This year is the first year Ive gone 3 months without needing to buy much veg at all.
Last year we kept the seeds as well as eating the food, after 3 years trying this year paid off.
Weve had nearly 50 peppers off one plant alone, we had 7 plants and 4 different types of pepper. 50 Garlic, 60+ Carrots, 200+ Tomatos, 15kg of Potatos, 100+ Cucumbers, 30 Sweetcorn, 200+ Onions, Lettuce, Raddish… plus 10kg Grapes, 100+ Gooseberries, 100+ Blackberries, 7kg Raspberries, Strawberries, Blackcurrant all on a 5m x 8m plot…
Its taken 3 years from lockdown to get there, but weve not half cut the shopping bill since June… Cant tell you how much any of the above costs in our supermarket.. ive not needed to buy it… Meat, Fish, Milk, Bread, Butter pretty much all we needed.
Whilst its undeniably a time consumer of my weekends between March and May, there after with automatic watering via an App (Tuya) that measures moisture and weather temperatures, the job was largely left to itself, it was entirely to its self all August..we left the country all month, and it was a green oasis waiting for us when we came back.
its not that hard, and its amazing what will grow in a small amount of soil.. we got 20 cucumbers off 1 plant over the summer, and it was only in around 5 litres of soil (about £1.50’s worth out of a B&Q grow bag) . Its more of a pleasure spending 2-3 hours a week picking something youve grown and a bit of trimming.
Will plant Garlic shortly for next year (40 cloves (segments) in 10 £1 black plastic b&q buckets re-using the tomato soil. We rotate the soil each year).
Next up is something new, weve got an NPK tester to make sure the balance is right for next year….
my other passion is cooking.. and nothing tastes better than using fresh veg.
And finally that fruit, well weve added some alcohol to some of that fruit we froze to juice…
Whats the cost, this year i’d say average 5p per veg by year 3, probably less, over 2000 items of veg this year, the fruit costs nowt at this point its taking care of itself.. Freezer is holding the excess, pickled salad, salsa, brushetta, bolognaise sauce, soups etc etc… the hardies are in bags in the garage.. never thought i’d get that out of a south london garden.
before covid, I was Mr City boy, takeouts, frozen food aisle etc.. its worth a shot if youve a bit of space, all the above was from less than 200 seeds planted, most of which were taken from something previously eaten (plus garlic, onion, leek which are their own)… each potato planted yielded about 8-10 potatos grown… the Chili and Wax peppers simply went nuts.. weve still pulling around 6 a week now from each plant, all I did was get a little generous with Tomatorite.
