Growing ur own fruit and veg, worth it?

cyclonebri1

floss2 wrote: »

I only have a 3/5 plot, with a greenhouse & shed, so not so much spare space for floral.

You would be surprised how little space a row of exhibition grade glads take up, and the amount of quality cut flowers you can get from an end of season £3 bag.

I grow mine right down the edge of a raised sleeper bed, usually alongside french or broad beans, no real space requirement at all, and all the goodness required for year 1 is actually in the bulb itself so little demand for nutrients. I put them in the garden borders for the following years.:money:

floss2

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

You would be surprised how little space a row of exhibition grade glads take up, and the amount of quality cut flowers you can get from an end of season £3 bag.

I grow mine right down the edge of a raised sleeper bed, usually alongside french or broad beans, no real space requirement at all, and all the goodness required for year 1 is actually in the bulb itself so little demand for nutrients. I put them in the garden borders for the following years.:money:

It doesn't matter how little space they take up, I still won't grow them coz I can't abide them!! :rotfl:

I have got alliums, narcissi, lillies and iris in my plot though

cyclonebri1

floss2 wrote: »

It doesn't matter how little space they take up, I still won't grow them coz I can't abide them!! :rotfl:

I have got alliums, narcissi, lillies and iris in my plot though

Well I can't counter that, no point in growing 'owt you don't like to flower in the garden.

However you can always sell them or make a gift of them, which is why I mentioned them as "cut" flowers

Jnelhams

I have too little time to do much, but a few well chosen Apple varities pay for themselves, but it a few bits of cardboard over some land during the winter, then in the spring dig a ditch pop in the cardboard fill with the earth and then you can plant some runner beans and they need little or attention, or pop in some broad beans now for a crop next May. Both of these crops are over £2.99 for 250g in Waitrose at the peak of harvest!

Parsimonia

Dear all

I'm resurrecting this old thread, because I'd appreciate your insights.

Given how cheap some fruit and veg is in the shops, is there any economic benefit at all to growing your own?

I'm completely sold on all the non-economic benefits, such as the better flavour of home grown, the better nutrients, reduced food miles, good exercise, absorbing hobby etc etc etc....but to be honest, if home grown costs more than shop bought, I think it may be a luxury we can't afford.

If I give a few salient details:
We'd want to grow enough for 2 adults to make us pretty much self-sufficient for salad leaves, herbs, spinach, rocket, tomatoes and beetroot. It would also be nice to grow some beans (runner? or broad?) and maybe some hanging cucumbers.

We don't have a garden as such, as ours is almost entirely paved. In the non-paved part we have a very well established rhubarb that gives us about 3 good crops a year, and we have a Cox's Apple tree that may be on its last legs - it's been there since before we bought the house in 1992....that said, we had a bumber crop last year.

Last year I foraged 20lbs of blackberries and 30lbs of field and horse mushrooms on my daily dog walks.

We have a 1.5 metre square trug that we bought last year, and in addition we have about 20 - 30 pots, ranging in size from about 6' to 24' in diameter. We have a walled garden, so could grow some climbers. I think the garden is north facing (I never know how to calculate this! If our entire property were to be drawn inside a square, with the house at the bottom (southern) edge, our garden runs behind the house in a northerly direction towards the northern border of the square. To the east is a 7 foot very old brick wall, and there's a 6 foot fence to the N and W sides. Does that mean it's north facing or south facing?)

Anyway, regardless of whether or not it faces N or S, it is quite a sunny garden most of the day, with different parts of the garden catching the sun at different times of the day.

What else? Oh yes, we already have a water barrel and a compost bin. We compost all our biodegradable kitchen waste.

What else? We live in rural Norfolk (is that relevant in any way?)

So....what do you all reckon? We grew salad leaves, spinach, rocket and herbs in the trug last year and kept ourselves fully supplied throughout most of the summer....but by the time we'd factored in the cost of the trug, 4 bags of John Innes compost and a load of pots, we think we were probably operating at a loss. We didn't have much success with the things we tried to grow from seed, but all the above were bought as seedlings or small established plants from our local nursery, and they were a resounding success.

However, we also tried to grow carrots, garlic, onions, broccoli and globe artichoke (all in deep, large pots) and all were a total failure.

So this year we've decided to focus on just the basics as mentioned above (salad leaves, herbs, spinach, rocket, tomatoes and beetroot, and maybe some beans and cucumbers).

This year we'll obviously have the trug and pots already...and we still have one unopened bag of compost. But presumably we'd need to buy seeds or seedlings, more compost, plant food, possibly some tomato grow bags, maybe some propagating pots etc.... are we better finding a different less expensive hobby and buying our veg from Aldi, or will it all work out cheaper to grow in the long run???

Mojisola

Parsimonia wrote: »

This year we'll obviously have the trug and pots already...and we still have one unopened bag of compost. But presumably we'd need to buy seeds or seedlings, more compost, plant food, possibly some tomato grow bags, maybe some propagating pots etc.... are we better finding a different less expensive hobby and buying our veg from Aldi, or will it all work out cheaper to grow in the long run???

To be honest, unless you're gardening because you like doing it or you want to know exactly how your veggies have been grown, I'd say find another hobby.

You're not likely to save money by growing in small quantities at home. Also, growing in pots means that you have to be very careful about the watering - difficult if you want to have any time away in the summer.

cyclonebri1

Parsimonia wrote: »

Dear all

I'm resurrecting this old thread, because I'd appreciate your insights.

Given how cheap some fruit and veg is in the shops, is there any economic benefit at all to growing your own?

No, absolutely no economic value whatsoever, if you really want to save money then walk to tesco's or wherever, but, and it's a big but;

What you are buying into has several "arms"

To explain, it will cost you money over what the supermarket fodder costs to produce your own.

If you factor your efforts in you will be working for sub slave labour rates.

Every couple of years mother nature and her slugs or pestilence will wipe your efforts out

That was the negative side of it.
So the good bits;

The main thing is satisfaction, getting back to the earth, letting Mother N feed you, rather than the other way around.

Taste?, always better and sometimes very different an a good way.

The fresh air and the exercise?, priceless, it's like working out in a Gym, (£200 per year and only muscles and a debited balance to show), but with the benefit that you get the muscles, the veg, no bill, but a dirty great smile that says yours efforts aren't simply wasted energy.

I'll get off the pulpit now, sorry :o:o

A._Badger

I agree with the above. You do it for the sense of satisfaction and of being able to choose the varieties you prefer.

A good case in point is strawberry cultivation. Supermarket berries are chosen primarily for their resistance to bruising in transport, good shelf life, consistent size, strong colour and a whole load of other qualities - with flavour somewhere near the bottom.

If you grow your own, you can change the priorities to suit yourself.

As a general rule, I personally find fruit a better financial prospect than vegetables. A dish of 20 or so raspberries can cost a small fortune but they are incredibly easy to grow.

Onions? Not really worth it - but very satisfying!

RAS

Might be worth reading this web-site http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/

I think one point to consider is:

Do you spend £1 on buying some herbs and let the rest rot in the back of a fridge?

Or do you cut the amount you need from outside (5 packs of seed for £1 from Lidl) and let the rest grow on for another day?

You might not produce as much as you buy, but you might produce as much or more than you currently eat for less money.

Parsimonia

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

No, absolutely no economic value whatsoever, if you really want to save money then walk to tesco's or wherever, but, and it's a big but;

What you are buying into has several "arms"

To explain, it will cost you money over what the supermarket fodder costs to produce your own.

If you factor your efforts in you will be working for sub slave labour rates.

Every couple of years mother nature and her slugs or pestilence will wipe your efforts out

That was the negative side of it.
So the good bits;

The main thing is satisfaction, getting back to the earth, letting Mother N feed you, rather than the other way around.

Taste?, always better and sometimes very different an a good way.

The fresh air and the exercise?, priceless, it's like working out in a Gym, (£200 per year and only muscles and a debited balance to show), but with the benefit that you get the muscles, the veg, no bill, but a dirty great smile that says yours efforts aren't simply wasted energy.

I'll get off the pulpit now, sorry :o:o

A._Badger wrote: »

I agree with the above. You do it for the sense of satisfaction and of being able to choose the varieties you prefer.

A good case in point is strawberry cultivation. Supermarket berries are chosen primarily for their resistance to bruising in transport, good shelf life, consistent size, strong colour and a whole load of other qualities - with flavour somewhere near the bottom.

If you grow your own, you can change the priorities to suit yourself.

As a general rule, I personally find fruit a better financial prospect than vegetables. A dish of 20 or so raspberries can cost a small fortune but they are incredibly easy to grow.

Onions? Not really worth it - but very satisfying!

Thanks guys - I really appreciate your insights. The problem is that my hubby's incapacity benefit ends on 19th Feb, and we will have to really tighten our belts. Every penny will start to count, and if it's more expensive to grow it may be a luxury too far.

In wealthier times we used to visit Italy a couple of times a year, and I know there's a WORLD of taste difference between our insipid, watery, gutless supermarket offerings and what food tastes like when you grow your own. I'm completely converted to the mental and physical health benefits of homegrowing.

The problem though is cost. I can't afford an expensive hobby....

In working out any potential 'saving' from growing my own, my starting point isn't the cost of growing my own vs the cost of buying class 1 fruit and veg from Sainsburys, including some expensive luxuries such as soft summer fruits and blueberries, and paying a gym membership.

Instead I'm comparing the cost of growing my own vs the cost of buying what's cheapest or on offer at Aldi and getting all of my exercise from walking the dog and cycling to work. Hubby and I eat well, making the most of seasonal fruit/veg offers, but that means we eat a lot of veggie soups made with marked down veg, as well as lots of veggies that go a long way and make lots of versatile dishes, such as savoy cabbage, beets, potatoes, carrots and onions. Not much expensive exotic stuff finds its way into our household, I'm afraid!!!

Ideally I'd like to make us self-sufficient for just a few of the relatively expensive things that we do tend to eat a lot of in summer - namely tomatoes, lettuce/spinach/rocket, chillis, cucumbers and peppers.

If I could grow all those things relatively cheaply, it would make a significant dent in our summer grocery bills, as ordinarily our food bill is higher in summer because we both eat a lot of all these items. If I can't buy or grow them cheaply this year (and now onwards) we'll just have to go without and eat something less expensive instead. We accept that a lovely colourful salad is a luxury when you're on a limited income.

Same with fruit...I forage blackcurrants and blackberries, and sometimes we'll buy strawberries at carboots and fetes....we can't normally afford supermarket soft-fruit prices.

I'm not too worried about growing things like carrots and onions as they're already pretty cheap to buy (although I concede that homegrown is much better).