Topic: Grow Your Own - Is it worth it?

[worldor]

This has been a very interesting post. I have looked at George's website and often refer to it for information. His allotment is what I see as ideal but for me unattainable. However, if I had the money it is exactly what I would want. Good luck to you George and I bet you are a better gp for having arrived fresh from the allotment in the morning. When I looked at the allotment when you took it over and then watched your progress I was amazed at your hard work and dedication and impressed at the end result.

Cost? Yes. More than we thought. Having just retired and accounts being a bit of a habit, I too started a spreadsheet back at the start but I gave up after 2/3 years. We keep chickens and ducks too and have spent far too much on them too.

We recently had our rotavator stolen from the plot and it hurt as I had bought it for my partner Rob for Christmas 2008 and we had only had the benefit for one season. I mulled over buying it for ages as it was expensive but in the end me and my three sons clubbed together and went for it to save wear and tear on his back. Now we don't even have a good fork. ah well C'est la vie.

[PurpleHeather]

Allotments were intended for poor people to grow fresh food to help feed the family. They were an essential part of 'the war effort' too

Several decades on we have canned and frozen all sorts cheaply available. Exotic fruit and vegetables flown in from all over the world, we are assured are fresh.
Eggs which cost less than the chips they go so well with.

No accountant would suggest any one took on an allotment in the UK to save money on feeding the family but I see there is at least one doctor who recommends having one.

Stress reduction
Exercise
Even companionship


And many a treat to the taste buds, each or which is priceless.

[allaboutliverpool]

I have just prepared Sunday lunch. The allotment produce is :-

Potatoes,
Sprouts,
Broccoli
Butternut squash (stored in the attic)
Sweet dumpling squash (stored in the attic)
Parsnip
Garlic
Shallots

The lamb and anchovies and red wine were bought!

http://allaboutallotments.com/Butternutsquash.html

I am now going to the allotment, will cook it later.

[GrannieAnnie]

A friend in the development where we used to live asked me yesterday if I remembered her pulling around  her little red wagon selling vegetables  when she was little which she and her dad grew on their allotment.

She is now 40 but remembers sometimes earning $11  selling her vegies in one trip going house to house.
Not bad pay for the 1970s. That was on a free allotment of land not being used by an industry which they allowed employees to garden.

[GlentoranMark]

I didn't take on my allotment to save money although I didn't figure in the costs or work involved. I've now set myself a budget of £20 a week to spend on my site and I'm still nowhere near finished and that has been since last May.

I'm not on a council owned site, I'm on a private site run by a farmer costing £2.20 a square metre. My site costs £180 a year, nevertheless because of a lack of council owned patches, there is no shortage of takers on his land. I would say there is at least 300 tenants. I've just noticed he's ploughed another field and put paths in for another 100 or so plots.

It will be 10 years before the council offer me a plot.

[Spudbash]

A fascinating thread that shows how much people value their plots - whether it saves them money or costs them!  :)

Every time I take a bag of redcurrants out of the freezer, I get a kick from knowing that when I froze them, the supermarket ones costs a penny a gram! I had 8 kilos of them last summer, at no cost whatsoever. That went some way to encouraging me to spend, spend, spend on more fruit trees and bushes.

One further point in the 'Is it worth it?' debate is the environmental cost of packaging: When you buy produce from the shops, much of it is necessarily packaged, particularly strawberries and raspberries. Growing my own fruit and veg gives me the opportunity to recycle plastic punnets (maybe lined with a sheet of clingfilm), as well as plastic pots and boxes of various shapes and sizes. This means I get better value from the packaging I have paid for along with my shopping and, given that my local council doesn't take these items for recycling, very slightly reduces landfill waste.

But for me, the top benefit is the chance to fulfill the instinct to gather - like women in different cultures all over the world.  :)

[Wilder]

LOL! was that from checking the ground for the spuds, Kev?

My granny would have said, you caught a chill in your arse, so warm it up, it'll be grand!

I've built some raised beds and did need lots of compost as most of the soil was clay mixed with Builder's rubble. We're the last house in a block and I think they used it as a dumping ground to be honest. I probably spent £300-£400 in year one. and about £150 yr 2 so far but I want to build myself a greenhouse so I'll check on Freecycle first.

I work from home but need to visits hospitals in the southeast and go to our main office in London about 3 days a week. On the other days I spend coffee breaks, lunch breaks or longer as needed on the garden and it is a huge pleasure to see things grow and to harvest my own food.

Another interesting thing for me is I'm the life and soul of the party at every social function, I'm a people person and I honestly never knew I could be so happy with my own company. For so many years it was busy, busy busy with the career, then the kids, then hubby's career hit a glitch and he needed lots of support, this is the first time it just me in the garden doing stuff that makes me feel happy. Women particularly can be very bad at putting their own needs first, in a way this is the most family friendly selfish pleasure I can have!

I do love the fact that my son is really getting into it, and cooking our own food gives me enourmous pleasure because I was brought up in that big family enviornment where Mum shows her love by cooking up masses of food. But most of the time I'm in the garden by myself, when I want, doing things I enjoy and content with my own company and thoughts.
Feel's a bit like the L'Oreal ad I grow my own "because I'm worth it!"

[Spudbash]

Yes! Dirty fingernails - because I'm worth it!  ;D ;D ;D

[tonybloke]

No accountant would suggest any one took on an allotment in the UK to save money on feeding the family

Our 1 asparagus bed produces the equivelent of over £100 worth of asparagus?
I make approx 8 - 10 gallons of wine from fruit and roots on my allotment, how is that not a huge cost saving?

[zigzig]

There is a lot of sense in growing things which are dear to buy in the shops.

Fresh fruit, leeks, asparagus and all sorts, especially if you go for organically grown.

We are not just growing the stuff for food though are we?

There is a sense of fulfillment about it too and those experiments with weird stuff which we are just growing for fun.

Don't forget the flowers too. The sweet peas every day you can not even buy them in a shop.

Watching the insects and the birds when stopping for that well deserved break from digging.

Sticking the fork in a moving mole hill and catching one of the beggers on the spikes.

[markp2511]

We started two years ago, but only really got stuck in from last February.  We pay £13 per year per plot (we've took a 2nd this year - they are 10m x 25m plots) - we've bought a shed for £125, 3 water butts at around £20 each (I think), spent about £60 on the greenhouse (all the timber was free), money on decent tools probably totalled another £75, and around £50 on bark chippings.  I've just pulled enough wood out the skip this week to sort out most of the building needs for the 2nd plot. 

I spend around 10 - 15 hours a week down there this time of year at the moment, clearing and preparing.  My wife organises seeds and planting - I dig and she plants - seems to work well.

Apart from all the benifits of fresh air and exercise, I love the smug feeling when walking through the fruit and veg section in the supermarket and seeing the price of the stuff we've just picked.  There's weeks when we must have saved £30 plus on shopping from our plot, so I recon even with the setup costs, we're quids in.

[Old bird]

During my lifetime I have lived during some incredibly hard (financially) times.  Now I am coming up to retirement - I have never got involved in pensions or anything like that - I have had a good life and lived it to the full but I always felt that I would be OK if I could at least grow enough food to eat!!

When I eventually do give up work I will be living on a minimal pension (plus I know there are other bits to help) but equally it will not be a "decent amount".  But I have my allotment which - even if times are REALLY REALLY HARD I will not have to worry about buying food - good food at that!

I do pop up to my allotment at least twice a day to check the chickens etc and get enormous pleasure from very simple things - like seeds setting a decent parsnip etc.  When I retire properly I will probably spend a lot more time up there - pottering and the like!  I did spend a fair bit setting up ie the polytunnel being the most expensive and the chicken house - but these are lasting things which will last for a number of years.

I would not be without my lotty - I do sell spare plants, eggs  - some spare veggies - which does help with the costs and not counting time costs would probably say that now I will be running at the lottie costing me nothing.  (Having sold the eggs/spare plants/excess veggies/saved seeds)

Peace and quiet is priceless!

O B

[Robert_Brenchley]

You can grow lots of things which are really pricy or unobtainable otherwise. How could it not be worth it?

[non-stick]

Read this thread with interest. Is it worth it - you bet. The break from work stresses, being out in the fresh air and getting mucky. Something that is often lacking in our modern sanitised lives. The varierty of vegetables eaten in our family has increased and the buzz I get strolling down Christmas morning to get the veg for dinner is fantastic (although it was hard to find the parsnips under snow this year)

We harvested around 80lbs of raspberries last year - way more than we need but our friends and family are grateful and it's led to an interesting barter system as people bring us wine, recipes, beer, chutney, etc in return

We love it

[Sparkly]

Hard to estimate for us. We needed to buy a shed, a few extra flags to fill the gaps on the patio from free ones and a decent amount of timber (build lots of raised beds and a pergola). I would say £350 for the shed and probably £400 in timber. We also have a rotovator and, recently, a petrol strimmer. In addition to this the annual costs are probably less than £150 for seeds, manure, straw, sets and tubers etc. The rent is £37.

Averaging of £437 a year over the 3 years (including this year) or £35 a month. Taking into account preserves and chutneys (I never buy any of these), homebrew and all the veg we probably don't save quite that much, but not that far off. Obviously the large costs are not annual so the annual cost will come down drastically. We will then be saving money.

I don't do this to save money. We have the plot because we love the gardening, the social aspects and the creativity.

[gwynleg]

Agree with all of this - I also make christmas presents (chutneys, vodkas, sauces, etc) which are great for either supplementing other pressies or on their own. I would pay a lot more for this hobby (although half the fun is in 'make do and mend' mentality of allotmenteers)

[Jeannine]

I just  blooming  well like it  ;D ;D

XX Jeannine

[gaz2000]

i wasnt able to get things done on the plot last year,i was between homes,and other factors involved also, felt like i let myself down and the site by not showing willing....    :(

but im back now and getting things done and enjoying every second of it,and theres no stopping me

havent spent a fortune as previously stated, but.. "is it worth it?"

ohh yeah  ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)