We haven’t started growing much food in our garden yet (I will replace the header photo once we are!), we’re still sorting out the bones of the back garden paving where we want paved and removing some rotten decking! Eventually, it will be ready so I’ve started thinking about what to grow. From conversations there a three grow your own strategies we could use when it comes to our food garden. I know, strategy sounds a bit rigid and militant, it’s really not! This is very much a pick’n’mix buffet of ideas! Not only will growing our own help save money – it will also help reduce the amount of packaging some purchases come with!
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Grow for yield
I used to have a 2nd floor apartment with an oak tree and canal next to it, and a balcony that received full sun from early morning until about four in the afternoon. I had all of 2-3 square metres to play with and I wanted to grow some of my own food. This is where I had a solid “grow for yield” strategy and why it is the first of my three grow your own strategies!
You see, if you plant a carrot seed – you get one carrot. If you plant one potato could yield 5 pounds of potatoes. In small spaces growing for the maximum return makes sense. In the UK an average of 421 grams of fresh potatoes was consumed per person per week. So, I eat carrots, and potatoes, but I can gets more potatoes in less space that carrots. On that little balcony I had a sack of potatoes that saw me through autumn, strawberries, garlic, tomatoes and peas. Stuff that I used a lot and would produce or keep for a long time. So if you want to grow for yield I would recommend:
Grow what is expensive to buy
If you go to your supermarket and start looking at the prices you’ll soon spot the produce that costs. Watch out though, the can make comparison tricky by switching between price per kilo, price per grams and price each.
If we look at out potatoes from the earlier example – even for the super fancy potatoes they’re under £2 per kilo. If you look at blueberries though – £13 per kilo or asparagus at £17 per kilo. You could save a heap of money if those are foods that you would buy regularly or it makes those foods more accessible for those who can’t afford it in shops.
We have two blueberry bushes in our garden currently which, even after raids by Little Miss Greener, have probably furnished us with a good kilo of fruit over summer. So, some pricey foods you could grow:
Grow what you like!
The most important part of gardening is enjoyment, so grow what you like! If you live in an apartment but love the idea of pulling up a carrot for lunch – do it! Or maybe some chilli peppers on the windowsill. Whatever floats your boat is good. I plan to share some of my grow your own projects in the future (planters/window boxes that sort of stuff) you may have already seen our bramble we’re training against the fence on instagram.
Get planting!
As I said earlier, these are three grow your own strategies. You can mix and match. We will probably be growing potatoes, just because it’s such an easy thing to do in a small space, we already have blueberries, strawberries and apple trees, and herbs so we are definitely going down an all three route!
So what do you think you will grow? Share your pictures on This Greener Community.