Don’t rely on plug vegetables this summer.

Here in the UK there is a distinct lack of plug or small vegetable plants.  Our local nursery usually has lots of peppers, tomatoes, beans, peas and sweet corn plants at this time of year.   This year there were very few and those that were there, were really expensive.  Two years ago they sold a large tomato plant for 99p each.   This year they were £2.20 for a small, unhealthy looking plant. Lidl advertised some vegetable plugs the other week, but they must have gone quickly as we didn’t see them.  If you are wanting to be frugal or grow a garden for food this year,  I would sow your own seeds.    I would not rely on plug vegetables this season. It might be a bit of a risk to leave it, and it be too late, especially with things like peppers that need sowing early.

Apparently the bad weather and flood in Spain (lots of green houses lost), and the new EU import regulations, restrictions and tariffs, are impacting on deliveries of plug plants according to my local garden centre.  I don’t often buy them this way unless my own plants don’t germinate, or I want to try growing something new like an aubergine, as I did one year.  It works out a lot cheaper to sow my own, especially when I saw the price of the plants today. 10 broad bean plants were £3.69.  Last year they were £1.39.  Growing your own garden can save you so much money on your food budget, and it is also healthier as your food has no sprays or preservatives on it.

Seeds can be expensive, especially if you only have a small growing area.  We often share seedlings with a friend, or relatives, to cut the cost.  I also plant seeds from supermarket vegetables (or from the waste food project), especially tomatoes and peppers.  We have a plant swop group in our local area that I managed to swap some of my spare tomato plants for flowers last year.  Some years I have done car boot sales and managed to sell lots of tomato, strawberry, or courgette seedlings.  Therefore, do not give up if you can’t find any small vegetable plants at your supermarket or in a garden centre.  Hopefully there may be some elsewhere.

I save my own seeds as I usually buy heritage seeds. This keeps my costs down. It was noticeable last year that small vegetable plants were scarce, but it does seem worse this year.  Hopefully as the weather gets warmer, there will be more for sale.  It is still cold up here in Yorkshire and so I start all of my seeds off on a warm mat in a bedroom, and then transfer them to my conservatory as they get larger, and then to my unheated greenhouse over the next 3 months.  I don’t have any grow lights.  Last year I planted seedlings in a raised box at the end of March, and put an old double glazed window on top.  That worked well.

I haven’t sown a lot yet.  I have tomatoes, 2 kinds of beans, peppers, lettuce, spinach and rocket that have germinated so far.  I will be planting pak choi, peas, and courgette over the next couple of weeks.  My garlic is in the garden, my onions in pots in the greenhouse, and I also have a couple of buckets of potatoes in the green house.  It is still early, but by sowing early and then continuously sowing some crops, I have a good selection of food to eat.  I do not have to rely on the supermarket.

I have also started harvesting wild garlic from the wild now that it is ready.  This adds lots of flavour to my food.  I preserve it for winter use by dehydrating it into a powder, and by making it into a pesto and freezing it.  It makes nice hummus that will freeze too.  The most useful thing that I made with the wild garlic was the flavoured salt.

If you have not sown your own seeds before this old blog about sowing might help.  I will also link some more blogs about growing below that you might find useful.  How are you doing with your seed sowing and growing?

Am I sowing my seeds right?

Growing food without a garden