Is it really cheaper to grow your own ?

Dellers

I have never really done gardening except mow the lawn and do my hanging baskets ( that only stay alive for three weeks then die:() I have been looking at doing potatoes but I dont even know where to start and is it really cheaper to do DIY on growing ?

forgotmyname

Depends what you need to purchase to grow your own. If you already have the tools then you can grow stuff
with very little outlay. I grow potatoes in small round popup garden bin bags bought from the £ shop. Works well.

£4 worth of strawberry plants 2 years ago have now spread and produce more than their original cost in fruit each year.
Put them in hanging baskets as well, Lots of plants. I will be passing some on. I should sell a couple really.

Onions are grown in the same bags after i removed the potatoes. Tomato plants have not done well this year.

I buy seeds from the carboot/market 4 packs for a £. Also bought huge bags of pea seeds for 39p.

Rhubarb grown from seed did well, Always plenty of that for pies.

Depends what space you have and what you like.

Homemade rhubarb crumble with a scoop of cheapy icecream or tin of cheapy custard, mmmmmm lovely.

rhiwfield

This is a common question, with a variety of answers.

There are many ways to cut cost of GYO and it helps hugely if you have access to fertile soil. OTOH, if you are growing in containers, buy garden centre compost, full price seeds (or even ready grown plants) then it will almost certainly be cheaper to get your veg from a supermarket.

Taste is one very good reason for GYO, some veg loses much of its taste after picking (eg sweetcorn). You also know whats gone into and on your food, and it will be free of artificial preservatives and chemicals. But a big problem is that veg is not always easy to grow, especially brassicas.

My new greenhouse and raised bed system means that sunk costs have outweighed benefits to date. But each year I reckon on now saving a few hundred pounds, helped by seed saving, free compost, toilet roll inners, free bean poles,trying to grow well and eating everything produced (either fresh or preserved)

The sunk costs I treat as the equivalent of a past holiday spend, but one that gives me enjoyment daily rather than a 2-week hit that quickly fades.

TravellingAbuela

I have grown potatoes in pop-up garden bags for the last couple of years (lack of space in the garden) - despite getting a good crop I am not going to bother again as the compost costs a small fortune to fill all the bags. Works out cheaper buying my spuds! I shall carry on with everything else (strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries, rhubarb, salad stuff (ie mixed leaves, radish, spring onion, tomato etc) - it's just potatoes that I don't find very cost effective.

As forgotmyname says, it depends what you like and what space you have. You will get lots of good advice on here whatever you chose to grow!

Sambucus_Nigra

forgotmyname wrote: »

Tomato plants have not done well this year.

I had the best year EVER for toms; still got them growing in the greenhouse and a drawer of them in the fridge.....

OP = it depends on your scale. To grow spuds you'll need seed potatoes and somewhere to grow them [bags and compost, or a dug area in the garden]....so you can get started cheaply with a little work or a little more outlay and less work; why not try with a few growbags and potatoes grown in them [fold them in half and cut them and use those rather than potato bags] and grow some salad potatoes to start off with.

Dellers

Thank you for all the reply s. I have no tools what so ever so I would really be starting from scratch. I have a large south facing back yard and I also have a balcony that has the sun in the morning. I have a garage that would be able to keep anything cool. Soil I dont have a clue about I live in Liverpool if that helps I think ill be popping to the library later to get a book on gardening.

RAS

is yu yard concrete or does it have areas of soil?

cootambear

Its cheaper if you;

a. grow stuff like courgettes which are expensive in the shops

b stuff like again, courgettes and strawbs which taste far better home grown (though the variety is critical - avoid the supermarket variety elsanta which is hard and flavourless and try mara de bois or albion, cambridge favourites are good too and also cheap, see my strawb threads.

c stuff that is easy and less time intensive like courgettes and strawbs = think about it, the time you spend in the garden could be spent working or being with your family - but balance that with the fact that most here find gardening very enjoyable - my little pleasure is pulling up weeds.

Farway

Cost of GYO V bought depends to large extent on what you grow, the basics like spuds, onions, carrots even are mostly cheaper in shops, however if you grow things like rhubarb [never cheap for some reason], currants, raspberries, in fact nearly all soft fruit then GYO will be cheaper

Beans are another thing, for some reason runner beans in shops are often horrid & expensive, but one of the easiest & tastiest to grow

PS, plus of course herbs, many are easy to grow, like thyme, chives or mint, but never cheap in shops compared to ease of growing

Lotus-eater

Compare like for like. Do you buy and eat top notch organic fresh veg now?

Some things are cheaper as GYO, most mentioned above, I would grow what you really like to eat and if you save money it's a bonus. But you also have to enjoy it, otherwise the time involved hugely outweighs the savings.

cootambear

I need to add some things take time to grow but pay off greatly in the long term. I bought two pear trees from LIDL. I`m guessing it will take 3 or 4 years for them to produce a good crop, but theyll be there for 20 years I think. All for £5.