Allotments not worth it? !!!

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Without wishing to be pedantic, its, sprigs and punnets do not require apostrophes.

I have spent money on fruit bushes and strawberries, 1 strawberry so far. Beans, I've planted several times, all eaten by slugs and rabbits. Asparagus, planted but no harvest for at least 2 years. All I've had are broad beans, which are quite cheap, and 3 courgettes. So I think I'm a fair way off breaking even but I enjoy it and I can grow varieties that are not readily available.

Newbie! Honest! I wasn't having a pop!

Just saying I wouldn't be without mine, and worth every penny!

God I feel awful now!

Best keep my gob shut in future!

[BUFFS]

Can you actually put a price on the feeling that despite living in what sometimes seems to be a constant rain shower , that you can get 49 figs to grow and now be nearly ready, or peaches and apricots that far out taste the shop stuff, or seeing a grandchild chewing on a food they said they hated but when they grow it themselves, they think they are wonderful.....really, absolutely and permanently priceless..

[Small pumpkin]

Best keep my gob shut in future!

Don't you dare! You have a lot of good thing to say

[Penellype]

I don't have an allotment, but I do have a garden. There is only one person to cater for, so it would probably be different if I had a family, but...

For the past 3 years the only vegetables I have bought are mushrooms and avocadoes, both of which I like and can't grow at home. I have had a sufficient onions, potatoes and tomatoes to last me through each year (with a little help from the freezer) and enough carrots, cabbage, courgettes, spinach, leeks, broccoli, beans, peas, peppers, kohlrabi, turnips, parsnips, lettuce, cucumbers and other salads to keep me well supplied with vegetables 365 days of the year. Beetroot has been added to the list this year, but I haven't had a proper crop yet. Some of the veg are rather seasonal, but none the worse for that. Sometimes a crop fails and I have to do without, but I still won't buy it.

Fruit is much harder because of lack of space, and if I had an allotment I would grow more, but currently I have just had a glut of strawberries and the currants (black and white) are nearly ready. The first blueberry is starting to turn blue today and there are apples growing on the tree.

Yes, I've spent a lot of money on equipment - pots, nets, canes, raised beds, compost etc, but my food bills are definitely smaller than they used to be.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Gardening has now taken over from my other hobby building scale model radio controlled boats. Now there's away to spend money with no return except knowing you've done it right and the admiration of your peers.

As to produce out of my back garden I buy very little in the way of veggies and I know where it has come from and what went into and onto it.

[Baldy]

Newbie! Honest! I wasn't having a pop!

Just saying I wouldn't be without mine, and worth every penny!

God I feel awful now!

Best keep my gob shut in future!

Please don''t Deano - its the only reason I come here (so so often...)

[Chestnut]

I agree that the financial value of the crops I have harvested so far this year don't cover what I have spent (first year on plot, so bit of infrastructure investment, and no soft fruit etc yet which would cost more to buy than spuds).

However, compared to what I might theoretically have spent to go to a gym to do the same amount of exercise(£32/mo at local council sports centre), I am already quids in!
Throw in the sense of achievement from gradually getting various bits of the plot into production, the excitement of digging up my first ever home grown potatoes or spotting the first inch of the cauliflower head hiding amongst the leaves, knowing where my food has come from, the friendship of the fellow plot holders I have met, and the free vitamin D - for me, it's been worth every penny

[veggiechicken]

I've just watched the TV programme and it didn't make me "furious". I took from it that eating Spanish tomatoes out of season used less resources than buying British tomatoes that need to be grown in an artificial environment, out of season. He didn't mention the allotment grower, with their own tomatoes during summer and frozen/preserved ones off season.
Similarly, everyone knows you don't grow bananas and lemons in the UK - they will always be many food miles away.
He made no mention of the staples that can be grown on allotments with minimal food miles.
I've probably missed something but I couldn't see anything substantial in what the guy was saying - just woolly speak.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Commonly known as ..............waffle...........

[Baldy]

I've just watched the TV programme and it didn't make me "furious". I took from it that eating Spanish tomatoes out of season used less resources than buying British tomatoes that need to be grown in an artificial environment, out of season. He didn't mention the allotment grower, with their own tomatoes during summer and frozen/preserved ones off season.
Similarly, everyone knows you don't grow bananas and lemons in the UK - they will always be many food miles away.
He made no mention of the staples that can be grown on allotments with minimal food miles.
I've probably missed something but I couldn't see anything substantial in what the guy was saying - just woolly speak.

Lemons VC - Lemons...

Rather dubious looking OAP on our site has constructed a (series of) things that look a little like a GH / polly and has got a decent looking lemon plant that is giving him a bit of fruit - he could be shipping them in from morrisons but I doubt it - he's too tight...

[Jay-ell]

Without wishing to be pedantic, "its" doesn't need a comma after it but, hey-ho that the fun of typos. We're not here as grammar police but to chat about allotments.

And of course "its" should have been "it's" as it was a contraction of "it is" - unless of course the sprigs and punnets belonged to "it"

[Baldy]

Balmy North Devon climate vis a vis 'always sunny' Cymru I guess...

[Baldy]

I'm not getting involved in the grammar and punctuation aspects of this - its far too silly for me... with that "I'm oot"

[mothhawk]

What an odd thing to be furious about. In terms of cost, i think I've spent more on seeds, compost, fertiliser, canes, etc than I'll recoup in veg, so he's right in that respect.

But spending money on those things is your choice. You don't need to buy compost, fertiliser, canes, wood to make raised beds etc. Seeds, yes, of course, if you haven't grown enough yet to save your own seeds. A good fork and possibly a spade, and space to build a compost heap, (which will compost perfectly well as a free-standing pile, it doesn't need to be in a dalek or wooden enclosure), and some sticks from the hedgerow are all the basics needed, plus a ball of twine and your seeds.

Many of our grandparents and great-grandparents lived comfortably on what they grew on their allotments. Perhaps nowadays, we are too eager to grow produce not truly suited to the conditions we have, and we are not accustomed to eating plain produce in season.

The main thing you have to spend is your time.

[Lardman]

Many of our grandparents and great-grandparents lived comfortably on what they grew on their allotments.

They were also free to spray and scatter all manner of thing to prevent the losses we have to suffer today. If Id have told my Grandfather he needed to net his onions with shockingly expensive enviromesh he'd have laughed at me, but then he hadn't lost entire crops to allium leaf miner.

Blight - no problem, spray it with a fungicide, Aphids - bit of derris sorts that right out white rot and club root reach for the ***** all of which are now either banned for shockingly expensive.

Even growing high value crops (like soft fruit) my veg garden doesn't pay for itself , but then it doesn't need to it's a hobby... a very expensive, frustrating hobby.