Vegetable growing - Does it Save money ?

Doom_and_Gloom

Courgettes as said before are expensive in store. Even if you pay the extra to buy a vertical/trailing verity and not a bush variety you will save money and be able to use your space wisely! Marrows are also expensive in store but you can’t get a vertical/trailing variety that I know of but they produce quite a few marrows for you off the plant so can be worth it. Other things I’m growing this year due to being expensive in store are parsnips (2 varieties) , brussel sprouts, melons (take a lot of space), pumpkin (take a lot of space), peas, cucumbers, strawberries (2 varieties), tomatoes (4 varieties), peppers, spinach, lettuce (different varieties) as well as loads of different herbs. I have bought blueberry and blackberry plants as I go through a lot of soft fruit. I doubt I will get a crop this year as it’ll be their first but coming years I should and they only cost me 99p each which I don’t mind.

I’m also growing carrots (2 varieties), cauliflowers, beetroot, sweet corn, red onions, white onions, broccoli, spring onions, radishes and swedes. I only have 15ft by 9.5ft ground space to plant into (some has to be sacrificed to a pathway to weed and collect harvest) but I’m also using planters and grow bags on a concrete area I have next to it to maximise my crop and utilise the space I have available to me. I also have a crab apple tree that’s been in the garden since my parents moved here over 15 years ago that produces year after year.

It’s cost me around £30 for all the seeds I have. I bought some last year and they are still usable this year and some I bought this year but will be good for 2 years to come if I don’t use them all before then! I bought a 330L composter for £20 last year so I have had to buy compost last year and will still have to this year. Last year I spent around £15 on compost and will be around £40 this year for all the planters, a salad and herb planter we made and for the grow bags on top of the compost I‘ve made. The feed was £1.50 last year and it’s still in date and I still have a good quantity left that should last this year. That is £109.47 over 2 years so around £54.74 per year so far. I bet it costs most families around £55 a fortnight for all the fruit and vegetables listed as it is and what is planted will last longer than a fortnight! It does take a bit of time and effort but the taste and the freshness can not be beaten.

HariboJunkie

The initial outlay can be expensive. Soil and tools and pots and plants and seeds all add up. But if you shop thriftily and make use of freecycle and swap sites it can definitely work out cheaper.

My first few years of veg growing were expensive because it was trial and error (quite alot of error ) and my OH built raised beds and we filled them with topsoil.

Now I am much more frugal and grow EVERYTHING from seed (with the exception of some yellow stickered fuschia plug plants) I have only needed to buy one bag of compost this year as I have lots of my own.

And it really does pay to grow expensive stuff. Last year I didn't buy and bagged salad, including expensive rocket and watercress between April and September. Carrots I picked while young as baby carrots are so dear and purple sprouting brocolli was very easy and worth while to grow.

And don't forget. You really cannot beat the taste and the freshness.

mouseymousey99

I grew lettuce in growbags last summer. It kept us going through the summer at the time supermarket was roughly £1 so yes I'd say well worth it. Also had spinach in containers, used it cooked and raw as salad. Will def be growing some more this year (my garden is postage stamp).

betterlife

i definetly think its worth it, i bought most of my seeds from the £ shop 10 packs for a £, i have planted loads already and they are all germinating and are looking really healthy. ive invested in a polytunnel this year and they atually sent me 2! so i can extend my growing season. i bought a waterbutt from the recycled centre for £4 and as for the work my children love helping, also as i have so many seeds i intend to bring some on to sell a carboots, this will help cover some of the cost for this year, next year i will use seeds that i will save from this years plants.

JWF

As well as eating fresh stuff throughout the summer/autumn, we still have pickled beetroot and onions in the cupboard as well as some jam and chilli relish as well. We gave a load of stuff away as pressies at Xmas which was greatfully received, as well as costing us very little.

This year I have bought 12 fruit bushes for just under a tenner, so will be looking forwards to plenty of fruit in the future.

So I reckon it is well worth doing from a financial point of view alone, never mind the taste and the health benefits

foreign_correspondent

Depends on what you grow - I grow toms and sell some, sauce and freeze some, and eat loads of them, so they are worthwhile.

Some stuff is ridiculous prices though - look at this patio potato growing kit - 3 plastic buckets and 15 seed potatoes for £25!!! :eek: (plus you need to suppy your own compost !)

The yield is 'up to' 9lbs or 4k per bucket, so in effect, you will be paying nearly £1 for a pound in weight of spuds, and that's if you get the maximum crop!! Your own grown spuds (if you buy this kit) will cost much more than you would pay in the shops for spuds where someone else has done all the hard work and taken all the risks for you!

Suttons must be laughing all the way to the bank, selling 3 plastic buckets and 15 spuds for £25!! :rotfl:






Click to Enlarge

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Lotus-eater

Alot has been said already, but a couple of points.

You've got to remember to compare like to like. A fresh tomato from your garden or greenhouse will have no chemicals (probably) and be better than any tomato you can buy from a shop, even organic ripened on the vine, expensive special tomatoes.
Not to mention you can't buy most of the tomatoes grown at home anyway in the shops.

So that means no nasty chemicals for you and your family to eat, you control what you are going to ingest.

The best ones I think from a moneysaving POV, are
Courgettes
Climbing fresh beans, French or Runner.
Tomatoes (use Ferline for blight resistance)
All salads, oriental and rocket included.
Beetroot
Sprouting Broccolli (long time in the ground, but you try and buy the limp stems you get in the shops!)
Chillies
Chard or perpetual spinach
Leeks
Spring onions
Cucumbers

Fruit
Raspberries I find by far the best. Blueberries are also good.

Lotus-eater

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

Depends on what you grow - I grow toms and sell some, sauce and freeze some, and eat loads of them, so they are worthwhile.

Some stuff is ridiculous prices though - look at this patio potato growing kit - 3 plastic buckets and 15 seed potatoes for £25!!! :eek: (plus you need to suppy your own compost !)

I get the feeling alot of shops are jumping on the GYO bandwagon and making a fast buck out of the inexperienced starter growers.

A local discount shop I was in yesterday had started selling chicken houses (for £90, looked goodish value) and chicken food! Bit surprising, to put it mildly.
Their garden section had also mushroomed and alot of tender veg were also for sale, none with any instructions.
They had tonnes of other stuff as well, most of which I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. All kinds of overpriced kits that you don't need. Like a small bag with compost in it and a chilli seed or two. Yours for £5

I spent ages there and only bought a couple of huge pots for my trees, they were good value

leiela

I've just got a large raised planter off freecycle it's on 4 legs off the ground with drainage in the bottom i think it's intended for flowers.

like this http://www.chicteak.co.uk/teakplanters.asp?gclid=CP7oivHUn5kCFQo1Qwod0ASCpQ

it's a 90cm by 90cm what would be the BEST use for it?? i'm a total newbie i mean seriously i've never even grown cress haha so something easy that i can manage.

RAS

How many in the household?