A working Garden

Grow your own Vegetable and save 'Pounds' !

Even if you don't have a garden, you can get an allotment quite cheaply still and the more allotments there are taken, the lesser chance of a local Council selling off the land to build on.

In this day and age of supply and demand isn't it nice to know you can be your own provider of vegetables and fruit, maybe over 75% of your yearly needs ?
Not only that, you know exactly where your food is coming from and it's always going to taste better,
quaranteed.

Not only from a food for yourself angle, you can make a bit of extra cash as well. If you have a greenhouse, load it with tomato plants, outside a load of onions and make chutneys, relishes and other sauces. People love to buy the real thing and there's not too much competition. Neighbours and passers by soon get to know you.
If it's an allotment you have, some work a little bit on a co-operative and you can trade your produce thus getting a bit of everything.

The only thing about vegetable growing is that it can be hard work and there's a constant battle with the elements and pests. But it's well worth considering.

Most vegetables are pretty easy to grow and by 'companion planting' you can avoid many pests, like growing your carrots between the onions, growing nasturtions here and there because the black flies are going to like them better than the broad beans etc.
For starters I'd grow the mainline stuff such as carrots, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, runner beans, beetroot, courgettes, cabbage etc. Potatoes are great, but do need more space. Squash and Pumpkins etc., will grow almost anywhere, we have ours on a disused bonfire and they flourish.

Once you get the hang of it you can try the 'fiddly' plants which need a bit more attention.

Not only can you make things from your produce, but the wasteage can be put to good use to ie the compost heap, so you're starting that circle of self reliance. Nothing is wated in the garden !

You can make fertilizer and pest control sprays from stinging nettles, pots are easy to come by (go round a skip in a park where the Council have just planted out their flowers, even greenhouses can be acquired for nothing - look in the local ads, all too often there's a 'greenhouse for free'. It means you dismantling and re-assembling it usually, but it's only a days work and the money you are going to save will vastly outweigh the time taken.

Try seed swapping especially

with varieties. There are many types of tomatoes, so grow a selction.
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Don't plant the same vegetable in the same place every year
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Row out seeds north to south
for maximum coverage of sun

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Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. Dalai Lama

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