A question for those of you who grow your own...

I know that money is not the only reason for growing your own vegetables, there is also the knowledge of what is in them, they taste a lot better and the sheer pleasure...but do you actually save any money from not having to buy them?

I was discussing this with a colleague at work (who doesn't garden - at all!) so he was no use! With more and more people trying their hand at home grown vegetables, in order to save some pennies - does it work?

 

Hi Aaron. I doubt I save anything, in fact I reckon it costs me considering the initial outlay. I have raised beds and the timber alone cost well over £250. Then the cost of filling them, ok, not THAT much but still a cost. Then there was the netting (Enviromesh), that was another £60, then running the greenhouse, then buying the compost, then buying the Growmore, then buying the seed/plants. I shelled out nearly £200 for composters, another £100 for coldframes, damn, I could probably go on all day ! But, is it worth it ? You bet ! To my mind there's nothing better than popping down the garden to pick/dig up some fresh and TASTY veg. I suppose over the long term the figures might well work out a lot better, but last year for me it was VERY expensive. Mind you, I could have done it a lot cheaper by not bothering with lots of things, but I wanted to put in place something that will not only last for years, but also make it a lot easier to look after.
Cheers...freddy.

 

I dont grow vegetables either but my aunty has just started to this year.

I know from what she has said, that so far she has purchased a greenhouse (not cheap) and brought all the sead trays, pots, compost, seads and everything else .... she has spent a fortune.

BUT ..... she said she spends approx £45 a week on veg so eventually she will save money.

Am not sure if this is the main reason she has started to grow her own, or for the taste as they are big foodie people. They own their own business and are what I would class as being well off ..... but she says she begrudges spending that kind of money every week with costs rising and rising.

Whereas for me, a family of 6 .... we only spend about £25 on fruit and veg a week as only 2 of us eat much of it (me and one kid) so the cost/time/effort of growing our own would be too much.

Now, if we could grow junk food, crisps and everything else teenagers actually eat .... hey I would save a fortune!! Our shopping bill is about £150 on a good week :(

 

I don't doubt the taste and benefits you get from growing your own are anything but great. Even myself, only having a few fruiting bushes, can still appreciate that.

I guess once you splurge out on the initial expense of equipment, it would start to pay? But how many newbies spend a large amount of money on things (and we all do that when you start a new hobby - buy everything you need at once!), then find it too hard work, or don't have the time to visit an allotment, or just fail?

 

Hi Aaron. I'm lucky in that my garden is a fair size, so it's easy just to pop down the garden and tend to it, watering/weeding/digging etc. Over 20 years ago I had an allotment. What I found was that if I couldn't get down there one weekend for whatever reason, then the next weekend lets say it rained, by the following weekend it was full of weeds! A bit disheartening really. After a year or two of that, I gave it up, too much like hard work !
As far as 'starting to pay', I guess it certainly COULD pay, yes. Thinking about it, I guess if you're sensible about it and penny-pinch where you can, you're bound to save money. I'd say the trick is to try to have something from the garden every day of the year, not easy, but it can be done (as long as you have the space).
Cheers...freddy.

 

The tooling up wrecks the payback.

I've got tools that I have owned for decades ... but there again I tend to buy some new gadget each year. Bought a new sprinkler yesterday because it has so many gadgets on it I couldn't afford not to have it!!

The price of Seed compared to Veg is, well, No Comparison! However, there are some mitigating things:

F1 seed is expensive. F1 crops are often bred for commercial grows to make all the plants come at once - probably not what you want and if you want to keep your own seed (and therefore keep cost down) then also a bad choice.

Lots of varieties. I see people growing astounding numbers of varieties of individual crops. That's a lot of seed packets ... and cost. Some packets will last a few years though.

Upside:

Fresh produce. Organic even, maybe? if not then Provenance is know - if YOU sprayed it yesterday you know that If the farmer sprayed it the day before harvest you don't :(

No food miles, just a few food yards !!

Grow specific varieties. There are lots of tasty veg that are not grown much commercially - heirloom varieties particularly. If you go to buy Sprouts in the Supermarket you just have to take what is there. If you grow your own you can choose.

On a budget I would not buy seeds from a garden centre, or the big names. Their packets are generally £1.50 upwards, whereas you can get seeds for 99p a packet (e.g. Premier Seeds Direct), or buy "bulk" much more cheaply - e.g. Moles

Even buying in the 50% off Summer seed sales, at garden centres, is usually more expensive than buying at the more budget on-line stores (and you get seed that is a year older - don't buy Parsnips in the Summer sale [only got one year's viability])

For someone on a budget it is worth considering the High Value Crops (value per sq.area) - such as Tomato, Leaf lettuce, Courgette / Squash, Peas, Beans, Bets, Carrots, Cucumbers, Beans - and ignoring the lower ranked vegetables like Sweet corn, Winter squash, Melons, Pumpkins.

On another forum last year someone kept a Balance Sheet. That included £100 rent on 2.5 allotments, £30 for seeds (so must have kept some of their own), £20 for seed potatoes, £40 for compost and fertiliser (I couldn't mange on that little), and a few other ancillaries making a total cost of £213. They obvious had all the tools they needed, and start-up costs already "forgotten" many years ago

Harvest was valued at current Tescos price (indeed, some people remarked in the thread that it should have been valued at Organic prices - which would probably have added 50% or more)

In mid October the year-to-date value was £1,693 and an estimate of value for Winter crops (leeks, remainder of Raspberries etc) was put at £400 - so something over £2,000 of Produce.

 

"over £2,000 of produce"
Blimey, that surprises me, I guess it all mounts up eh ? But then, was this produce something that he would have otherwise bought anyway ? For instance, did he have any gluts whereby he had to give stuff away, but still gave it a value ? What we need to remember is that when we buy it from the supermarket, it's bought 'on demand', therefore, when we want/need it. That's not so easy when growing our own.
Cheers...freddy.

 

Eating courgettes for a month, everyday, with every meal, you mean?

 

"that surprises me"

2.5 allotment's worth so its a pretty large cropping area.

But £2,000 p.a. (if evenly spread) is £38 per week. I don't think it would be hard to spend that much on Veg and Soft fruit ...

"did he have any gluts whereby he had to give stuff away, but still gave it a value"

She valued everything she harvested, Dunno if she gave anything away (probably) but that has a value to. If someone gave me veg all summer I'd give them something in return

But I agree that it is difficult to provide all the veg you need 365 days a year ... and easy to provide a whole load of veg you can't when the Beans and Courgettes kick in!

 

Interesting question.

I've never worked it out in detail but I'm confident that I more than cover my costs using two raised beds totalling just 7.2 sqm. The advantage of this very modest growing area is that it really makes you plan what you grow very carefully. No more gluts! When I had a large traditional veg plot in my last garden, I always used to grow long, complete rows of stuff whether or not we needed that amount. I use to end up force-feeding relatives and friends with lettuce, cabbage, beans etc!

 

"I use to end up force-feeding relatives and friends with lettuce, cabbage, beans etc! "

:D

 

No Aaron, not quite like that
What I try to do (bearing in mind that this is only my second year) is have more than one thing cropping at any one time. Obviously, given the relative limited space I have, I find it difficult to do that, in fact, impossible.
However, that's my aim. I have no aspirations to self-sufficiency, I just try keep the beds full for as long as possible.

 

I think we spend about the same as we usually would, but as we have just started out I think that is normal. Long term if we get a bit more space we may end up saving some money, especially if you weigh up how much you would have to pay for locally grown organic food.

 

"I always used to grow long, complete rows of stuff whether or not we needed that amount"

I don't sow anything outside "direct" any more. Everything is grown in pots. More work, of course, but I have plants coming on all the time, and I only grow the number I think I ened (I'm still growing too much, but not WAY too much). A row of lettuce is useless, I have sowed 18 a month this year (6 each of 3 varieties), based on a calculation that we need two a week (which makes about 8 of course!!)

 

Hi Aaron
Firstly love my veg patch , secondly i like most of us do not grow my own to save money i try to do it as cost efectivley as i can but invariably if you totted up the hours put into it you're on a loser to start with.
But as kristen rightly said no; nasty chemicals or pesticides ,if there was a saving leeks does it for me we use sack loads , but the taste of the rest of home grown Hmmmmmmmmmmmm