People with gardens - how expensive would food have to be for you to grow your own?

simmed

*I've seen a lot of ethnically non-British families grow edible plants, which is very respectable.

Personally I don't even have a garden, but I have a large tray of chives and salad leaves on my windowsill.

How expensive would food have to be for you to plant and grow your own? Or would you rather starve than cut down your petunias?

WantToBeSE

For me, its not about price at the moment, its about not having the know-how, and not having the time.

aliasojo

I tried to grow my own again this summer. Blight wiped out practically everything I had.

I had no ground just a car park so had to grow in raised planters. Waste of money for compost etc.

lostinrates

simmed wrote: »

I'm always slightly amazed by the lack of edible and practical plants in British gardens. Some people do plant them, but the vast majority* seem to use their gardens purely as something they need to sculpt to look good (and the vast majority fail in this task too, but I digress).

*I've seen a lot of ethnically non-British families grow edible plants, which is very respectable.

Personally I don't even have a garden, but I have a large tray of chives and salad leaves on my windowsill.

How expensive would food have to be for you to plant and grow your own? Or would you rather starve than cut down your petunias?

Well, we have a fine allotment tradition, and many people dedicate the less seen areas of their gardens to veg, rather than the bits you see. I know very few people who don't have at least some herbs.

At our house the veg garden is some distance from the house, as is the planned orchard but near the house we have a couple of apple trees and the fruit bushes etc (waiting for a fruit garden but not sure how best to plant it in the difficult location we have chosen. ). Near the house we have mainly ornamentals, but we eat lots of them. We have lots of floral salads and baked goods, and we forage...from our own land mainly.

Our next big project is an ornamental herb garden adjacent to the house.

WantToBeSE

Blimey, i only answered your question, no need to stalk me!

I am unemployed at the moment, and have been for 4 months now (not that i need to explain myself to you), but i havent always been! And its not just the time to plant stuff, its the time to read about HOW to grow/plant stuff, time to find what i need at a reasonable price, when to sow, when to harvest etc.

As well as the time to prep my garden for growing, and make it secure.

Popperwell

I don't garden due to health problems but...also you never know with all the changes coming in if you can afford to stay where you are. A pack of fresh/frozen veg can last me ages and do so many meals being single. I suppose it is not too expensive just to buy it. And if the right time of day I can often pick up items greatly reduced.

Going4TheDream

I grow my own, and have done so for about 8 years now, seem to be getting better at it each year, except this year when it was a washout and about two years previous to that, by the time I am 80 I might have cracked it!!!!!!

It wasn't about saving money or food being expensive when I started it was about having a hobby outside, rather being sat in doors on my backside! The benefits are that we get fresh veg straight from the garden (we freeze surplus) and it does taste better than most shop bought veg. As for cost I think now we may be breaking even as we produce all our own compost and have all the tools etc, so its seeds and time really.... and there is nothing nicer than seeing it all growing and finally eating it!

simmed

Going4TheDream wrote: »

I grow my own, and have done so for about 8 years now, seem to be getting better at it each year, except this year when it was a washout and about two years previous to that, by the time I am 80 I might have cracked it!!!!!!

It wasn't about saving money or food being expensive when I started it was about having a hobby outside, rather being sat in doors on my backside! The benefits are that we get fresh veg straight from the garden (we freeze surplus) and it does taste better than most shop bought veg. As for cost I think now we may be breaking even as we produce all our own compost and have all the tools etc, so its seeds and time really.... and there is nothing nicer than seeing it all growing and finally eating it!

Personally I feel one of the best things about growing your own food in modern day UK is the feeling of self-reliance. It's not nice knowing that you are completely 100% reliant on some far-off farmer/Tesco to sustain your life.. so even if it's just a little bit of food, it's satisfying for me personally to be that little bit self-sufficient.

shegirl

Some people just don't have the time,money or desire to grow their own.

Some people like to use their gardens for other things -there are much better things to do with gardens tbh

I've done it and a lot of it was a waste of time.

Now in my new house, the front garden will be the 'pretty' one although, thanks to sambucus nigra on here, I want edible hedging.

The side 'garden' will be for strawberries (grow these every year), raspberries, mint and herbs.

The back garden is for playing,splashing and dining with a bit of prettiness

Badrick

There's a lot of stuff you can grow that doesn't take a lot of looking after.
I tend to go for the stuff that's easy to maintain and are expensive to buy such as raspberries, blackcurrants and rhubarb, or aren't available commercially like pineberries and alpine strawberries.

Going4TheDream

simmed wrote: »

Personally I feel one of the best things about growing your own food in modern day UK is the feeling of self-reliance. It's not nice knowing that you are completely 100% reliant on some far-off farmer/Tesco to sustain your life.. so even if it's just a little bit of food, it's satisfying for me personally to be that little bit self-sufficient.

I think as the price of food creeps up that being more self reliant could become more important to a lot of people. We are already seeing stories about how many food prices will rise because of bad weather and low crop yields

I like a nice cauliflower but hell would freeze over before I paid nearly £2 for a large one when I can grow them for pennies from seed or even buy 16 plug plants for £6.99!

After the terrible year we had this year due to the weather we are planning to make removable covers for our raised beds using the reclaimed wood we have in an endeavour to be more successful next year.