Credit Crunch Busting Tips

Posted By admin on January 15, 2009

It seems that every day we are being told to Grow Our Own. There is always an expert around to tell us we too, can be fitter, healthier and wealthier, even if we’ve only got a window box.  Can this be true?

We are big fans of grow your own, for the following reasons:

We’d rather be outside

We enjoy gardening

We like the fact that we can enjoy the fruits of our labours

We don’t mind cold, wet, muddy, windy, dirt, insects, worms etc

We love wildlife and enjoy working our garden ‘with’ nature

Fresh veggies and fruit straight out the garden taste better and have more vitamin content than shop bought veg

We grow without the use of chemicals so we know our home grown stuff is as nature intended.

We feel very pleased with ourselves (smug, even!) when we sit down to a meal consisting mainly of home produced foodstuffs.

As to money saving? We are not sure. We spend as little as possible, making our own compost, saving our seeds from the previous year, recycling and re-using where we can. But, (there’s always a but)  If you factor in the time it all takes, and add your ‘hourly rate’ up, then in all honesty, you would probably be better off financially spending Saturday morning working overtime than digging your allotment. If however, you normally spend your spare time doing something less than productive, then, yes , you will probably  save money.

Having said all that, we’d still recommend that you have a go.  Start small, just dig over a small patch and start with something easy, like runner beans. Don’t be put of by the gloom-mongers who will dolefully tell you that whatever you plant will be attacked by pests, viruses and birds. Some of it will. Some of it wont. There are plenty of websites that you can Google for advice.

We will keep you up to date with a month by month account of our adventures in the garden this year. We’ll share our successes and our failures, let you know what works and what doesn’t. We’ll also put some hints, recipes and tips on how to store and use your bounty! We also intend to weigh our crops and post here exactly how much they would have cost at the ordinary (not organic) prices on that day. For this we will use one of the supermarket comparison sites.

We hope you join us in the veg patch this year!

JANUARY

Cold, frosty mornings and damp, dark afternoons, aside from bonfires (which the neighbours can take exception to), what is there to do?

So far this year we have been lucky, the sprouts (sproggets) are still doing very nicely.  The garlic and onions that we planted in October have sprouted and are a joy to look at through the frost. The winter lettuce is doing fine under cloches, and the spinach has helped to keep winter food bills down.

Last week we planted broad bean seeds, they should be ready late spring to early summer. Any time in January is fine for planting broad beans. The smaller, younger bean is sweeter and has a less rubbery texture than the ones your mother made you eat when you were a child! Like most beans they will help to bulk up soups and stews, and are nice as a simple vegetable. The plants can be dug in as a green manure.

It’s a good time to clean and repair your birdhouses and nesting boxes. If you have any that don’t get visited, try moving them. Somewhere away from squirrels, and with a clear flight path and with food not too far away is ideal.

That’s it really for early January, get out and enjoy what little sun we do get, brisk digs save on heating!

Ned

Categories: In The Garden
Tags: cheap, creditcrunch, fruit, grow your own, money, organic, save, seeds, vegetables