Do you think growing your own or forraging will become more popular now energy prices have risen so much?

[kirstyalslap]

It seems like the natural next step to me but want others thoughts on it? Forraging is completely free and things like nettles, dandelions, cleavers (sticky weed) and obviously blackberries, apples, plums, damsons, elderflower, elder Berry are all edible and easily identifiable.
Not to mention salad leaves can be grown all year round on a windowsill or kitchen side.
What does everyone think?

Only posting as several people (not connected) have spoken about being interested in it.

yabu - you personally are not interested in either
Yanbu - you personally are interested

@Icenii

Wonder what the impact would be to biodiversity if the masses started to forage?

In some ways it would be very little, fruit and mushroom picking doesn’t stop more fruit and mushrooms from growing, we pick the fruiting body. Nettles grow in their thousands and are a acquired taste 🤢, most plants picked will grow back (it’s actually illegal to uproot wild plants so the root/bulb always remains). The only issue would be that food would be harder to forage because someone would have got there before you.

Fucking hell, I hope not. People so poverty stricken that they are forced to forage for food for the first time are more likely to poison their whole family than turn out a meal.

It's not like proactively growing some stuff in the back garden because it's also a bit of a hooby or having the skills to forage and playing at poverty with a full cupboard full of food to come back to if you come back empty handed.

It just sounds like one of the simplistic Tory - get on your bike - wet dreams meets the hunger games. This is in really bad taste.

The only people I know who managed to come close to living of their allotment said it wasn’t cost effective till year 3 and they were there EVERYDAY before and after work in the summer. They were vegetarian and by year 3 they didn’t need to buy veggies elsewhere. It was also a massive allotment and they didn’t have children.

I grew tomato plants in lockdown in my small garden. They were all in pots so I had to tend to them almost everyday between June and September. I must have got maybe 5/6 kilos of cherry tomatoes from 14 plants. They were much more delicious but the same volume of tomatoes would have been £12 in Tesco.

the only thing I can grow in my flat is mould and I would not want to anything grown next to the A40 not worth the risk

Shouldn't even be a conversation we're having in the 5th richest country in the world.

@BuddhaForMary

Shouldn't even be a conversation we're having in the 5th richest country in the world.

Couldn't agree more.

If I had enough land for a large food garden and fruit trees I would have them, not worth the bother for a small amount I could grow in current house. We used to have some fruit trees but wind killed one and moths infested the other.

@lunar1

I grow lots of fruit. It's very low effort for good savings. I but one or two trees/fruit bushes a year as they take time to mature. I've tried to work it so I have crops ripening throughout the season.

For example, I have 6 blueberry bushes, all bought from offers when you just pay 4.99 postage or similar. Each bush probably produces several thousand berries a year over a few months. They get compost from my hens and one bag of acidic composts year between them.

I have apple, pear, plum and cherry trees which produce huge amounts of fruit.

We also have blackberry and raspberry bushes. Our garden isn't huge, we live in a city new build. Trees can be trained along fences, it's amazing what you can do with a little space.

I wouldn't get anywhere near the same harvests if I was growing vegetables, the need so much work and can go wrong so quickly.

I don't think my savings from fruit growing will save me a fortune, but my household probably eats the supermarket equivalent of £20 per week at least. I couldn't really afford to buy that much through a whole year.

Same here. I do it as a hobby (not investing in it seriously, financially or time wise), and did the financial totals of all fruit, veg and berries I grew over the last year just out of interest (weighted on the kitchen scales, benchmarked against tesco organic, because I grow organic). Was just south of £2K.

I mean, it is not a pure experiment - I doubt very much I'd be buying 10 kg of blackcurrants or bunches of fresh dill and basil daily, if not for the back garden. Or invent new ways to eat two courgettes and three tomatoes every day. But still, quite satisfying.

I am in London, with a smallish urban garden btw.

@Chely

If I had enough land for a large food garden and fruit trees I would have them, not worth the bother for a small amount I could grow in current house. We used to have some fruit trees but wind killed one and moths infested the other.

I also thought so, but with a little bit of thought it is actually surprisingly efficient. I was quite inspired by this guy's effort - he doesn't have any open soil or land at all.

www.verticalveg.org.uk/how-much-food-can-you-grow-in-pots/

My dbro used to have an allotment but gave it up because people stole from it so often. He could not store anything there, they took the fruit\vegetables but most upsetting for him they stole the chickens he had raised from eggs. So I have no doubt desperate people will be stealing from veg plots in their neighbours gardens.

@Louisianagumbo

My friend has an allotment and she grows lovely stuff but she ends up eating the same one veg or fruit for ages. It's tedious to be honest. The hours she spends on the allotment, I'd rather get a second job and buy some variety. And I looked into growing some tomatoes. They cost a fortune and bring with them constant worry of looking after them. As for foraging, I'd picking things that animals had wee'ed on. I'd rather switch off the central heating and go watch telly in bed with the electric blanket on.

Where do you think your food comes from? a sterile lab?

@Notimeforaname

I wouldn't be foraging where I live but I hope more people do get interested in growing their own. Im growing about 7 years.

I grow everything in pots and containers in a small north facing garden in Ireland with an even smaller patch that actually gets sun.
Started with one tomato plant and now grow several varieties plus beans,peas,sweetcorn peppers, potatoes, blueberries and shit loads more.

There was some cost involved the first year or two but I reuse the same containers of soil every year and collect my own seeds now which saves a lot.
And the veg tastes glorious

Well that's great! our balcony and windows were south facing and our plants were so much bigger than others as nothing high enough to shade us. BUT we have moved now and mostly in the shade. Perhaps hanging baskets may find more light than pots on the floor!

It's addictive isn't it? Compost is our main cost but hopefully have some made in another month or eliminating all cost! Agree. I never knew veg could taste so magnificent!

@Notimeforaname

But the fact is that when you cost out home gardening, it doesn't tend to save money. Especially if you are urban or otherwise have to bring in your soil amendments and such. Something like greens, yes, you can probably fairly cheaply stay in greens all summer, they are not heavy feeders, they are abundant, they are very space efficient. Same with beans and courgettes (though many dislike the latter.) But even potatoes which will give you a lot of yield and food bulk for your space - well the fact is they are also very cheap to buy

I'm an urban gardener.
I buy zero vegetables for about 3-4 months of the year and grow others for longer.
Buy cheap buckets and tubs for a couple of euro to grow in.
I buy no soil amendments and have used the same pots of soil 4 years running now, I use leaves and seaweed collected in autumn to make a 'chop and drop' ..put on top of the pots, leave til next growing season. That puts nutrients back into the soil.

I grow corn and beans and big plants like that with my recycled soil and top up with cheap nutrients, either on sale or in pound shops and lidl etc.
I've been using a box of potato fertiliser for 2 years that I got in deals for €1.50.
I havnt bought seeds for 5 years. Collect my own.

It really can be cheap.

This! And the Internet has videos and blogs and Instagram and Facebook and everything else to show you how to do it. And you can comment and ask on mumsnet any questions. Knowledge really is power!

I wonder if all of the people saying it costs money have even tried it or just heard that it does?
and the poster saying that picking apples from a tree on public land is stealing? Why would you think that?

I've been doing it since the 70s when I was into Euell Gibbons.

I should write a book.

‘ My dbro used to have an allotment but gave it up because people stole from it so often’

Before I moved house I had an allotment (can’t get one here, the waiting list is over a decade, but that’s a whole different problem). Anyway someone climbed the fence and took my actual greenhouse. Smashed the glass and took the aluminium frame for scrap. Another allotment holder had a full hive of bees stolen - apparently a hive of bees can be worth several hundred pounds?

Compost is our main cost but hopefully have some made in another month

Hahahhahahahah

Ok.

I think the cost of living rising will lead to more people 'foraging' in supermarkets, well, until they get caught. Problems with growing your own veg for cost reasons include it can be hard work, and when your crops flourish then the same items are cheap in the shops. I remember as a kid, my dad had an allotment and in the season we got sick to the teeth of eating runner beans. Or Rhubarb or whatever was in season at that time. Used to like my mums elderflower champagne and apple and blackberry pies though.

I don't think growing your own veg saves any money, especially if you're new to gardening. Big initial start up cost, very high maintenance and if you mess up during a crucial part (forget to water for 2 days) everything shrivels up and dies. It's more a hobby than an investment.

@elbea

Through my work I’m setting up a community garden and there is a huge demand for it. The community fridge we just set up has 50 families using it. I’m also working to set up allotments for the community too. There is huge demand for things like this.

Wow that is amazing would you mind Privately messaging me about it? I would love to get a community gardens set up. There was talk at the school a few years ago but it all came to nothing

I love both veggie gardening and foraging but I am yet to be convinced I save much money. I feel it tastes nicer and is more nutritious though.

Some things are more cost effective than others and some things more time efficient. I have great success with herbs, getting free cuttings and not needing compost and just ignoring them.
Last year was very disappointing, the weather was all wrong and we got blight. The year before was great.

My mother took us mushrooming when I was 8. I'm amazed we survived.

Your thread title also mentions energy prices which is what caught my eye more than the foraging /grow your one stuff.

By coincidence something set me off today thinking about hay boxes. Anyone else on here remember The Children Who Lived in a Barn? I did a bit of googling and it seems they were popular in WW1 and in WW2 the government actually produced leaflets recommending them. You could potentially cut energy used in cooking quite a bit like this. Tempted to try it some time

I have an allotment for growing veg, as I live in a flat with only communal gardens. Between tools, fencing to keep the bloody rabbits out and netting to keep the birds and cabbage butterflies off it will be years before I break even. And that's with a donated second hand shed and free manure. I love doing it and it's good to be outside working in the spring, but unless there is really extreme inflation it's never going to be cheaper than just buying seasonal veg from the end of the aisle in Lidl.

My parents go every year to a particular country lane where they harvest damsons that otherwise just fall to the ground and get squashed, but that's a result of extremely local knowledge - it's miles away from everyone except the residents of the very tiny village where my dad grew up. Round my way there are some blackberries but all on well established dog walking routes and I'm not so desperate for a bit of free fruit that I'm willing to eat dog wee.

Better ways to save would be to share cooking with a neighbour. Cook in bulk together to reduce your energy costs.

Probably not on a big scale, it’s a lot of work. I recently gave up my allotment as it was too much to manage with a full time job and being a full plot it was also more space than needed for my small family. Still got some strawberries, herbs and salad in pots in the (tiny) garden though and might try to get some peas in, because fresh peas are amazing.

I do think if you are looking to start a few things at home the best value for money is berries, strawberries can be done in pots or hanging baskets and blueberries are best in pots too unless your soil is naturally acidic. Raspberries, blackberries (you can get thornless ones now) and blackcurrants don’t take up much space either. Fruit and nut trees are obviously more of a commitment so less worthwhile. Spinach is also quite pricy and easy to grow at home, the benefit being it doesn’t turn to sludge in the fridge if you just pick it as you need it.