Growing ur own fruit and veg, worth it?

RAS

Hi

I disagree with the posters you are quoting and refer you to someone who HAS grown the things that you want.

Go to LIDL and buy the seeds you want for £1 for 5 packs.

Stop buying pots; you can get very large polystyrene boxes from the behind restaurants used to import tropical veggies and herbs. Or the large canisters in which they buy veggie oil.

Check out municipal compost; if you are in rural Norfolk check out leaf mould, odd bits of soil dug up by highways, make "trench compost" from you own household waste. You can fill the bottom of pots with twigs and alsorted rubbish and just use good compost for the top 6 inches.

You do need to work out which way each wall faces. Go out at midday next time the sun shines. Stand back to the wall and work out where the sun is.

If it is ahead of you that wall faces south; behind it faces north. The east facing wall will have the sun to the right and the west to the left hand side.

RAS

Just to ad that Lidl sell all of these tomatoes, lettuce/spinach/
cucumbers and peppers in their 29p/5 for a £1 range. Last year they had chillies as well.

You would need to grow tomatoes, chillies, peppers and cucumbers on a south facing wall or even in the south facing windows (chillies and peppers)

As you are in Norfolk with continental style summers you stand a decent chance of getting them to fruit. Up here I got chillies, tomatoes and more cucumbers than I could cope with.

The only thing I would query is peppers. And rocket seed is more expensive.

Consider growing beet leaves, swiss chard, and herbs that are cheaper to buy.

RAS

RAS wrote: »

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.

Did you pick up this link?

He produced £500 last year and a lot more previously.

Parsimonia

RAS wrote: »

Hi

I disagree with the posters you are quoting and refer you to someone who HAS grown the things that you want.

Go to LIDL and buy the seeds you want for £1 for 5 packs.

Stop buying pots; you can get very large polystyrene boxes from the behind restaurants used to import tropical veggies and herbs. Or the large canisters in which they buy veggie oil.

Check out municipal compost; if you are in rural Norfolk check out leaf mould, odd bits of soil dug up by highways, make "trench compost" from you own household waste. You can fill the bottom of pots with twigs and alsorted rubbish and just use good compost for the top 6 inches.

You do need to work out which way each wall faces. Go out at midday next time the sun shines. Stand back to the wall and work out where the sun is.

If it is ahead of you that wall faces south; behind it faces north. The east facing wall will have the sun to the right and the west to the left hand side.

RAS wrote: »

Just to ad that Lidl sell all of these tomatoes, lettuce/spinach/
cucumbers and peppers in their 29p/5 for a £1 range. Last year they had chillies as well.

You would need to grow tomatoes, chillies, peppers and cucumbers on a south facing wall or even in the south facing windows (chillies and peppers)

As you are in Norfolk with continental style summers you stand a decent chance of getting them to fruit. Up here I got chillies, tomatoes and more cucumbers than I could cope with.

The only thing I would query is peppers. And rocket seed is more expensive.

Consider growing beet leaves, swiss chard, and herbs that are cheaper to buy.

Thank you so much! We think we've figured out which walls point in which direction! Our house is a south facing house, so our front living room windows which look out onto our small front garden are south-facing windows. Sunny windowsills!

The back garden faces north, but does get quite a bit of sun. Standing with our back to the house, the tall wall that separates our property from our right hand neighbour is a west facing wall that gets quite a lot of sun.

The opposite six foot fence (against which we've placed our trug) is an east facing wall.

The fence at the foot of our garden is presumably south facing.

And the wall of the house is north facing.

We already grow quite a lot of herbs on the patio in front of the right west facing wall, and they usually do quite well. We also grew rocket on that patio last year.

The trug which sits against the left hand fence (facing east) did quite well last year too...we grew cut and come again lettuce, rocket and spinach.

We don't tend to grow anything against the south facing fence at the bottom of the garden as that's where our apple tree is located, and it tends to shade that part of the garden. It's also where we grow our rhubarb.

We don't grow anything (yet) against the back garden house wall. We also don't grow anything in the paved front garden as it has a tall hedge so is quite shady sandwiched between the hedge and the house.


Where fence would we be best to grow our tomatoes against???

We'll definitely check out the seeds in Lidl...chard...good idea!! I also like your suggstions re compost and cheap containers...thank you!!!

RAS

Parsimonia wrote: »

We don't tend to grow anything against the south facing fence at the bottom of the garden as that's where our apple tree is located, and it tends to shade that part of the garden. It's also where we grow our rhubarb.

Would large pots containing chillies or peppers work placed in front ( south side) of the tree?

Parsimonia

RAS wrote: »

Did you pick up this link?

He produced £500 last year and a lot more previously.

How did I miss this post? Wow, I'm totally gobsmacked!!!! I've bookmarked and subscribed to his site - what an inspiration!!

Parsimonia

RAS wrote: »

Would large pots containing chillies or peppers work placed in front ( south side) of the tree?

Definitely worth a try! I think I may go out when we (finally) have a sunny day and track where the sun hits at different times of day...I take it I need to place the tomatoes, chillis and peppers where the sun hits at the hottest time of the day (noon - 3pm) ?!?!

As you can tell, I'm a total novice. I'm trying to cram a lifetime's reading into a weekend!!!

RAS

Parsimonia wrote: »

I take it I need to place the tomatoes, chillis and peppers where the sun hits at the hottest time of the day (noon - 3pm) ?!?!

As you can tell, I'm a total novice. I'm trying to cram a lifetime's reading into a weekend!!!

The sun will shine lower down the south wall at the height of the day 11 am - 2 pm so they get most light but, big but, if you have a corner that gets sun later in the afternoon, you may find that is hotter.

My chillies and tomatoes got sun from very early morning to about 11 am to give you a clue. Basically east facing. Would have done better the other side of the garden but that was where I had space and access at the time.

cyclonebri1

RAS wrote: »

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.

No sorry, you seem to be thinking of the whole subject in pure economic terms. Plus you have exampled the most simplistic example possible.

Look at it this way, if you (and I don't mean you), are the sort of person that lets veg rot in the back of the freezer, would you be able to seed and nurture plats to fruition given you can't open the fridge door?

Plus, if one pack of salad is too much for you, what are you going to do with 5 packs???

Some folks are best suited to "gardening in Tesco's";);)

Parsimonia

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

No sorry, you seem to be thinking of the whole subject in pure economic terms. Plus you have exampled the most simplistic example possible.

Look at it this way, if you (and I don't mean you), are the sort of person that lets veg rot in the back of the freezer, would you be able to seed and nurture plats to fruition given you can't open the fridge door?

Plus, if one pack of salad is too much for you, what are you going to do with 5 packs???

Some folks are best suited to "gardening in Tesco's";);)

I'm only thinking of the subject in pure economic terms because literally every penny counts in this household - our total household budget (for food for 2 adults and a dog, household cleaning products, toilet rolls etc) is only £25 a week...if growing our own food increases our cost, it would enter into the category of luxury expenditure, and we can't afford luxuries at the moment.

We're absolutely NOT the type that let food go to waste...we make soups out of wilting veg or chop up and freeze...we never waste ANYTHING. We even make soups etc out of veg tops and peelings that other folks throw away or compost.

We don't want to grow anything fancy - just keep ourselves in salad leaves and tomatoes mainly, and if we could be self-sufficient in chillis, cucumbers all the better....