Economy gardening tips for this year please

[Rapscallion]

Hi all,

money is tight in our household and am thinking now on how to plan this year with a view to saving as much money as possible in supermarket spend. One issue is that i have 2 young children and time is a limited resource.

If you were to offer advice on how to be as efficient as possible in your veg gardening and to save as much money as possible in the supermarket, what would your tips be and how would you plan your year?

I have: -
Two 1m square raised beds, one of those is filled with strawberries and the other currently empty.
A wilkos greenhouse, (this one)
A few pots of various sizes and lots of room in the garden to put them in, but the children (1 and 2 years old) have a habit of picking at the soil (and despite however much you try, a 1 year old doesnt listen to instruction or reason!)
Approx 4m of fencing i can put climbing veg against, sw facing.

[veggiechicken]

Depends on what you buy from the supermarket.
The cheapest, easiest substitute to make is mixed salad leaves - about £1 a bag for some limp leaves. Spend your £1 on a packet of seeds and you can keep growing and picking all year round. However, if you don't eat salad or buy the bags, you're not making a saving!

[Greenleaves]

As VC says, depends what you eat....runner or French beans will give you a bountiful crop to eat fresh and any surplus frozen.

[lottie dolly]

It all depends on what you wish,and like to eat,toms are not only for a salad,but can be made into a mush for use in soups,on bread toped with cheese for mini pizza,served up with brakefast ext,can be preped and frozen or use when needed,put a pasta bake in the oven,include toms,french climing beans,i find them better for taste after freezing.
carrots beetroot in buckets,or containers.

[Snoop Puss]

Depends on what you eat, really.

If I had only a limited space, I'd go for sweetcorn and a courgette plant in the bed, runner beans growing up the fencing behind the courgette and dwarf French beans in among the sweetcorn. Tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse. Mixed salad leaves, radishes and spring onions sown successionally in the pots.

When the plants in the bed were finished in autumn, I'd follow with broad beans or more peas and maybe some onions or garlic.

Plus, if it were me, next year I'd probably turn the strawberry bed over to veg too and then grow in it the same as in this year's veg bed. That would give time for the overwintering veg to come to harvest. But that's just me.

[Guest]

money is tight in our household and am thinking now on how to plan this year with a view to saving as much money as possible in supermarket spend. One issue is that i have 2 young children and time is a limited resource.

Not sure you'll save, but I find I eat better. Go on walks with your little ones. Go past your local allotments and get chatting for advice, local places of interest etc. Keep an eye out for people that sell off excess plants and veg from their homes. Skips that can be raided. People with fruit trees that just let the fruit waste (ask if you can help yourself) and preserve. Learn your wild foods and preserve away. Quince, sloe, hawthorn, chestnut, hazelnut, beechnut, wild pear, wild cherries, elder etc.

If you were to offer advice on how to be as efficient as possible in your veg gardening and to save as much money as possible in the supermarket, what would your tips be and how would you plan your year?

Beg, steal, borrow. There is a fine line with being resourceful and taking the piddle but if you don't ask you don't get and gardeners on the whole tend to be quite lovely.


Two 1m square raised beds, one of those is filled with strawberries and the other currently empty.

I would treat the empty one on the principles of square foot gardening. http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_44388.html. Veg to consider carrots, beetroot, courgette, salad leaves, spring onion, radish, kale, chard, perpetual spinach and sweetcorn.

If you have any bucket size pots (if not morri$on$ do 8 for 99p) and do a couple of bean wig wams, couple of pots of salad pototatoes, couple of tom plants and a couple of cue plants.

A 1 year old and a 2 year old. Little watering cans if you let them fill from a tap make sure they wear crocs or jellies. Or you could fill a bucket or trug and they can dunk fill the watering cans. Don't be surprised if all they do is make muddy puddles. Also make sure they are always in your line of site if you opt for the dunking route. My two girls were very different/ capable at 1 year old so a travel cot (freeads, gumtree, freecycle etc.) and a few toys if you have space, depending on what your 1 year old is like.

Approx 4m of fencing i can put climbing veg against, sw facing.

Possibly some small squash. Acorn types or mini pumpkins

My oldest 5 loves sowing, planting and harvesting but will only eat carrots from the garden. Just so you are warned G.Y.O. doesn't always get your child eating. My youngest 3 is a soft fruit addict. So I would recommend rasps, currants and gooseberries. Keep an eye out at poundshops, supermarkets, aldi, lidl etc. for bareroot plants.

Then lastly rhubarb. Great for sauce for yogurt or ice cream. In crumbles etc. The one thing I find myself doing for the girls is making jam/jelly - flavour doesn't matter as long as it is red.

Let us know how you get on.

[the big lebowski]

i certainly agree with norfolk ,people can be really generous ,ever plot has a few that plant to may seeds cos they like to share but remember to return the favour later in the year when its crop time and then everyone is happy ,you mentioned strawberrys and saving money ,last year i had enough strawberrys so me, my mum and dad had strawberrys every night for about 6-8 weeks if you think strawberrys are normaly £2 per 200 grms we prob ate about £50 worth of strawberrys ,fruit can be rather costly ,not sure how you would work out if your saving money tho like people have said what are your top 5 veg you like / eat the most of ? vc lettece idea is a good one too ,cheers

[Newt]

If money is tight, I'd focus on growing the things that are more expensive, or that I use more of. And things that can be used in multiple ways.

For me that means:

Squash and courgettes. I've successfully grown squash from seeds gotten out of bought ones from the shop before so that's worth a go. These work well roasted, thin-sliced and fried, boiled, battered, and can be made into a sauce or added to homemade baked things.

Onions and garlic. Not that expensive, but I use them both every day and when money for nice food bits is in short supply they make for good, easy ways to improve the flavour of stuff.

Anything that you can cut-and-come-again like spring onions, perpetual spinach, sprouting broccoli, nice salad leaves and such. Tomatoes and beans work well in limited space for being able to go back time and time again. Plants that you eat more than one part of are also good - beetroot and radish, for example, the leaves are good to eat just as the body is, and radishes are quick to grow. Try and see if a piece of shop-bought garlic or ginger will grow, and save the root ends of spring onions to grow on. They might not all grow to full size or to produce more bulbs, but you can eat the shoots of all 3 and if you've already bought the produce that's something to grow for free.

Whereabouts are you, anyway? I've received a bounty of seeds this year as gifts from relatives, not all of which I'll grow. So I'd be happy to send some spare packets over.

*edit*
If you have a spare £6, The Works are selling a book on sale right now called Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet. I've picked it up and it's been very useful in helping me find cheap and creative solutions to really get as much as I can out of my space.

[Guest]

At 1 and 2 I encouraged afternoon naps which meant I could pop in the garden for an hour most days childfree. Just took a baby monitor in the patch so I could hear them stir. I enjoy gardening and it is my no. 1 hobby so it was my escape and still is. Yours might be something entirely different. Is there anyone you can rope in once in a while.

Trying to do anything with two little ones is ruddy hard but try (and yes I remember what it is like so I do mean try) as they will grow and change so quickly.

[nickdub]

Probably aim to squeeze in some sort of fruit against the fence - a Loganberry may be ?

Fruit plants sometimes on offer in our local Morrison's for £2 or £3.

Fruit will mean a longer wait than veg for a first crop, but it requires much less on going care - often surviving a year or two of neglect and soft fruit is very often dear to buy giving a good return long term on what you spend on it.

[Lumpy]

Courgettes - you can get climbling version (it's yellow and I can't remember the name sorry). I tried it last year up the side of a rose arch and it did OK until I killed it with neglect. How about one up your fencing?

MFB's - Moggiesons flower buckets. All supermarkets tend to sell them off. Round here they are 99p for 8. You can get small, med and large ones. In mine I shove toms, beetroot, salad leaves etc. This year dwarf runners and dwarf french beans are going in a few.

Move your strawberries out of the raised bed and into old tyres. This is what I have.............



You could put 3,4 or 5 tyres at the bottom and one at the top. The tyres are free if you go to a tyre replacement place.

Sugar snaps in wall baskets. If it grows up it will grow down.

Join the seed circle as for the price of a stamp you will get some of your seeds.

I save tom, pepper and squash seeds. Dry them out and use them. OK sometimes the fruit don't look like the parent but I don't look like my Mom so hey ho.

Use ripped up loo roll tubes as water retainers in the bottom of your pots rather than commercial granules.

[Snadger]

Allotment s were set up for people who didn't have enough growing space at home. The very fact that you are on this forum shows you have an interest in gardening, so my advice would be try and get an allotment. The children would be a big help there and you could grow whatever you liked..

[veggiechicken]

Raps, you're in Cardiff, I believe? If you want some seeds, pots and cuttings, I'm sure I can find you some. We can arrange a meet up somewhere in our beautiful city.

[Lumpy]

If you spot any really cheap fruit trees grab them. If they arn't dwarf varieties (with the M27 root stock) do what I do and keep them well pruned to a 5-6 foot height.

My 2 apple trees were bought for £2 each and have been in the garden 2 years now. Last year each tree gave me 7-8 apples so I'm hoping this year I'll get a few more. They might not produce as much as big trees but are more managleable and take up less of my tiny garden.

Here is my latest 'save till I need them' (round the wrong way again - sorry)



I intend to grow my Q's and squash in them. I have 4 boxes like this thanks to my next door neighbour who was about to throw them in the bin. Plant seeds and cover with saved bread bags till they appear. Leave the strongest in place and eventually put them and their nursery box straight into the container to grow on.

[veggiechicken]

Lumpy, I've tried growing in cardboard boxes - it didn't work! Once the cardboard gets soggy, it disintegrates and the bottom falls out when you try to move it.
Perhaps try putting a binbag inside the box to hold the compost and lifting the bag out to plant the seedlings, cutting the bag away once in the container?