Considering turning my garden over and using the lawn as an allotment area.

[Apocketfilledwithposies]

The food prices thread reminded me to ask about this. I am very lucky to have a good sized back garden and I've been mulling over the idea of using the majority of it like an allotment area.

I've grown small scale in the past on and off eg a few tomato plants each year, pepper plants in pots, herbs etc but never done anything bigger than that.

Can anyone recommend any books or blogs or websites for a beginner? I'm assuming allotment type books might be really helpful for me as a starting point.

Any advice and guidance would be appreciated.

I would start by talking to neighbours who have done this, and maybe this person:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/cost_of_living/5412505-what-is-going-on-with-food-prices?reply=147225185&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I'd ask for this to be moved to gardening to get more advice. Think about how much time you are willing to devote to growing food and then preserving it in the autumn? Do you have a greenhouse? Do you have storage space for e.g. bags of potatoes and trugs of carrots in sand and a chest freezer and jars of preserves? Do you want to generate lots of bulk fruit and veg or grow some more expensive and interesting things?

You can do the changeover slowly since it's your garden and build up the time you need to spend on it. I'd start with some fruit trees and bushes, they won't need much gardening time in comparison to veg but will need kitchen time in the late summer / autumn. Then think about some perennial plants like asparagus or artichoke or rhubarb and woody herbs like bay, rosemary, thyme. Then think about the annuals, choose things you like, don't grow e.g. loads of parsnips if you prefer beetroot etc.
ETA: you could also consider having chickens or even bees.

I’m a keen gardener although my growing output is patchy.

Do you care what the garden looks like, or potential sale value of your house down the line?

Are you doing this out of acute need, or as a nice but not critical cost cutting measure?

What is your current fruit and veg spending?

Have you seen whether you might get enough out of local foraging or gleaning projects?

@KievLoverTwo thanks that's an interesting comment on the other thread! I've screenshot it to add to this one I hope the poster doesn't mind. I will tag them on that thread and see if they will come over here. 🙂

I'm curious about their costs. I could make my own compost, wouldn't be paying allotment fees, lots of seed swap type of events in my town, etc. I can see there will be costs but I'm unsure if they would be prohibitive or not. A good point to consider though!

I have time on my hands and I'm home a lot. I'm a carer to a relative who needs me.

So I'm more money poor than time poor.
I don't mind my garden looking more functional than it currently does. I'm a long term renter with a very lovely landlord so I can't see changing the garden a bit being a problem but it's something I can check beforehand obviously.

I don't currently have a greenhouse but I do have a bit of money I could buy one with as an investment spend.

I do enjoy gardening.

It would be more to get good quality home grown produce which would hopefully be healthier, tastier and a little cheaper. It's not a critical need but it would no doubt be a nice budget help with costs going up and up!

I do like to forage already. I have brambles in the freezer, a glut of hazelnuts I'm still eating my way through from last year, etc. 🙂

Oh I did this! And now run a small market garden as well. Highly recommend and it's as expensive as you want it to be really. I invested heavily in perennial fruit and vegetables which take a little longer to get going in some cases but make life much easier. And things that stand and grow over winter feel like witchcraft.

With seed swap events and community compost sites it can be done for almost nothing but your time.

I've got a few chickens for fertiliser but making natural ones from comfrey/ nettles etc is a great option. I also harvest wild bacteria but that's more because I'm a nerd than because it's essential.

Go for it!

I've had allotments and it's true that you can end up sinking a lot of money on your hobby - but some of it depends how smart you want it to look.

Growing your own produce can be much cheaper when you're prepared to thrift - once part of a gardening / allotment community, much equipment can be sourced secondhand, and supports, containers etc can be repurchased from other materials.

Ultimately, certainly until you've had a couple of successful growing seasons, your carrots will cost more than what you buy in the supermarket- but we all know how theyre effectively sold at a loss for the farmers which grow them.

I do think it's worth doing in terms of food security - it's hard to argue with the view that we're headed for some sort of war.

There are also huge health & wellbeing benefits from gardening.

I would suggest starting small and building up, maybe turn over half your lawn to start with. Keep it manageable - there's more work involved than you think.

Please tell me about wild bacteria harvesting?

I have done that for the past 2 years :).

I have an herb garden ( basil, mint, coriander, lavender, rosemary, oregano and more) , fruit trees and 3 raised beds.

I have had success with things like strawberries, blackberries, rubbarb, radishes, plums, beetroots but struggled with some other vegetables so it is a work in progress.

I find it interesting and it is also a nice, additional way to get some physical activity.

We already had a small veg patch, but have we extended it this year and it’s been amazing. We’ve saved so much money especially on fruit and salad. We have hedges full of brambles which adjoin a farm, dh decided not to trim them (they do look a bit messy but who cares!) and we’ve had blackberries from July until last week. We also planted blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. All summer we’ve had salad leaves, radish, courgettes, potatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers and the best tasting carrots. I’ve just bought a medium sized plastic greenhouse, so I can grow cucumbers, peppers and tomatos more easily.

Also like you Op, I want to gradually take the flower beds out and replace with more veg- it seems a no brainer if you enjoy gardening. The food is such a magical bonus.

@MousseMousse it's a bit of a rabbit hole but if you're interested it's worth researching Korean natural farming and harvesting wild soil bacteria/ fungal life, put simply you bury cooked rice in an open sided container somewhere with a good native bacteria and final population (think established forest) and wait for it to populate the rice so that you can grow the same strains in your own soil.

My preference is making use of airborne bacteria which is done in a similar way to sourdough harvesting wild yeasts. I tend to soak something like bran to do this. There's a great 'recipe' book called the bio fertiliser manual by Juanfran Lopez which you can buy and download if you're very interested, some are very involved and some very simple.

Id say go for it.

How sunny is the plot and do you know what the soil is like? You can spend the autumn improving the soil (lots of digging and green manure possibly?)

In my garden the big cost was:

• buying two water butts (ask your landlord if he would pay to put these in for you?)
• tools - a fork to dig, trowel, bamboo canes to grow plants against
• plant feed
• a cold-frame which was about £40
• a plastic grow house (like a grow tunnel but tall and square) to start the season earlier in the cold part of my garden

I made my own compost heap (research it on line). Do start that as soon as you can.

Put a request on Freecycle or your local allotment FB site for any spare kit.

I grow my baby plants on windowsills so I get by without greenhouse.

Can you fit in a fruit tree without shading the garden? A Victoria plum tree is a great investment, takes a few years to crop and then you’ll have bags of plums (jam or stew or eat fresh).

I also have had good success with raspberries - I got a cheap half-dead £1 cane from Morrisons in a sale and it took root and now I have loads!

This year my two outdoor courgette plants have been laden with perfect courgettes - I must have had a few dozen! One year I had a glut of French dwarf beans (which grow vertically) - I had hundreds of beautiful beans.

You do need space but it’s definitely worth doing - you won’t be self sufficient but can grow some things very well.

Ask around for cuttings/ divisions of rosemary, thyme, mint and sage as they grow so easily and cost nothing.

I rarely grow carrots or potatoes as they are cheap to buy, although it can be fun my yield is never impressive. I try to grow things that are easy to grow (easy to get free seed) and/or at a premium in the supermarket - various beans, courgettes, salad leaves, radishes, fresh herbs of all kinds, chilli peppers, are really easy. And as you mentioned tomatoes are a given! Pick a heavy cropping standard F1 variety rather than a cutesy heritage one.

Veg in one bed by Huw Richards is a useful month by month guide for a small patch.

Fascinating! Will look it up, thank you!

@Apocketfilledwithposies things like potatoes & peas are great to grow for soil health if you're not fussed about growing them for their food. And if you have clay soil, potatoes help to break it up and improve the condition & drainage

Grow your own can be so difficult - it either fails or you end up with gluts! And, of course, if you have a glut then so does the supermarket, which means that you could probably buy it cheaper than grow it.
I thought this video - on perennial vegetables - was interesting.

I think if you like the idea and have space, time and reasonable soil, and are not going to need to make any big outlays on tools or seed or compost, why not?

But I'd think carefully about what you will actually eat (no sense in growing courgettes if you don't eat them), and whether you have freezer space or the ability to preserve seasonal gluts.

I would recommend reading anything by Charles Dowding, watching his videos etc. He’s so sensible and scientific, which appeals to me.
https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/

It is a hobby more than an money saving thing I found.
I spent months nurturing some red cabbages, just to see them sell for 50p each when mine were ready.

If you are are going to grow something, either have lots of land to do so (my mum uses her garden, a relatives small holding and 2 allotment plots, and just manages to not spend on veg), or grow unusual things that you don't find in shops. Yellow courgettes, spaghetti squash, cucamelons etc.

You need Steve Richards - his channel used to be called the Seaside gardening and allotment channel but I think it's called Outgrow now

He is incredible at developing methods to get the most out of seasons and grows I think all it close to all his fruit and veg - his set up is one house garden and two allotments, with a generous greenhouse and conservatory. He gives away a tonne of resources on his website - it's honestly overwhelming how much information. His primary focus (at least in the early days) was money and cash savings so he's a good match for your aims.

It's important to note and be aware that while it is possible to save money by growing food, many more people find it is not an effective strategy for them (ie more people fail than succeed at this) This is not to be a downer, just so you go into the project with your eyes open. James Wong is very vocal on the subject of how most people are sold a bit of a con on grow your own, so worth looking up what he has to say on the subject too.

In Italy from what I understand it’s very common for families to grow fruit and veg in their gardens. They do get good weather which may make it easier but all the same, it’s interesting to note it as a cultural norm.

Remember during WW2 many people grew their own food to help the war effort (and presumably not starve either!)

You Gave to be careful with what you grow, if you’re doing it as a cost cutting exercise. I’d look into fruit trees and other fruit. They are expensive to start with but a small plum tree gives us many kilos of plums after only a few years. You could also consider forest gardening.

Around here there are charities which give away free seeds and ones you can borrow tools from. I’m also part of a local facebook group where you can swap veg plants etc..

Alan Buckingham Allotment month by month is my bible when it comes to what/when/where/how to grow.
Have had an allotment for 3 years now.

I have a year round supply of fresh salad and herbs. This summer has been amazing, last summer I grew more slugs and weeds than produce, but: I ate fresh raspberries for 6 months. Fresh tomatoes till October. Salad, courgettes, ginger, radishes, parsley, potatoes, rhubarb, apples. And that was a bad year, it rained 90% of the time.
This year I produced 3 times what I need. Kilos of aubergines, cucumbers, padron peppers, insane amounts of tomatoes, courgettes, 2 buckets of chillies, kilos and kilos of peppers, plums coming out of my ears!
I got it down to a fine art now, from July onwards I take my basket and pick my dinner, literally, pick one carrot, one pepper, handful of tomatoes, dig a few potatoes, handful of basil, chives, parsley, come home and cook it, or make it into a salad, or a small portion of soup.

Go for it!

It's easy to grow fruit and veg to supplement things you buy, but for many things it isn't a money saver. It's also not realistic to think you'll be self sufficient. (Just imagine how much space you'd have to plant up for a year's supply of onions, for example!)

I heartily endorse growing your own produce but it's important to be realistic.

Your tomatoes will probably be more expensive than ones from Lidl in the height of the season, all things considered, but they will probably taste far nicer. You tend to get a glut all at once after ages of nothing, so planning for that helps.

Salad is the biggest and easiest win - it takes little space, grows quickly and can provide you with a whole summer of salad for a couple of quid in seeds, if your soil is decent.

The long term summer crops like cauliflower and cabbages are much slower, take more space, and are available in the shops for about a quid by the time yours are ready. I rarely bother with them. There isn't nearly as big a variance in flavour between home grown cauliflower and shop bought. Whereas fresh peas and beans are far nicer when freshly picked and eaten.

Things like cavolo nero are handy as you can harvest them all through winter - sprouts too, which taste much nicer than shop bought ones.

If your soils is halfway decent and you get sun in the garden, it's a perfectly viable project.

Based on my experience you have to accept the vagaries of the season, roll up your sleeves and try again next year if something doesn’t work - last year, I could not give away cucumbers fast enough; radishes were really good (for the first time ever), but salad leaves only survived in pots and troughs kept on a table away from slugs and snails. Said molluscs sheared everything else to the ground - courgettes, butternut squashes, dwarf and climbing beans, spring onions, coriander, purple sprouting broccoli, even Jerusalem artichokes! I got one small, sad tomato from a relatively expensive grafted beef-steak variety.

This year, I have coriander everywhere, salad leaves have been brilliant apart from a bit in August because it was too hot for them to germinate in July. The only exception has been Rocket which has sulked or simply refused to germinate! Definitely spent less than buying lettuce. Packets of mixed mustard leaves are also really good for spicing up a salad.

I have had so many beef-steak tomatoes this year (from seed) that I have four litres of pasata in the freezer, and DH has had tomatoes in some form almost everyday until recently. And unlike some of the more common varieties these are harder to find and more expensive in the shops.

French beans both climbing and dwarf have been great - excellent both as an accompaniment or bean curry! And are now being stored in the freezer. Before they were ready we had lots of mange tout, and because they were from the garden, could pick them really small and use them in salads.

Cucumbers have been adequate but not exceptional like last year. BUT once you taste home grown you will never look at shop bought, out of season, air mile heavy ones again.

I also bought a red current and a white current bush for about £5 each last year. The birds tend to get the RC before I can because I don't have a fruit cage, but the white currents escaped, only enough for two servings, but worth it!

My garden is small, and mostly still flowers and shrubs. I make my own compost and comfrey feed, and scavenge and repurpose whenever I can (though I'm not quite in Bob Flowerdew old fridge and tyre territory!).

Oh and foraging is also good.

We have a local community orchard so during August I had apples for breakfast on my morning dog-walk (only one a day, leaving plenty for other). There are also lots of plum and damson trees in public spaces locally that are well picked. I don't like sloe gin, but if I did, we also have lots of those available.