Allotments on a budget

[polc1410]

Personally I prefer growing things that yield a lot and are expensive in the shops. For example I've had nearly £20 of purple sprouting broccoli off 6 plants over 2 months, and they are still going strong.

There is a risk of coming back from the allotment thinking you made a saving when you'd never have bought PSB before! In my lifetime I've bought PSB once from a shop. Its expensive because it doesn't store well after picking and it takes up a lot of land for a lot of time and needs manually picked.

I'm not saying don't grow PSB. Just saying for saving purposes you need to compare it to what you would have bought instead - that might be Frozen Calibreze...

Its like the Mrs comes back from the January Sales and says she save £300 in the sales... ...you know that doesn't mean your bank balance is £300 better off...

[sparrow100]

Calm down dear, I'm not pushing PSB as a 'must have' - it was only a fer instance ...

[polc1410]

I wiz nae upset...

I wiz jist makin the point that my other half loves to tell me what she saved in the sales and didn't save anything coz she bought things she didn't really need and would never have bought at list price!!

She does the same on the plot... PSB, Asparagus etc- none of which we ever but in a shop but we "save" by growing it... If you are on a really tight budget thinking you are saving but not actually saving could be a problem.

Thats not to say I wouldn't grow them, but not for the financials but because they test far better bang on fresh...

[andy_j]

WBreaking it down, to spend on seeds or grow bags etc, I reckon if I can spend £2 a week in the first two months and £1 a week thereafter, I'd be a happy chick.

I can get to Aldi and such no problem, so cheapy seeds will be on my shopping list this week.

I have.....

Broccoli F1 claret
raddish french breakfast 3
shallot camelot
turnip purple top milan
cauliflower avalanche
butternut squash hawk
lettuce chartwell
swede best of all
sweet pepper california wonder
onion red baron

PM me your address and i'll send you the lot. If you don't use them, pass them on to someone who will

[Veggielot]

I wouldn't bother with seeds from shop bought food, you can get cheap seeds from places like Aldi, Wilkinsons or assorted pound shops. You can start saving seeds from what you grow this year. You can plant most seeds direct if you want to save on cost although it is worthwhile to sow some in pots. You can make pots out of paper.

[AllInContainers]

Keep your eyes peeled!

Last year I went into The Range near me and they were selling packs of assorted seed. In the pack there were 8 different veggy seeds, and the packs were £1 AND buy one get one free. 16 different crops for £1 !!!!!

[Maddiesaur]

Wow, what a lovely offer andy j! Thank you so much, I'll get right on to that. There are a few newbies starting at the same time as myself and I know a single Mum there who would be really grateful for what I don't use PM incoming!

[Maddiesaur]

Thanks for all your suggestions. It really is appreciated!

I have the ability to grow a few things on windowsills to get them started and a little more sturdy before planting them up the lotty. Once I have some seeds, I'll have a look through at what is more likely to survive a straight into ground sowing and what isn't and then yoghurt and margarine tub everything else in my flat for a few weeks first.

I've been watching a couple of YouTube Playlist things, of what people have been doing in their allotment plots and though most set-ups are different from mine, it's been pretty helpful

[Jakejakeyjakejake]

Thanks for all your suggestions. It really is appreciated!

I have the ability to grow a few things on windowsills to get them started and a little more sturdy before planting them up the lotty. Once I have some seeds, I'll have a look through at what is more likely to survive a straight into ground sowing and what isn't and then yoghurt and margarine tub everything else in my flat for a few weeks first.

I've been watching a couple of YouTube Playlist things, of what people have been doing in their allotment plots and though most set-ups are different from mine, it's been pretty helpful

If you have any space outside your house I'd buy a couple of really cheap trough style planters or ask wine shops for free boxes and grow salads and the likes if you attach them to the walls you can grow vertically also seen vertical veg beds made from 2 litre pop bottles YouTube it it's uprising what to can grow up a wall


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[Thelma Sanders]

Yes, but if PSB had been available in the shops would you prefer it? Something that's only available, at a reasonable price, if you grow it - shouldn't make it off limits

[Mikey]

Do you have any garden space Maddiesaur?

I'm very keen on making the most of things, people have grown potatoes from the peelings, so this is possible. Are there any gardening clubs around your site or near your home, they are often a good source of inexpensive items. Pound shops are quite handy for potato and onion sets, also do you have a traditional hardware store or local garden centre near you, they quite often sell seeds by the cup for beans and peas, this works out far better value.

Ask other plot holders on your site where they get their seeds from, you might find some hidden local gems. When you start growing I find growing extra helpful, as I often gift them to neighbouring plotholders, this way you often get gifted in return things you wouldn't have otherwise grown.

Potatoes can also be grown in barrels if you have the space and access to barrels.

look up square metre gardening, this will be very helpful to maximise your space as 5 x 5 is not huge. Companion planting is helpful as well when you growing things closer together. You have the 3 sisters which like to be grown together, sweetcorn climbing beans and squash. The sweetcorn give the support for the beans and the squash is great ground cover to stop the weeds.

Skip diving is helpful, make sure you ask for permission mind, you can pick up loads of timber in skips aswell as debris netting. I find beach combing can yield useful extras, I picked up a wellie the other day, great little herb planter, and a bit quirky.

When it comes to growing, I would say if you are able to don't consider it a replacement to what you already spend on fruit and veg, consider growing all the extras that you otherwise couldn't afford or wouldn't buy. Salads are by far the most expensive veg by weight and easily the cheapest to grow lots of. You can interplant these among other plants as they are often picked long before their neighbouring plants really take hold.

[Maddiesaur]

Thanks folks and thank you Mikey for your long reply.

Basically, I'm in the centre of town, 4 floors up. There is a bin area out the back which technically is bins only. It -might- be possible to sneak a few small pots out there. It gets SUPER hot, a sun trap to the extreme once summer has kicked in properly. It is the roof of the shops below, hence technically we are not allowed to do much out there. I'll see if I can wangle something though!

Bar the things I have said in the other posts, what it basically comes down to is.. After bills each month, we have about £45 left over. This is what we spend per month on food, house cleaning bits, all the normal "big food shop" bits. As said, we survive but the food is boring, not as health as I would like and even more motivation to get out the house and try to change things for the better.

I did/do have the option to rent the second part of the plot, to total 10x10m which I would have loved but as you can imagine, I simply don't have £10 lying around to pay for it

[Mikey]

Our allotment association generally gives the first year free as the plot is overgrown and needs work.

Ok weed suppressant, Cardboard is great, furniture stores, kitchen showrooms get through vast quantities of it, its great for covering your beds and making walkways, its even better for the compost. A necessity for you would be a compost bin, old pallets are great for this and making borders to your beds, cover with some black plastic/pond liner works a treat.

For compost, never be without a plastic bag, molehills, and worm casts make great compost,as do spare leaves, grass clippings. If you don't already, stop throwing away any peelings you'll want them for your compost. I use yoghurt pots for labels with a permament marker pen, cut the rim and base off and cut into strips, great for labelling individual plants.

Save all odd bits of string, for tying up bean poles, old tights for attaching plants these don't hurt or pinch the soft stems. See if any local coffee shops will give you spent coffee grounds, a great mulch to keep the slugs at bay around young plants. Collect all clear plastic containers, bottles, they make excellent mini cloches on the allotment.

Most of all get to know your fellow plotholders, they will have more savvy local tricks and remember Freecycle, freegle, preloved, gumtree are great places to pick up essentials gardening bits for nought. You have to look at everything as though it might have an alternative gardening purpose, that way every penny you spend is going towards plants not assistance and aids for growing plants.

Good luck Maddie, everything truly worthwhile costs nothing.

[ancee]

My Mum used to grow potatoes from potato peel which had begun to sprout. So you don't really need to buy seed potatoes, she did this for years and always got a crop off something that was going to be thrown away - free is a great word!

[Two_Sheds]

Growing some of the "bulkers" such as potatoes

Spuds are cheap to buy, so I wouldn't be giving too much room to them.
Do you like kidney/butter beans? Cheap, easy to grow protein, chuck a handful into salads, soups & stews

people are, well, skint

I noted all my produce one year and compared it with the prices in T3sco (not organic prices, just regular veg) and it came to more than £500 (or £10 a week).
That's a conservative estimate though: because we eat "off the lotty", the only things I buy are oil, spices, rice, pasta, cheese & (for Himself & the dogs) meat, a little milk. Coffee & tea of course. So I'm actually saving a lot more than £10 a week.

What do you currently eat? Your diet may completely change, depending on what you get off the plot.
I eat "lotty" every day, but then we aren't meat-and-2-veg people: we eat 'ethnic' & vegetarian food (or "food" as it's known in our house )

Tonight is beany lentil pasta sauce, a huge pot of it, which I'll divide into freezer portions. In the summer I live on fresh leafy salads.