Growing food is not a hobby for me. Just as people planted ‘victory’ gardens during the war to stay healthy and fed, I do the same now. My income is not enough for me to buy fresh food from the supermarket. If I didn’t grow a garden, or forage, I would have to go back to work. This would not be good for my mental or physical health. These are some of my crops that are waiting to be potted on, or put into the ground. I am hardening them off. These young plants have been grown from seed in my conservatory..
How do I have enough space?
I don’t have a large garden, it is a normal suburban garden, and most of it is flagged in stone. This means I therefore have to be creative, grow in containers and raised boxes, and, successionally sow and harvest. Seeds and potatoes are not just sown or planted once in spring. Many crops are planted every month throughout the growing period, or a couple of times a year.
An example of this is that I have just harvested some radishes (in May) and planted some bean plugs in their place. Some of my rocket has finished in another box which has been replaced with pak choi plugs. New radishes and rocket have been sown in a box that I harvested leeks from. I have lots of salad leaves at the moment but will sow some more salad seeds in a week which will be ready for when these end. We therefore have a continuous supply of salad leaves all year.
I have to make the most of the space that I have and so crops are also planted a lot closer to each other than is recommended. This doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Another way that I make the most of my space is to grow currant hedges, and fruit trees, around the edge of my garden. I mix flowers in with vegetables so that it doesn’t look like a market garden. A large rose arch has containers hung on it and these will have cucumbers or beans growing from them. Hanging baskets will have cherry tomatoes growing in them. I have containers that clip onto trellis at the other side of my house and grow beans or peas in these.
I don’t have a heated greenhouse, but I do have heated mats and a conservatory that faces south. This means that I can plant crops in pots to grow inside. The growing season is therefore longer. My raised boxes also have double glazed windows on top of them which speeds up early growth. By the time the frosts have gone everything is large enough to grow outside without protection and avoid the worst of the slug damage.
Does that not cost a lot in compost?
I make my own compost but do buy between 3 and 6 bags each year at a cost of £15 to £30. We never throw any compost away, but enrich it with fish blood and bone, leaf mould, and egg shells, and mix it with the new compost. I fertilise and feed the plants with home made concentrate made from nettles and banana skins soaked in water.
How do I afford all of the seeds etc?
Every year I spend about £10 on heritage seeds to build up my stock of different varieties of vegetables. I then collect the seeds and store for the next year. We also swap seedlings and seeds, and get given seed packets of things other people don’t grow. Most years I propergate fruit and herbs to increase my stock, or to sell to buy compost. My gardening budget is £50 a year but this provides us with fresh produce, more than a freezer full of vegetables and fruit, and cupboard staples like dried herbs, teas, and grains.
How do I chose which vegetables and fruit to grow and plant?
I plant what we like to eat and need nutritionally. We therefore have the basics like carrots, potatoes, beans (3 or 4 varieties), pak choi, leeks, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, onions, 4 kinds of salad leaves including rocket, peppers, radishes, Swiss chard, beetroots, peas, spring onions, tomatoes, and courgettes. From years of trying, I also know what doesn’t grow well in my garden. This includes things like cabbages and brocolli. I avoid these.
Some crops like chillies, sweet corn, or aubergines I just grow every few years as we don’t eat a lot of them, or they provide enough to be preserved for a few years (chillies). Each year I try something new. Over the last couple of years I have grown amaranth and quinoa so that I have some grain. This year Jerusalem artichokes is a new addition.
All of the fruit is perenial. We have rhubarb, strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, and 3 colours of currants. In addition to these we also have 2 apple trees, a plum tree, a cherry tree, and we did have a pear tree but it got a disease. It was a shame as it was a great cropper. Herbs add colour and smell to the garden, and flavour and medicine to our cooking.
It does take a lot of hard work to grow our food, but it is easier for me than going back to work. The benefit to my wellbeing is immense, it gives me a purpose, and the end product is organic and nutritionally superior to the produce in the supermarkets. The taste is also better.
It is becoming more challenging to grow food each year, especially due to the weather, pests, and the poor quality of bought compost. However, the joy of stepping outside to pick my lunch, and the pride when something grows well, is priceless.
Every year something doesn’t grow as well as I might have hoped. That is why it is important to focus on the positives, and have lots of variety in different areas so that the whole crop, or food supply, is not lost. Even though I have gardened since being a child I am still learning and improving. Do you grow for fun or out of necessity?
Thanks Toni for a great post,I v never grow vegetables before but yesterday I bought a selection of seeds salard items ,onions and potatoes, iv very small garden so will be done in pots to help supplement living on a small income, iv no greenhouse but have a conservatory after reading your blogs for a while you have inspired me to give it a go,thank you
Fantastic. You will notice a big difference with the taste. Thanks for sharing
I feel so very priveleged to be able to say: both, fun and necessity. I`ve allways been fond of gardening including kitchen gardening, it runs in the family, as does thrift and frugality. I have had kitchen gardens on off over the years, but not for the final nearly endless 25 years I was overstretched at work and at home, I just couldn`t manage it, despite financial despair. Kitchen gardens need care on time, not when you happen to have a little bit of time. Gardening as such has been a lovely hobby, compatible with having children, not having to leave home to do it and being able to drop it at a moments notice when needed. I managed to have under 18´s for 34 years, so this has been an ongoing priority. Now, being retired and on my own, I have thoroughly enjoyed starting up a fairly large kitchen garden. But yes – I do indeed see it as a Victory garden, stretching finances, making much needed renovations to the house and much looked forward to vacations possible. I am hoping for much more success this year, am learning as fast I can and hope to be able to cut my food expenses at least to half of last years, if not to a quarter. Your recipies and thoughts on pantry shopping are a great inspiration, which is allready helping. I have cut near to the bone re use of electricity, water, heating, transport and clothing.
Having laughed myself silly at your account of trying to save water by not flushing the toilet after every pee and having an unexpected visitor gatecrash the loo, before you could sort it, I decided to pee into a large screwtop plastic jar and use the pee diluted 1:10 to fertilise the garden. I read somewhere on the internet, that one persons pee can fertilise 180 m2 of kitchen garden – and it is sterile, when you pee it. The farmers fertilise their fields using pig & cow pee and we do eat the crops. And there is no cadmium in it contrary to artificial fertilisers. It works, it`s discreet, no smell, no need to flush the toilet until the tissue begins to accumulate… But I do send you a kind thought and a smile doing it.
It`s about prioritising – which you are so very good at pointing out.
Yes I do put some pee into the compost sometimes but it shouldn’t be used if on any medications. Thanks for sharing and I am glad that I made you smile