Self-sufficient vegetable growing...

[RedvGreen]

Wanting to lessen our footprint on the world, we are looking to see how sustain we can become when it comes to food.

If we can grow our own herbs and maybe one or two vegetables - then that is making a difference, regardless of how small it may appear. The plan however, relies upon finding a fairly hardy plant that can grow pretty-much all year round, and isn't too fussy when it comes to weather as our back garden gets parched in Spring/Summer, deluged in Autumn, and becomes a tundra in Winter.

Any recommendations?

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Wanting to lessen our footprint on the world, we are looking to see how sustain we can become when it comes to food.

If we can grow our own herbs and maybe one or two vegetables - then that is making a difference, regardless of how small it may appear. The plan however, relies upon finding a fairly hardy plant that can grow pretty-much all year round, and isn't too fussy when it comes to weather as our back garden gets parched in Spring/Summer, deluged in Autumn, and becomes a tundra in Winter.

Any recommendations?

it's a pointless exercise which will end up costing you more money than you can buy the veg for.

things which are easy to grow are:

garlic
onions
potatoes
carrots
mint - this grows like weeds and will spread like wildfire. put in a contained space away from all other earth it can spring onto.

basically everything that is already cheap in the supermarkets.

 

[bloodiedathame]

It's satisfying growing your own veg.

You're not then buying veg that has been shipped half the way across the world.

You know exactly how it's been grown, no pesticides etc.

You'll end up eating more veg, and working out ways to cook and store it so as not to throw your hard work away.

 

[chroniclard]

Brexit doom day prepper?

All the American nutjobs grow algae for zombie apocalypse prep.

 

[d_brennen]

I grow strawberries (containers), cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, potatoes and a selection of lettuce. Also harvest blackberries to make jam but they grow on common ground. Everything gets eaten or given to friends/family. Looking into hydroponics too, Jeb Gardener on YouTube is hilarious

Not for any particular reason but it's something fun to share with the little one, couldn't live off it or even make a sizable dent in the food bill

 

[Squid Vicious]

mint - this grows like weeds and will spread like wildfire. put in a contained space away from all other earth it can spring onto.

I have a healthy crop of both mint and chives growing in-between the bricks in the patio

To the OP...
Courgettes, tomatoes (cherry are easy to ripen outside and bush varieties don't take much space) and even cucumbers (outdoor variety) are all pretty easy to grow in containers and will give you a good supply over the summer months and into autumn.

A patch devoted to garlic can easily keep you in a good supply - I still have Picardy Wight and Mersley Wight harvested in June last year that'll last until spring this year in storage, just in time for the next crop to be ready.

Shallots that grow into a cluster, you'll get 5-9 shallot off a single plant and so can get a plentiful supply in summer - and again they last well and are perfect for pickling.

Pea's planted in early to mid spring are ready in early summer and can give you a good supply if you freeze them down.

Kale and perpetual spinach also both do well in a raised bed and you can continue to take leaves from the plants throughout the year (watch out for cabbage white butterfly's and their caterpillars - they LOVE kale )

Oh.. and chilli plants, you must have some chilli's

 

[Steampunk]

Any recommendations?

The last couple of years my wife has become a veg-growing mad scientist. She started with a book called "Square Metre Gardening", which is a good way to grow varied things in a small space. It will be more expensive, but the taste of stuff is amazing because things are properly ripened, and you get to try things that the shops just don't stock.

We made some raised beds, but she also grows a lot of stuff in grow bags. They are easy to move around, and for things like potatoes you can just keep topping them up with soil and rolling the sides up and you end up with a bag full of potatoes.

You are going to have to do some prep. That means the right soil and drainage for what you want to grow, and taking time to water when it's hot in the summer. You have to put the time and effort in, it's something you have to enjoy or do as a hobby, else you're just going to kill a load of plants.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

It's satisfying growing your own veg.

You're not then buying veg that has been shipped half the way across the world.

You know exactly how it's been grown, no pesticides etc.

You'll end up eating more veg, and working out ways to cook and store it so as not to throw your hard work away.

i can bet you a million pounds you will already have a locally grown veg store near you.

https://glasgowlocavore.org/

this does veg baskets, etc which change every week. it depends on the time of year, etc what you get. all local produce.

these are everywhere now. but people like convenience of supermarkets so don't know these things exist

 

[bloodiedathame]

i can bet you a million pounds you will already have a locally grown veg store near you.

https://glasgowlocavore.org/

this does veg baskets, etc which change every week. it depends on the time of year, etc what you get. all local produce.

these are everywhere now. but people like convenience of supermarkets so don't know these things exist

We do get a local community farm seasonal veg box every week. I'm not really up for harvesting turnips and sprouts in this weather.

 

[Tony Edwards]

Bean sprouts or just sprouting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting can be done indoors and is easy as hell.

Does require seeds/beans though so not so sure about the carbon footprint if Im honest.

 

[cheesyboy]

Whatever you grow, I'll trade you some apples and plums for some of it. We've got 3 apple trees, two plum trees, and a greengage tree. The greengage tree has only fruited more than a token 3 or 4 fruits one year out of the 6 summers we've been here, and the plums have been lean (though still more than we eat) after late frosts the last two years, but there's always a **** tonne of apples, that we never get though.

From what I hear, courgettes are a good one - couple of plants will give you as much as you can eat. And I remember from childhood how nice freshly grown new potatoes are.

 

[BigBoy]

We grew Courgettes and Cucumbers year before last, two plants each produced 100 fruits and various sizes some very small others marrow size. This year we grew Bell Peppers and Aubergines (perfect for the hot summer we had) 6 plants of each and had 30 Peppers (supermarket size) and 15-20 Aubergines (6 inches long and 2 inches thick) they were on pots on the patio in direct sun most of the day, aubergines I think would have done better in grow bags and spread out a bit more. We also have three raspberry canes, one early, one mid season and one late season, they have done very well and produced a steady stream of berries from May until November, Enough to keep my 3 year old happy. We also have an apple tree its young and didn't do very well this year. Lastly we have a rhubarb crown that has fruited like mad this year and sill have loads in the freezer. Forgot about the Strawberries, didn't crop that well this year, had 6 plants but three died due to over watering, even in the high hears we had this year you can still over water!! But that said the three that remained have now sent out so many runners the tubs are full again and have other pots and backup full of plants too!

I'm a fairly confident gardener, my grand parents had market gardens and produced fruits and veg all summer long for local restaurants along with the half acre orchard we were always busy in our summer holiday! I've slowly been teaching the wife how to go about things and trying to get the best out of the garden we have, but without turning half of it to a veg plot we wont be getting much more I dont think.

MY local council are offering allotment places at the moment and I'm very tempted but dont think I could spare the time to make the best use of it

 

[200sols]

it's a pointless exercise which will end up costing you more money than you can buy the veg for.

Well supermarket veg has no taste, and the quality of homegrown is much better. Gardening also has other health benefits, like getting you outside and keeping fit and does wonders for mental health. I have an allotment, its hard work but worth it for me. Eating even something like a carrot you have grown yourself is infinitely more rewarding than buying a supermarket carrot

 

[BigBoy]

Well supermarket veg has no taste, and the quality of homegrown is much better. Gardening also has other health benefits, like getting you outside and keeping fit and does wonders for mental health. I have an allotment, its hard work but worth it for me. Eating even something like a carrot you have grown yourself is infinitely more rewarding than buying a supermarket carrot

This all day long, so much satisfaction eating something you have grown and 100x more flavour than supermarket force grown stuff.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

The difficulty is trying to grow enough variety across the seasons.
As an allotment holder this is always the challenge.

Can you freeze things, this makes it easier. What i would consider good value in space vs price vs ease.

Potatoes. The bags of peat etc is a great idea, or big planters. You can grow these most of the year. 10-12 weeks for ripening. Dont allow the soil/peat to become too overworked or at any sign of scab etc completely renew for fresh.
Runner beans, if you can make a spiral or triangle or something. Hungry plants but if you get them growing around 10 beans worth of plants will feed a couple of people from July - Sept or so.
Corgettes as mentioned, again vigorous so 1 plant is probably enough, they grow super quick as they are mainly water. They do spread though so you need to be able to tie them up.
Garlic, Super easy, now is the time to plant. Just buy a supermarket one if you want to try, plant them pointy side up, about 2-3 inches deep. They need water till the tops start to dry out then stop.
Onions really need space so I wouldnt unless you have plenty, they are cheap anyway.
Peas can be ok, if you buy mangetout type you can pick them small but if you miss any then let them get big and treat as normal peas. A bit space dependent.

As far as salad type stuff, tomatos, lettuce, radish, spring onions all easy, problem is all around the same time. You can get winter lettuce etc as well.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Well supermarket veg has no taste, and the quality of homegrown is much better. Gardening also has other health benefits, like getting you outside and keeping fit and does wonders for mental health. I have an allotment, its hard work but worth it for me. Eating even something like a carrot you have grown yourself is infinitely more rewarding than buying a supermarket carrot

Yep, to be honest for me the mental health bit is quite marked, I feel so much more alive from Spring - late autumn.
I also find I talk to loads of different people, people I would never engage in conversation with, we can quite happily lean on a spade and chat for an hour.

The thing I also like is for me I am practically chemical free when I grow.

Its certainly hard work digging new ground. Mine is pretty much all dug now, although in some areas I will probably aim to dig a little deeper.

 

[sovietspybob]

I started growing stuff last year as i'm getting somewhere with the garden in our new house now. I made 2 raised beds out of pallet collars so they're not too huge to handle and grew carrots and one and parsnips in the other just bought 1 packet of seeds of each (maybe £1.50 each) and put them straight in the ground. Picked them all in November/December time and they're stored in sand in the shed at the moment, been slowly working our way thought them.

I had to leave the parsnips 'till they had a frost as they're tasteless otherwise but they've been really good, got quite a good crop and should last us ages and if you could freeze some they'd easily last you a year

The carrots we've been picking as and when we needed them from maybe July ish and i've still got loads left in the shed so i'm hoping that'll keep us going well into the spring so again probably a years worth.

It's been so satisfying to grow something from scratch and the taste of the carrots is amazing to anything i've had in the shops before.

Been reading up about crop rotation for what to plant this year, thinking it'll be some kind of bean/pea in one and undecided in the other but might make another bed to do carrots again as they've been such a good crop and we go through loads of them as they're so versatile.

Oh also fruit trees/bushes are ace, get some of them and a chest freezer

 

[bloodiedathame]

Nice to see other green fingered people on here.

 

[Squid Vicious]

Raised beds with garlic, shallots, peas, spinach and kale in mid-late spring last year.


Cucumbers and courgettes - I use the wooden trellis for training the cucumbers up against the rails
The courgettes are a bush variety so they don't go crazy and start wandering off everywhere.


Really recommend the hozelock growbag waterer - it holds about 15 litres of water and very helpful for keeping your tommys watered during the summer months (they're thirsty!)


Some of the rewards!

 

[Psycho Sonny]

growing a few bits here and there is fine. but to be fully sustainable is unrealistic without a couple of acres of land. also being in scotland my choices are limited due to the weather.

i got zero habaneros last year from my massive plant. was too cold even when kept indoors. jalapeno plants did well though. garlic did well outside along with mint, coriander (seasonal) and rosemary. the thought of doing potatoes / carrots isn't appealing to me. it's a lot of work when you get to the crops which are tasty and more expensive in supermarkets. i'd rather just buy from a place like locavore.