Cost of living rise - help on growing my own veg

[PlntLady]

We have a fairly large garden at home with a small ish veg plot so I have been growing veggies for a few years now. This garden is mixed use - family garden, lots of flowering plants and a small lawn, etc.
I've always been keen to grow what veggies I can but yesterday after a trip to Aldi for dinners for a couple of days I am seriously rethinking the use of space in the garden. To say I was shocked at the cost of the shopping is an understatement! No luxuries in there or cleaning products, etc... just a bit of meat and fresh fruit and veg. We are not well off but I'd say lucky enough to currently not be struggling financially. It makes me wonder how ppl are coping - which many arnt, but that's another thread.

Anyway, I guess I am after some tips for switching out space in the flower beds for veg space. Pulling the lawn up isnt an option as it is heavily used by the family.
We currently have a lot of peonies - does anyone know if these are safe to grow fruit and veg with? Google is no help on this one. We also have a lot of bulbs such as irises, etc. Do I need to remove all of these bulbs and will the soil be ok to grow veg on if I do?

I think it only makes financial sense if you have a large space or focus on stuff that's expensive to buy. And you also have means to store the veg - so a large chest freezer.

I tend to grow stuff that is nicer grown and picked fresh. Strawberries, plums, raspberries. The berries can be grown in a flower bed - but you'll need to improve the soil and watch out for raspberries taking over.

I also grow herbs and salad leaves, take little space to grow, are relatively expensive to buy.

I second really looking at what you can grow cost effectively. I think it's probably only blackberries and mange tout that I grow that actually save me money. Other things are probably cost neutral but taste better homegrown. I've given up on some things (carrots/main crop potatoes) as it's just not worth sacrifing the space for the returns

I agree with a PP. If I was using my (enormous) garden to try and feed myself, it would actually be cheaper to do the weekly shop at Fortnums. So I grow blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, figs, tomatoes and then loads of herbs. At some points in the year I also swap some of the above for eggs off a neighbour's chickens. That's the best I can do with a job and three kids. In my head I'm Charles Dowding, but the reality is rather lacking.

Thanks all. I guess there is the balancing act between family life and a full time job to consider. I'm just so shocked at the cost of food now. Sticking to the more expensive fruits and veg makes sense and eating a bit more seasonally. Thinking on it, this could substantially reduce our food bill of it is done properly.

Growing your own veggies takes a lot of upkeep for a small yield as I'm learning this summer. It will cost you way more to grow veggies than buy.
Frozen eg is great and lasts ages.

Agree that it's about what you eat most and what the costs of buying them are.

The 'expensive' things tend to be fruit, especially berries and rhubarb. So they are worth growing and some will grow in borders happily. E.g. gooseberries, blackcurrants, strawberries. They will need a bit of work to keep in check but otherwise should be fine. Strawberries, especially, would fit nicely into the front of a border.

Raspberries also worth growing but really need space and send runners like crazy so do need work to keep on top of. Plus get very tall and - like gooseberries - are thorny so might be a problem if children play and might fall onto them?

With veg, you do really need some space:

• asparagus could be spotted into a border, but do need a few years to get to a size that you get a good harvet from them. Asparagus is expensive, so there are savings to be made.
• Courgettes are very easy to grow each year. They would grow in a border but the plants get big so you will need the space. They have opposite timings to spring bulbs so I see the two existing reasonably happily side by side.
• Peppers worth growing but do need a greenhouse or polytunnel. Ditto chillis.
• Potatos and onions are useful to grow but don't save much money and need a big amount of dedicated space for the season.
• Green beens (e.g. runner) could grow in a border, with a bit of space cleared. So they are an idea.
• Sweetcorn worth growing but needs a dedicated patch for the season.
• Salad crops, e.g. lettuce can grow in borders, but do often need protection from butterflies. But can save £.
• Cucumbers don't save money but do taste better and get be grow upright, so an idea.

What do you eat most of?

Oh, and I gree that it really helps to have a way to store things. e.g. a spare freezer.

Which obviously means cost savings are nil for the first few harvests...

Agree with all pp- wanted to add that kale or chard is easy to grow and looks cool with flowers if you wanted to intermix them. Purple procuring broccoli takes a loooong time to grow but 2-3 plants will serve a family of 4 for a season.

Wanted to add as well to consider water- have you got enough rain water butts set up to collect rainwater for free? Otherwise it's another false economy as you will spend extra watering your fruit and veg.

I guess I am after some tips for switching out space in the flower beds for veg space.
You are describing an old concept - the cottage garden. Try finding some books / websites to read up what does or doesn't work.

Herbs are worthwhile and work well, a chive plant, thyme, rosemary, basil, parsley. Swiss chard, kale and lettuce. mint IN A PLANTER!
cherry tomatoes. Rhubarb in an obscure corner. It can be done to augment your options but hard to replace our current diet needs. Raspberries produce well but like mint invasive. I have fruit trees, currant shrubs a veggie garden and bee hives (dh is a hobbyist beekeeper 40 hives) but if I had room I’d do chickens. Eggs sell well.

Veg leaves gaps when you pick it. A few kale stuck in your flowerbed are nice but aren't going to feed a family all year.

Runner beans and other climbing beans looks very pretty and were originally grown as ornamentals.

Courgettes are easy and can grow in a large pot ...

Mangetout can grown in large pot.

But I have an allotment and the veg I grow there is probably, per vegetable, the most expensive veg in the world....once you factor my time, the equipment, the netting to keep the arsing pigeons off and the £120 a year for the plot.

DH and I have an allotment where we grow a large variety of fruit and veg. But it's not cost effective at all, once you factor in the tools you need, and bags of compost.

What we really like is eating the produce on the day it's harvested. I'm convinced it's so much better for you than buying from a supermarket.

I would suggest growing strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries as strawberries and raspberries are quite expensive, and you never see gooseberries for sale at all.

Potatoes and onions, not worth it as they are cheap and growing them takes a lot of space.

Lettuce, baby beets and radishes are worth growing, and if you have enough space, plant herbs such as parsley, mint, thyme and rosemary. As someone else said, you can grow these in containers.

Kale! Cavolo Nero, pureed with marscapone and parmesan and then used as a pesto-type sauce for pasta.

Mmmmmmm. One of my favourite summer dishes.

I totally agree about allotment veg being the most expensive though. That's where we grow ours and it's almost daily work and has involved some fairly hefty upfront costs for fencing, netting, a shed, strimmer etc.

No idea if it's cost effective but we have 3 apple trees and those and blackberries keep us in puddings through the winter

agree with pp. to be cost effective you would need to grow a lot. and spend a lot of time tending to it. killing slugs

I would concentrate on soft fruit as it's easy to grow and process if you have excess and expensive to buy.
as well as possibly courgette as they crop plentyful, are versatile and easy to preserve or freeze.

we have 5 tomato plants and 2 cucumber plants that keep us in fresh fruit until september. but that's hobby level and doesn't dent the food budget much at all.

We grow courgettes, tomatoes, spinach, peas, beetroot, potatoes, lettuce and rocket. Along with the eggs from our chickens we can easily get whole meals from it!

Also we grow fruit trees - apples (eaters and cookers), cherries, plums damsons and sloes. It's so satisfying when you finally get to harvest them.

tomatos and cucumbers (if it's warm enough where you are).
there are some really tasty varieties that you just can't get in shops.

Growing fruit can save a huge amount of money but it can take a couple years to get a good crop. My freezer is full of blackcurrants, rhubarb, gooseberries and raspberries Which will keep us going for quite a while, I also picked a load of wild raspberries yesterday. Berries cost a fortune in the shops.

@Lovemusic33 what do you do with your blackcurrants? I make jam, vodka and freeze a few for compote in the winter with porridge - then run out of ideas...

We grow courgettes, particular types of tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergine, squash, and various salad leaves which would be expensive to buy. We have grown various carrots and radishes but the size of those can vary.

We are trying growing chilies in hanging baskets this year too

I don't agree that home grown veg has to be more expensive, but space-wise you have to choose carefully.

I've got one of those small troughs with strawberries, I started off with one in a hanging basket and stuck any runners down so they rooted. Trough is half soil, half compost.

I bought some green bean seeds last year, used then, this year, and enough left for next. Plant straight into the soil, no compost, by a home made freebie bamboo A frame in a cleared bit of flower bed, takes up 3' x 3'. Chuck lots of water at them and we have beans coming out of our ears for months.

Also grow potatoes in a bed, we squeeze them in a bit, 12 plants, dig them up one a week.

Leeks and onions sown into ground in random bits of flower bed. Rhubarb under the Wysteria. Carrot seed sown into large pots into soil not compost, always good. 3 tomatoes in a grow bag and we always get loads.

You probably get higher crops if you spend more time and money, but ours are fine on soil and water on the whole.

If you can create your own compost and also set up water collection (butts etc) this can make it more cost effective

we were lucky in that we recently moved and there was already a well established compost heap and large greenhouse - DH had dismantled all our raised beds when we sold (although has spent money on more!) and our water butts (though again has bought more), plus there was already a well established orchard with several varieties of apple, plums, pears and cherry plus bushes with raspberries, blackberries, sloes and a grapevine.

we are growing asparagus, courgettes, squash, potatoes, onions, shallots, peas, tomatoes, chillis, watermelons, strawberries, runner beans, chard, spinach, lettuce, sweet corn and lots of herbs but I know DH has spent a fair bit setting up notwithstanding what was already here and what we brought with us. We also bought apricot, peach, fig and walnut trees.

things like squashes and onions are good because they store well over winter and you can obvs use for lots of things. And berries/apples to make compots/crumbles to freeze. Definitely salad stuff like lettuce/spinach is amazing in the summer straight from garden and I’d say cost effective as you eat what you pick whereas if I buy a bag half of it gets chucked

but DH does get up at 5 to tend to “his” garden and it is also a hobby for him so he doesn’t mind the time

Another thing to consider, OP as well as the "is it financially worth it?" question is also the "will I get a crop?" question! Some things (eg potato, onion) are more prone to attack by diseases or beasties, so probably best not attempted by a novice.