Confused.com’s Money-Saving Hints – Grow Your Own!

Publication Date: Sunday, June 01, 2008

Are you feeling the pinch of rising living costs? It’s difficult not to. Even putting food on the table is a costly business nowadays. Although it doesn’t have to be… Have you considered growing your own food as a cheaper alternative to popping down the shops? As well as being a nice money saver, there is a certain satisfaction in eating food that you have lovingly produced yourself. So here are some Confused.com tips for budding horticulturalists…

Plan your patch

When you grow veg, you should ideally plant them in a sunny yet sheltered spot, with good drainage and ideally slightly limey soil. Plus, if you plant the seeds in slightly raised beds, you should be able to tend to them from all sides.

Unless you have a big ole’ plot with space to spare, it’s an idea to be strategic with your vegetable planning. You may not be able to fit in all the veg you want in your garden – so prioritise which vegetables you use most, like best, or are likely to save you the most money. For example, onions and potatoes take up a lot of space, and yet are cheap to buy, so they should be the first to go if you have to economise with space.

With most vegetables, the plants do not like being grown in the same spot year on year. This will increase the likelihood of disease, insect problems and reduced performance. To this end, it’s a good idea to set up some system of crop rotation. Ideally there would be five sections, to allow four vegetable groups to be rotated, with a year in which the section is left fallow in order for the soil to recover. However, most plots aren’t big enough for this, so three or four sections are more realistic. Divide the sections equally, and rotate the following groups:

It’s worth paying attention to the seasons. Your seed packets should tell you the optimum times to plant that particular vegetable. Also be sure not to sow too early in the year, as exposure to frost can severely impede the growth of your veg.

Give them a bit of TLC

Plants need heat, light, moisture and food to survive – so be sure not to deprive your little ‘uns of any of these things, otherwise they may start to flag. Also, be sure to weed regularly, as otherwise the weeds will compete with your plants for light, moisture and food. If the weeds have gone to seed, you should burn them or put them in the bin. Don’t put them straight into your compost, otherwise they may germinate after you’ve spread the compost around.

As you remove nutrients from the regular cycle by removing the vegetables or pulling the plants altogether, you want to replenish them with the right foods. Bonemeal is very good for newly planted vegetables, as it replaces any phosphorus depleted from the soil. And before and during flowering, you can use potash or tomato feed to ensure the plants have a good amount of potassium, which will encourage flowering and the bearing of fruit – this is particularly good for chillies and peppers and suchlike. You can also replenish potassium by dissolving bonfire ash in water. Also if leaves seem too yellow, it means they are lacking nitrogen, which can be replenished by adding lawn feed.

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Window boxes

What if you don’t have a garden at all? All is not lost! There’s plenty of good stuff that can be grown indoors that should save you a few quid. Lovely fresh herbs are a welcome addition to countless meals, give rooms a nice bit of colour, and a ready supply is a lot more cost effective than buying fresh herbs from the supermarket, which usually perish pretty quickly. Nice flavourful herbs like basil, chives, oregano, and rosemary can be grown indoors. A lot of herbs are of Mediterranean origin, and hence like a lot of light – so near south-facing windows is best. Herbs like rocket, red mustard and French parsley will grow in darker areas.

You’re not just limited to herbs either… You can grow all sorts of vegetables in tubs in your house, such as chillies, tomatoes, garlic… all sorts! The first time you grow veg in tubs, you can fill them most the way with new multi-purpose compost. Scatter the seed thinly onto the surface, and then cover with about a centimetre of sieved compost.

Ensure the tubs have drainage holes at the bottom - obviously you will also need some kind of drip-tray. Also ensure that the compost stays moist, but never becomes waterlogged. Feed the plant two times a week with soluble fertiliser. Fruit-producing plants like chillies can also be given tomato feed when they first begin to flower.

The tubs should be kept somewhere light and sheltered. If the light only comes from one direction, then turn the tub daily.

The seeds will germinate at different times according to the variety, so check the packet and be patient. And when your plant finally bears delicious fruit, then pluck, wash, chop, add to your meal, and enjoy!

Confused.com Fact Of The Day:

Did you know that when people try to distinguish between fruit and vegetables, they are performing a fruitless task? This is because ‘fruit’ is a botanical term, but ‘vegetable’ is a culinary term. Therefore several foods are botanically fruits, but are treated as vegetables for the purposes of cooking – such as aubergines, peas and cucumbers. So if somebody asks you “Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?” – you can correctly answer that it is both!

For more hints, check out our Confused.com garden tips article here.

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