growing

sunlight432

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to save a bit more on my food shopping and was wondering if growing fruit, vegetables or herbs at home is actually worth it financially.

For those of you who grow your own, which crops have given you the biggest savings? Are there any that aren't worth the time or money? I'd also love to hear any beginner tips, especially if you've managed to keep costs low by using containers, homemade compost or saving seeds.

Has gardening genuinely reduced your grocery bill, or is it more of a hobby than a money saver?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Woodstok2000

For us it's more of a hobby - the kinds of fruit and veg you can grow at home are usually relatively cheap in the supermarket (thinking potatoes, carrots, tomatoes), but the quality is way better so that's an additional benefit.

We do save a decent amount by growing herbs, which we tend to use a lot of and they are easy to maintain. For some (I'm looking at you mint and rosemary) the hardest part is preventing them from taking over the garden!

Baldytyke88

An apple tree, which will cost less than £10 in Feb/March is very much worth the investment. But we should all be eating more wholesome food, that is priceless.

FlorayG

It doesn't save money but you get much better quality vegetables and of course fresher.

A fruit tree will save buying fruit but only part of the year.

If you grow your own you learn to eat stuff in season.

StewedApple

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6678695/growing

Soft fruit such as raspberries/strawberries are always best grown at home or on an allotment - the sugars in soft fruits rapidly deteriorate after picking - which is why home-grown taste lovely and shop-bought tastes like cardboard. Shop-bought varieties are also grown because they store/transport well rather than for their flavour.

For other fruit/vegetables it's always worth growing varieties which are hard to come by in shops e.g. pink fir apple potatoes are easily container-grown but are rarely available in supermarkets.

elsien

I have to grow my stuff in pots for various reasons and don’t have a lot of space.

Baby tomatoes tend to do well. I have a blueberry bush which has given me quite a lot of breakfasts so far.
I always do strawberries just because they require so little effort and happily grow new plants as needed.

Cucumber - I’ve had four cucumbers from one plant so far and the cost of the compost plant and fertiliser (because I was disorganised and didn’t grow my own from seed) probably outweighs any savings.

Courgettes generally tend to do quite well although with a bad habit of ripening at the same time

Gave up on potatoes because again it wasn’t cost effective.

Gave up on peas because they kept getting moth caterpillars inside them.

sweetcorn didn’t happen – needed too much water.

salad leaves and radishes tend to do ok

The suggestion if you only have a limited space though is not to bother with things you can buy just as cheaply in the supermarket but to try different things or varieties

my overall view is that I haven’t saved anything but it’s a nice hobby to have. And you can’t beat a fresh tomato straight off the vine.

twopenny

Only sometimes it saves money. Tomatoes for instance. Easy enough to grow. And the supermarket ones only have 30% of the good stuff in them. Grown in water and sprayed.

Buy a 1.50 plant and get £s worth through summer and autumn.

Ditto most fruit and veg from sm is week's sometimes months old , cold stored, travelled many miles. Oranges and some other citrus are stored for up to 2yrs before getting to the shelves. So the goodness and flavour has gone.

I grow raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, kale (sweet and tender) and purple sprouting broccoli, tomatoes of different varieties in a small garden.None needs much attention.

Picked as I'm cooking dinner.

Also cooking apples, eaters, cherries.

I pick blackberries from the hedgerow, apples of all sorts given away at the roadside and people selling their surplus.

That's jam for morning toast, crumbles and chutneys for sandwiches for the price of a bag of sugar.

YBR

If you save seeds each year or propagate it saves more, also you should not need to buy pots and can make your own compost. The Garden Centres would have us buying premium annual seedlings each year, but there are lower cost ways.

Giving away some of my courgette/bean/lettuce glut means I receive cucumbers/apples/whatever from others when they have too many, saving a bit more there too.

I garden because I enjoy it, and it is good for me in terms of fresh air, exercise, de-stressing and a sense of achievement, thus saving on fitness memberships and such like too. 😄 I save significantly at certain times, but not constantly or reliably (e.g. issues with weather this year).

middlewife

In the first year of growing you will have some outlay. You can sometimes pick up free seed trays, seeds, surplus plants on free sites like 0li0, etc, seeds are cheaper but take more time. You can use containers like large soap powder tubs, just wash well and drill drainage holes in them. Plants in open ground need less water than those in containers, if you're on a water meter. You can often get advice from gardening clubs, or ask around at a local allotment if there is one. I've also bought living lettuces and grown them on, plus supermarket herbs. Dwarf beans, chard, kale, cherry tomatoes, courgettes, strawberries, rhubarb are all easy, at this time of year, you'd be looking at sowing crops for autumn/winter like kale, leeks, chard, mustard leaves. Strawberries produce baby plants each year, so you may find a neighbour has some you can plant in the autumn, you'll get some fruit next year, but more the following year. You can sow broad beans to overwinter. Discount supermarkets often sell fruit bushes too. You probably won't save much money, but it's really satisfying to do, good luck!

Sapindus

It's really difficult to quantify. Yes you can save money growing herbs for example, but you could argue that herbs are a luxury item anyway. You'd save money growing organic instead of buying organic, but what price nutrition and flavour?

Things that you can save seed from are a good investment, like peas, beans, corn salad, land cress, beet and chard, replanting garlic.

In the end it pays twice as a healthy hobby, you might save a bit of cash, but also get more healthy food and the exercise will also save you money in the long run by keeping you in good shape and cheaper than going to the gym.

Newbie_John

Things that work for me: apples - although many have worms - still edible :D, rapberries - fruit twice a year, grapes if you have sunny spot - I do nothing with them - no watering, very lazy.

Another one I really like is purple tree collard - tastes like kale, grows all year round, so yes you can harvest in December, February etc. grows into a big 2m tree, easy to propagate. Just needs little bit watering in summer and picking cabbage worms before they eat the plant in summer - this one is probably the best money saving one i have - you pay like £10 once and have greens forever.