Dartmouth Gardener Oct 2013
Harvest for the World
In conversation the other day with a fellow allotmenteer, the talk came around to “was it all worth it?” Now, we’re not talking about ending it all and booking a one way ticket to Switzerland but the question concerned all the effort it takes growing your own vegetables versus going to the super market.
We came up with several conclusions….
First of all, you have to ignore the time factor as this can be added to the social and recreational benefits. So starting with costs, even if you grow just a few pots of vegetables on your patio, you’ll save the cost of buying fresh from the supermarket.
Tomatoes and leaf salads are good examples of things that will repay the cost of the seed or plants several times over. Imagine the cost through the summer of those little pillows of salad. With a bit of planning and a little imagination, a whole season’s worth of cut-again salads could be yours for just a few pounds.
And by growing your own baby salad leaves, you can serve up a fresh salad literally minutes after being picked.
Dwarf French and runner beans are pretty cost-effective. A dozen well-grown runners should yield up to 10kg of beans and a square metre of dwarf beans just slightly less than that.
If you have an allotment, you should be able to produce all your own fresh vegetables, through the summer at least and plenty to store or freeze for winter. One recent survey suggested that a typical plot could save you around £1,500 a year.
Unlike vegetables that are produced commercially, you control what products you grow.
You get to choose not to use pesticides to control pests and diseases, opting for preventive measures instead. Should you wish to go down the organic road, you can use bulky organic matter to improve the soil rather than artificial fertilisers. That way you know exactly what’s gone into what you eat.
Then there is the ‘gourmet’ vegetable which could include cavolo nero kale, mangetout peas, Florence fennel, banana shallots and patty pan squash. For even more exotic vegetables you can try oca, tomatillos, calaloo, sweet potatoes and West Indian gherkins, all of which are worth a go.
Another advantage of growing your own is to eat vegetables that are not only local but in season. The other day I undertook a bit of reading in the vegetable aisle at the supermarket, the results of which read like a list of exotic holiday destinations. It was a competition on which vegetable had travelled the furthest to be on my plate.
The Dartmouth Gardener - May 2011Most vegetables start to lose vitamins, sweetness and other flavours as soon as they’re picked, so the less time between picking and cooking the tastier and healthier they’ll be. If you grow them near to the house, there will be no food miles involved at all.
To Do this month:
Sowing and planting
• Here in the southwest you can sow over-wintering broad beans in situ.
• Cover broad beans with fleece or cloches to provide insulation should the weather turn colder.
• Carrots and peas can still be sown in cold frames or under fleece.
• Plant out spring cabbages if not already done. Remember to net them for protection from pigeons.
• Finish planting autumn onion sets for a crop in early to mid-summer next year.
• Do plant garlic cloves.
General care
• Cut back asparagus foliage if not already done last month. Take care of the spines, and give the plants some mulch afterwards.
• Now is a good time to get ahead and prepare new asparagus beds for planting up in the spring.
• October is a good time for digging over vacant areas of the vegetable plot, as the approaching cold weather may help to improve the soil structure by breaking down large clumps into crumbly particles.
First published October 2013 By The Dart
