08/03/2026
We’ve now officially finished lambing and entered into an uncertain world - with the current world problems pushing up fuel prices and therefore food prices with it. With recent events, I have found myself looking at food security and planning (or planting) my seeds with earnest. I’m not necessarily a doom prepper, but I do like to be prepared, and I don’t think things are going to get any easier any time soon. If you’re like me, and thinking the same, we do have a few full size plots available.
If you’re thinking about making a veg patch in your garden, or taking on an allotment - it doesn’t have to cost a lot. The idea is, you grow to save money as well as producing fresh, homegrown fruit and veg.
Some ways to save money:
1. Your simplest tool that already own, is a spoon! Great for working with seedlings, you can lever them out from small pots into bigger ones without damaging the plant or the root.
2. Scour the pages for second hand equipment. Older tools are less likely to be stolen as well.
3. Share equipment with friends, neighbours or fellow plot holders.
4. Do seed swaps with your friends and family. Some seed packs will come with hundreds or thousands of seeds that you do not need. Buy one pack and share them between you all. Lettuce, swede, cabbages and some peas and bean packs will contain a lot of seeds.
5. Second hand pots! We even have these available in the little green shop at the allotments. Free for you to take and use. They are often given away free on the Facebook selling sites, too. Just make sure you give them a wash before use so you don’t bring any diseases into your plot.
6. Second hand books. Scour charity shops for gardening books, as people get rid of them once they learn what they need to do in their garden. We also have a plastic box with some gardening magazines inside, in the green little green shop.
7. Make the use of woodchip/mulch. This is available on our allotment and free for members to use. It’s on a first come, first serve basis. Even the composted woodchip has a lot of value - it feeds the soil and saves on the need of adding in soil conditioners, as well as mulching and keeping weeds at bay. This is a valuable time saving method.
8. Manure. We try to provide this twice a year on the allotments when time and weather will allow. This feeds your soil and introduces the organic matter that plants dearly need. If you’re not an allotment tenant, often horse riders will be delighted if you offer to bag up and take some of their dung away. Manure from different animals offer different benefits. Quite often the best manure comes from ruminants such as cows and sheep. Manure does need to be well rotted to get the most benefit.
9. Seed saving. Once you’ve started to get the hang of growing, saving some of the seeds for future use is a great way of saving money. Peas, beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes and peppers are great ones to start with. Don’t try to save from anything that is a F1 variety as your seeds are unlikely to produce what you’ve grown, and make sure you’re not growing different varieties next to each other and this will cause cross pollination.
10. My final suggestion, if you do not have an allotment or space that you can create in your garden is start with pots. Many fruit and veg can be grown in pots on a patio, or even on a window shelf. Anything you produce can help save you money and give you the freshest, most nutritious food you can grow. Focus on fruit and veg that you love to eat, and save money by avoiding the things that you hate/don’t care for too much.
Happy growing everyone.
Merryn
