing things you actually LIKE. There is no point in growing a whole bed of raspberries, for example, if you hate them! Don't be afraid to try new things though, you may discover something you like - just don't allocate too much resource to it. There is always next year if you decide you should have grown more of something, or grow something new and find you really like it. It may turn out to be something you just can't get in the shops!

Personally, we are trying to grow things from 'home' that are either rare or expensive here, or both, such as gem squash. (They are lovely small squashes that range in size from smaller than a tennis ball to bigger than a cricket ball, that one cooks whole, then cuts open, scoops out the seeds and serves with a blob of butter in each half.) I have seen them once or twice in Tesco at around £1.50 - £2 EACH, when back home a full sack of them costs less than a fiver... My mother brought us some seeds when she came out at Christmas, and from half a packet of seeds we have had loads of squashes - nearly 2 of those plastic orange net bags full! :jWhen you calculate the supermarket cost of that it would be probably be over £50, except that it is not really a saving as we wouldn't buy them at that price but would have bought cheaper veg instead... However, the pleasure we have had from growing and eating them is worth more than any saving in money. We hope do do the same with slower growing 'exotics' like figs and guavas, if we can keep them alive through winter!:eek:

MUMMYTO2BOYS

It's unlikely you'll become self sufficient through an allotment but when you're eating home grown fresh produce the financial savings will be way down on your list of priorities.

the_cat

Thank you everyone for your replies.

I think the only way to be sure is to give it a try. As many of you have said, the financial benefit is not likely to be the most important factor.

I think I will try to concentrate on things that I often avoid at the supermarket as being too expensive. Berries of all types, rhubarb, sweet potatoes, purple sprouting brocolli, shallots, vine tomatoes to start with, plus some easy things like french beans, salad leaves etc

What does everyone think about the worth of growing the cheaper stuff like potatoes, carrots and onions. Is it best to just buy these?

Thanks again for all your replies. It has already given me several very useful tips

oliveoyl

You might find that there are things already on your plot... which is a nice bonus... when I took mine on I found rhubarb (difficult to see at this time of year as it's just about died back), gooseberry bushes and raspberry canes. If you've got a digital camera take it with you and get some snaps... you could post the piccies on here for people to look at/maybe identify things.

Whether it's worth growing the cheaper stuff... I suppose it depends... I haven't got a full sized plot so am not going to grow any bog standard potatoes next year... they take up quite a bit of room and there are other things I'd rather grow, but I am going to grow some different varieties, like jersey royals which are expensive to buy. Carrots... well, home grown taste so much nicer than the shop bought ones, but they can be problematical to grow... soil type (no stones) and carrot fly (need covering). Onions are easy so yes, grow them.

bromsgrovebarry

Allotments are usually full of retired and knowledgeable gardeners who often have the time to give you invaluable advice. Maker friends with fellow allotment holders, there may also be a trading post where seeds and fertilizer can be bought cheaply. You cannot compare home grown veg to supermarket rubbish. Good luck

Lotus-eater

the_cat wrote: »

I think I will try to concentrate on things that I often avoid at the supermarket as being too expensive. Berries of all types, rhubarb, sweet potatoes, purple sprouting brocolli, shallots, vine tomatoes to start with, plus some easy things like french beans, salad leaves etc

Purple sprouting (PSB) is great to grow, because it really is one crop that never tastes anywhere near as good, as when grown yourself.
Berries, rhubarb, tomatoes, shallots, beans, salad leaves, all very worth growing, as they are relatively easy and apart from blight on the toms, pretty disease free.
Sweet potatoes I would forget for a while, they are a novelty crop over here at best.

the_cat wrote: »

What does everyone think about the worth of growing the cheaper stuff like potatoes, carrots and onions. Is it best to just buy these?

As pointed out above, carrots aren't always easy to grow and together with the other things you mention, dirt cheap in the shops.
Potatoes take up alot of space, you have to decide whether you think it's worth it or not. I grow one lot of 2nd earlies and that's all, in fact this year I'm going to give even those a miss.
It is advised that you always peel shop bought carrots before you eat them. A legacy of the chemicals used on them on the farm. That may help make you make up your mind.
Then again, carrots are ridiculously cheap in the shops I've always thought. If I think about the trouble it takes me to grow usually twisted deformed ones, which are a pain to clean.............

zygurat789

I am on the waiting list for an allotment so I have been giving this some thought recently.
Yes it will partly depend upon what you grow, concentrate on the expensive items in the shops, but also on how much fruit and vegetables you eat. Obviously the more of these you eat the more you save, and by all accounts the better your health, which will have its own financial benefits.
"Eat 5 portions a day" is as bad a misquotation as "money is the root of all evil"
it is "Eat AT LEAST 5 portions a day"
Be green, be healthy and save money, Win, win, win