Does it really save money growing your own?

LJM

i dont think it saves you money but you get a buzz well i do from knowing i have grown my own and it tastes so much better,plus i have 2 young girls and i feel it important that they know how their food starts off and all the processes before it gets to the table. once you have paid the initial outlay for equipment etc you can buy seeds very cheaply and then its just your time

Optimisticpair

I would go for the small plot and plant anything which takes up space like potatoes and can't be pinched if the visitors are light fingered and ask if there is much of that happening.

As to cost. It can be cheaper but the difference in taste and the fact that they are fresh to pick outside my door and I know what was not sprayed on them etc are a bonus too.

I've planted my early potatoes in containers so the cost is-
Containers £0 all free from the recycling centre
Compost and potatoes 30p each potato average
In garden so no allotment fees

Each potato could yeild at least 2kg - 4kg so to be cheaper than my own I'd have to be able to buy organic potatoes at less than 15p per kg.

Salad is as Lotus Eater said expensive at £1 a bag for leaves or one lettuce. I've done a tray full of 28 Mixed cut and come again leaves seed cost 2p per tray started indoors so plus cost of compost and plant food 4p for 28 plants and 4 crops per plant?

I don't see that the labour cost is a factor because it has money-saving and priceless benefits and costs me nothing to do it. I enjoy what I eat far more and Mr Op likes it because there is a personal element. We never tire of seeing things growing. It is relaxing and therapeutic. It satisfies the soul. There's also greater variety than the same old standard produce on the shop shelves. If I went out to work I would lose most of those benefits and incur weekly spending on work clothes and travel and probably be more stressed.

Orange_King

I agree with much of what has been said above -

1 Satisfaction and therapy - growing your own gives a sense of pride!
2 Taste - there is nothing quite like it available in the shops - akin to catching a nice fresh fish and popping on a barbeque straight away.
3 Educational - the kids have got to learn somehow and this trial and error is excellent experience.
4 Family involvement - time spent together doing something useful rather than sitting watching TV or stuck to an X-Box.
5 Environmentally friendly - food on your doorstep, using your own compost and bits and pieces of pots and tubs that would be thrown away.

Never mind the MS aspect, this is sufficient in itself to warrant the effort put in and if you are lucky to save or even earn from it then all the better.

For the doubters, please give it a go and I suspect many will be hooked quickly.

DKLS

I will have a long way to recover the costs of my raised beds installed last year. But it does have many other benefits.

The varieties I like you simply dont see in the supermarkets as the produce isnt uniform and will sit on a shelf for days. Plus I know exactly what has gone onto the plants.

Friends and family benefit from surplus produce, and the best for me, my stress levels plummett when I can escape my work PC and potter round the beds.

valentina

I would put potatoes and onions on the starter plot as they take up quite a bit of space, but once they get going they don't need much care, also they wouldn't get stolen. After them you could put in leeks, winter greens like sprouting broccoli and winter onions. (hope you like onions)

rhiwfield

I've posted before on a similar topic and estimated that it can save you a fair bit of money, particularly if its your own garden and you're not paying allotment fees.

But thats not counting the up front cost of garden infrastructure (paths/greenhouse/raised beds/compost heaps/netting/water butts/cloches/tools) although you would need some of these for an ornamental garden. Nor does it count the cost of your time.

After these, then the big costs are seeds, fertiliser/manure and compost, the cost of which can be reduced by seed saving, buying seed when its half price, buying seed from Lidl and Wilko, home composting, comfrey and general MSE savvy in using toilet roll inners and paper planters, bean poles and pea sticks from local woods, and sussing out free compost, wood chips, mulch and swapping young plants with neighbours.

Now that the infrastructure on our garden is finished its up to us to make the best of what we've put in place. We grow quite a few "luxury" plants such as lots of soft fruit, tree fruit, asparagus, globe artichoke as well as staples like rhubarb (currently about £4 a kg!) and the whole run of veg except maincrop potatoes.

If I priced what we now produce against shop prices we'd be in the black by several hundred pounds a year, but I wouldnt buy the kilos of blackcurrants or gooseberries that we now crop, they would be too expensive.

As Lotus Eater said, you have to eat what you produce (or sell it or preserve it) to get the most out of what you grow. And definitely eat what you grow seasonally instead of buying expensive overseas fruit out of season

The other point is whether you add value to a house by converting the garden to fruit and veg. With looming energy and water crises likely to make food prices hike up again this is probably the case, though I wouldnt have said the same 10 years back.

I agree with all the posters who point out the non-financial benefits of GYO, I just know that I'm very glad we went down this route.

Winged_one

Certain veg are very cheap to grow - brassicas usually have hundreds of seeds per pack and, while cabbages and caulis are OK, I prefer things like calabrese (the green stuff sold as brocolli in shops), purple sprouting brocolli or brussels sprouts for value (or white sprouting broc - I'm just not a fan). Each seed gives LOADS and the seeds last a good while - and you could easily share a pack or 2 with friends to get a variety of things. Broc and calabrese are great because the sprouts keep coming for ages (the main head is generally only what you see in shops, but all the littler sprouts are perfect for eating too). And, as I tend to net ALL brassicas anyway against bird/pest damage, they'd be more difficult to get at from the path.

Courgettes or summer squash would also be good. But, depending on what plot neighbours say, I must admit I'd be wary of putting winter squashes (butternuts etc) or pumpkins on such a plot - maybe on a larger site later.

Peas, beans and mangetout are great value. I have grown a "green fence" of mange tout against the wooden fence at the back of a flowerbed at home for the past few years, which has worked very well. They climb up the wall, hiding the fence, only come about 3-4" into the bed, but give LOADS of MT all summer. And if you miss some, they just keep growing into full-sized peas. I've done the same with proper peas, but they aren't as safe from the toddler's grasping hands

Hanging basket of tomatoes is another great trick of mine - I put 3 "Tumbler" plants - or any bush plant that stays compact - into a hanging basket on the back patio and get quite a lot from that. And a fwe "cordon" type tomatoes (that grow their fruit on main stems rather than side branches) can look great in a flowerbed once spaced out from each other. I often grow a pyramid of beans this way too. And lettuces amongst the flowers - that is great value for salads from Feb to Oct/Nov. Between proper lettuce plants for full heads (just start a few seeds every couple of weeks to plant out as you pull up previous ones) and a large pot or 2 for cut'n'come again leave, you'll save a fortune.

Kay_Peel

You can measure the benefits of GYO by the money saved, but you can't measure the other benefits quite so easily.

I don't grow potatoes normally, but last year I bought a single seed potato because it was a variety that my dad used to grow over 40 years ago. He used to get the seeds sent over from Ireland and I can still remember the taste and texture of them. I grew the potato in an enormous barrel and earthed it up. The crop was huge and I had enough to give him a bagful for his 82nd birthday. They didn't disappoint - they were just gorgeous and just as I remembered them - and were the right present for a man who doesn't want anything except a decent spud! :rotfl:

GYO is more than growing food - it's a hobby, a therapy, a sense of achievement, heartache, pleasure, disappointment, exercise, being outdoors and a basic instinct. I think it's especially important to introduce children to all those benefits if at all possible. :j

Genuisscuffy

I've been growing the Square Foot Gardening (google it!) and last year grew 34 different crops in three 3 x 6ft beds - enough to feed me and two teenagers in most of the veg we need. It depends on your space but I agree with most salad leaves work really well as you just pick the leaves (although son towards the end did say "do we have to eat leaves again!!!) carrots, beetroot, strawberries, spring onions, radishes, salad leaves, little cos can all be grown in pots- good luck but remember just grow what you really will eat it is very tempting looking at the seed packets to try and grow lots but to save money you do have to eat it!!!