Affect expected by farmers in the uk

[MaMaisey]

Just sharing this article for others views.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy413ke31d8o

...and water is wet.

I'm not a very successful gardner but I may try and grow some veg after reading this. Any tips appreciated.

It really isn’t cheaper to grope your own veg, compost, seeds, time effort etc…. It’s a time consuming hobby, that happens to produce (some) food. It cost me about £7 per cabbage/cauliflower the first year I grew as I had such a large outlay for compost/ pest nets/stakes. The easiest and best was probably raspberries. I got 4 kg from a plot 4m x 2m and they freeze well. Also corn on the cob is incredibly easy. Peas, beans, Tomatoes, cucumber are also easy but go for the more unusual varieties or you feel totally betrayed when they are in season and cheap as chips in the shops. But yeah, it’s not cheap to get started. Very rewarding though!

Maybe freeze some vegetables? Are we supposed to start prepping? I've still got tins from SARs that didn't get eaten during covid.

Thank you GreenGodiva, I agree it's expensive. I did try before so I do still have things to get started. My failure was remembering to water them. Any tips on that. Food is so expensive now. Even a little saving helps.
Pine, I'm more trying to lower my outgoings. I always have a rotation of things we use but I still like to have fresh ingredients aswell. I dont think there will be a shortage I'm just trying to buffer myself from price increases.

I'm 99% vegan, live alone, and am in the process of starting a veg garden from scratch at my new house. I've had allotments in the past and it's a bit daunting to think of starting again with an uncultivated plot.

I've decided to concentrate first on food that doesn't take much room, is easy to grow, will complement my deep pantry stored foods in a crisis, stands a chance of being productive enough, and that I like (this last bit is important!) I've chosen things like courgettes (a dwarf bush variety), ruby chard, kale (cavolo nero, and a cottager's variety), salad crops like a lettuce seed mix that will work for salad leaves or for fully grown lettuce if I let them grow on, and corn salad and miners lettuce for later in the year and overwintering - the kale should be good for that too. I do have a few other plans for veg but I'm going to focus on the leafy greens (and courgettes) first.

Easy to grow flowers like nasturtiums, calendula and borage are very pretty added to salads and great for pollinators. They are all self seeders but can be kept under control (in my experience). It's also possible to infuse calendula petals in sunflower oil to make a golden coloured oil with supposed healing properties, so possibly good for skin problems, and great for massage. I have a just-out-of-date bottle of sunflower oil that I'm going to save to experiment with later in the year.

I like the fun of growing tomatoes. Luckily we've built up a stash of pots over the years, so always have some to hand. Compost wise, I reuse what I can from old plants (taking out roots) and a little compost from our compositor, so very little fresh compost. I did get green fly one year, but luckily I get away without using plant feed. Obviously these are very much seasonal, but I rarely have to buy tomatoes June-September (I grow one of each kind, buying them as baby plants). So about £6.50 on plants, a little soil and this gives us enough for one packet or so a week. DH likes growing spinach, easy but he had to buy a large wooden high tub, and then make a cover to keep the birds off.

I tried peppers last year, only managed to grow three.

Also, interested to know if anyone has any recommendations for something easy to grow in pots (or poor quality soil as I could find a patch of that), and not too expensive.

Sadly most foods are going to go up due to transport and cost of packaging, but then it'll be fruit and veg that take the impact.

If you want to grow veg, pick the veg we mostly import and that isn’t crazy cheap in the shops usually.

We grow blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, figs and various other berries because they cost a fortune.

For veg I focus on stuff we eat in volume - courgettes, green beans, squash. I don’t bother with tomatoes because I buy tinned in bulk and blight got my last attempt anyway. Perpetual spinach also works well for us. I can also sometimes do aubergine.

I can do it cheap because I’m picky about which seeds I bother to buy/try. But think carefully about where you’ll plant - set up of raised beds costs a fortune, so you’ll probably just want to use ground level plots if you’re worried about cost.

Alternatively, just buy chest freezers and bags of frozen veg. Sprouts, beans, broccoli, cauliflower and the like all freeze well
and it’s less hassle (no fighting the slug armies or caterpillars) and still cheap to buy them.

Look for a water butt cheap/free and set up a basic timed irrigation system. But more money! Affirmatively set an alert on your phone to water every evening/morning.

I’m going to be making a lot more veg heavy soups.Marrow fat peas, beans and lentils are dirt cheap and great for protein so will be increasing the ratio in my meals for soups, chilli’s, curries etc. and a bigger on simple meals like egg and beans on toast, toastie with soup, egg chips and beans. Definitely going to be utilising my local food waste place as they do 10 fruit and veg for £2 and free bread every day. I can shop there twice a week without issue and in the summer I’ll be jamming/preserving all the fruit that’s a bit past its best. But I love cooking and preserving. I will 100% have my greenhouse filled to the rafters to and plenty of salad on the go. I also ferment cabbage and other veg and try to eat it daily. Great for the gut and very cheap.

I’ll be turning my central heating off at the end of the month and it won’t go back on until 1st October at the very earliest. I’ve intentionally bought loads of warm socks, oodies, fleece and electric blankets etc so we can make do with those through the next 6 months if there is a cold spell. I’ve also gone 100% back to bar soap and it’s saved a fortune and it lasts longer. I only use Aldi/lidl laundry stuff. Just trying to save 5-10% a week

We grow peas, french beans, broad beans, garlic, various lettuces, spinach, chard, parsley, coriander, lovage, chives, pumpkins, rhubarb, raspberries and gooseberries.

This selection is after many years of trying and failing with some crops and being successful every year with others.

Some plants will grow from seeds you save from bought veg, such as pumpkins and squashes.

Leafy veg grow really quickly if you want to see fast results!

My husband grows enough potatoes that took us up until the end of January.
we give a lot to our grown up children.
Things we grow are rhubarb, peas, mangetout, leeks, spring onions, onions, garlic, some carrots that are hit and miss. Lots of lettuce and salad leafs, courgettes, peppers and tomatoes. But we have a second hand greenhouse and it is his hobby to grow things. I do the tomatoes and will probably do cucumber. I had quite a lot of peppers late in the season so froze them in bags and had enough to do most of the winter. Tomatoes were cooked and blitzed for sauces and frozen. We kept most of our family and friends with a supply of leeks. We are big soup makers. We grew some swede and cabbages too. Cauliflower were very small. This year we planted asparagus. We saved a lot of money growing the veg. Nothing nicer than picking peas and eating them out the pod.
Some of our seeds are a few years old and still germinate.

Thanks for all your tips. Very helpful. I will give it a go. I'll definitely follow the advice of setting an alarm. Does anyone know if anything edible grows well in shaded areas?

My redcurrants, blackcurrants and gooseberries all grow in the shade of a fence and are fine. Same with the rhubarb and blackberries.

Growing herbs saves lots of money. A basil plant from the supermarket can last for months. Grow chives, rosemary, thyme, mint, dill - these are all very easy.

I grow fresh herbs which does save money as easy to grow and expensive to buy.

Pineneedlesincarpet - I'd say it never does any harm to have a few extra items in, BUT only get things that you'd regularly, ie I make a lot of homemade pasta sauce from tinned tomatoes, so having a few of these in hand before prices go up. For me, a backup of frozen peppers and onions as well, as I often cook them.

Grocery wise a lot of things will go up a small amount due to fuel costs which we can't get away from, then fruit and veg, and then products which have a long shelf life as they'll be an impact on grains for cereals, cost of packaging. I read dairy and meat will be impacted sooner rather than later. However, there's only so much we can do due to storage/cost of bulk buying now.

Good ideas.

My main concern is power outage having had the pleasure of no power for a week due to Storm Arwen. So stuff I can cook on the woodburner that doesn't take too long. I do enjoy a good prep in theory but the prospect of a prolonged period of power cuts is a bit too 1970s for me.

I have been thinking of planting a herb garden actually anyway. Should it be in sunlight or shade and what type of soil as I have wet parts and dry parts!

Interesting thread. If there are any fruit or veg that you use on a regular basis and freeze, I guess it doesn't hurt to freeze some - thinking more about availability, some veg we're in short supply in our local supermarket last year.

We've always got candles, tealights, matches and batteries, but thinking I should check how many - luckily we can use throughout the year even if not needed for an emergency.

My friend has an allotment and said that for that reason she isn’t worried. But unless she sleeps there with a loaded .22 by her side, I don’t think it will help much. People will nick stuff and a locked gate won’t put them off

Don’t buy seeds get them out of food you have already bought!

plant any potatoes/onions which are looking past their best or have started sprouting.

often you don’t need compost an stuff and it will just grow in the ground.

make sure you harvest seeds from stuff that does grow for the following year!

Yes not cheaper but having veg in the garden that I can cook and freeze probably means fewer trips by car to the supermarket.
I still have leeks and parsley and after the effort of growing veg you waste nothing!

OP, I grow my own veg and it is worth it if you choose the right veg.

No point in growing carrots, peas or spuds because the retail cost is low. Choose summer veggies you like and eat a lot of. As a beginner, buy a few cheap grow bags from a DIY shop. Buy two tomato plants, one or two chilli plants, two courgette plants and two cucumber plants from the market. Don't bother with seeds.

Buy some 10" plastic pots off the internet. Plus some Tomorite and some 2m bamboo canes.

Put each plant in its pot in a mix of compost and garden soil, or in a growbag. Protect them from frost and cold winds - put them against a south facing or sunny wall, and then remember to water them every day. When they get tall, tie them carefully to bamboo canes.

In a good summer that would keep us in tomatoes, chillies, courgettes, cucumbers etc from June 1 until the first frost.

Mediterranean herbs - oregano, coriander, rosemary, sage, thyme etc like full sun and gritty well drained soil.

Mint, parsley, tarragon will cope with part sun/part shade and like more water and richer soil.

Most will be ok as long as they get some sun and some moisture.

We've had slabbed rented gardens so experimented with pots. Runner beans work well in big pots. (Cheap in Asda etc this time of year.)

Make your own compost of you have a garden from garden waste and veg scraps.