Why do we do it?

[alan refail]

Last week I watched a programme called something like Pay off your mortgage in two years.
Although the family featured didn't manage it, it was claimed that they made a significant saving by taking on an allotment and growing their own vegetables.

How much is it possible to save by growing your own?

In all the years I have been growing I have never seen it as a way of saving money - in fact it would have been cheaper by far to save the cost of allotment rents, seeds, tools, other equipment etc etc and buy the cheapest in-season produce.
My goals have always been freshness. the chance to grow what is not commercially available, and excercise, both physical and mental (spiritual ).

Why do you do it

Alan

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Alan, i do it for pure pleasure, as it is a way of life for me.
If you don't take all the hours you put in, veg grown on an allotment is far cheaper to produce than to buy.

[lizzie]

You can get fresh produce off an allotment in every season providing you plan it right. Obviously, you need some luck but it can be done. I've never done it but i've seen it done.

It's the storage of the stuff that's the key to it I think. I have nowhere to store spuds etc but if you have a cool garage, outhouse etc you're sorted.

[Clive.]

Likewise to OldH'..gardening is a way of life here...

As can be seen from my current avatar I started quite early assisting Dad in the vegetable garden...and also Mum in the flower garden...and trying to fell trees with a rope tied on my pedal tricycle..photographic evidence exists of this.

My Grandfather let me have a small piece of land, former bonfiring area alongside his farm access road, for my first vegetable garden.

My next area at home was in next doors garden...which was then basically the back of a long term building plot.

I, along with a couple of friends, persuaded my junior school headteacher to let us clean up and garden the old school house garden in our lunch breaks.

Later for many years I helped some family friends with their garden during school holidays.

Work took me into the lawnmower trade at first but then, by virtue of some very bad luck followed by some brilliant luck, gardening became the day job.

So basically I have never not gardened..if that reads correct


Today;
Repaired chainsaw at work this morning..new piston. ...was out sawing up fallen tree this afternoon.
Liver and bacon for tea with broccoli picked fresh from the garden at home this afternoon. made even better by the fact that Dad, who does not go best well these days, managed to get out in the garden and pick it.

Clive.

[STEVE PARTRIDGE]

Hi, I started allotmenting if that's a word because of it's reported health benefits and to get me out of the house after my burn out/ breakdown. It's great to be outside at all times of the year, the experience of being away from all the pressures of modern life and all the bad things that are going on in the world is great. Also as an ex-chef who loved using fresh and good tasting ingredients I can appreciate the better flavours in our own grown produce as well as less chemicals, also I enjoy getting down on my hands and knees to weed and tend the soil, there's something about the sweet smell of a good soil and the anticipation of what you will be growing in it.

[Malk]

I helped my mum with her garden as a child as well, but it was in colour back then. Love the photo, Clive.

When we bought our own house that was my first thought, what can I do with the garden. It wasn't big enough to grow all the veg I wanted, so I got an allotment.

I grow veg because it's healthy, I'm too cheap to pay over the odds for things I can grow myself, I like the execise and the social side of the plots. I also do it for my mental health. Working at home all the time, I needed the fresh air to keep me from going stir crazy. Also digging and watching things grow is poetic and it fuels my writing constantly.

[Jennifer]

I grow veg because I enjoy doing it. I also enjoy eating them but is the actual growing that I get the most from. I'm a bit haphazard as a gardener and can waste lots of time watching bees feeding on flowerheads, looking at the variety of insects etc that appear when you are growing a bit of allsorts and the birds, including the robin that follows me around as I dig. I don't grow very much of any one thing but a little bit of lots of different things. I also don't grow as intensively as I could since I find that working fulltime and having a social life I sometimes miss sowing times. This year I put in a little notebook everything that I harvested including flowers for the house and things that I foraged from hedgerows. I guestimated approximately how much I would have paid to buy them. In the case of the fruit I probably uncerestimated by quite a bit but I still reckoned that everything I had harvested / foraged would have cost me about £400 over the year. (Did you see the price of chestnuts in the shops ? And they literaly do grow on trees and can be had for nothing. And are so much sweeter when they are fresh.)

Admittedly I haven't used everything yet as there is still quite a bit in the freezer so you can argue that I wouldn't actually have bought the excess amounts and so haven't actually saved the full £400, but whether I save money or not I shall continue growing.

[Clive.]

Hello Malk,
I too gardened in colour..back in 1964...but only at my aunt & uncles..

Clive.

[Malk]

Love it.

[Primrose]

When I first started growing our own veg many years ago I used to "buy" all my products from myself when they cropped at current shop prices and put the money in the jar. Against that I offset the cost of seeds, compost etc, and found that it wasn't really a profitable occupation, especially when I had to buy seedlings from garden centres if my own germination failed. So, although you do save money at peak harvest times, especially for expensive shop products like tomatoes, beans, courgettes,speciality salads, I really grow for the pleasure and convenience of popping into my garden and pick fresh untainted food. But I'm surprised how much I can grow in a relatively small space by keeping the soil in good condition with manure.

[Mole]

My partner once estimated that we ate the equivalent on average of £40 worth of organic veg per week. (99% self grown). That's got to be worth it?

This was from our garden and allotments before we went' commercial'. I used to love it 90% of the time. Now its a job it's more like 70%!

[Kerrij]

I like getting my hands mucky and then having the bonus of eating the results! (anodyne to working in IT).

[Primrose]

I have just spent this afternoon weeding in the borders, kneeling down with my nose level with the flowers in several Daphne bushes. The perfume was almost overpowering and after all the wet weather we've had it was wonderful to be working outdoors again. Only one drawback - where did all the birds disappear to during this Birdwatch week-end? They must have known about the event and scarpered elsewhere. But I did see two basking butterflies sunbathing on the fence in the sunshine and big bumblebees foraging in my winter heather.