“It will flower and set seed, and lots of seedlings will come up, and basically, you will have it forever more after that,” Perrone says. If you buy parsley or coriander frequently at the supermarket, for example, then growing it from seed will certainly save you money. One trap many would-be herb gardeners fall into is buying exotic or unusual herbs they do not cook with very often Gardening podcast presenter Jane Perroneīut to save money on herbs, Perrone warns that you must be savvy about what you buy. With homegrown herbs, cooking on a budget can taste more like restaurant-standard cuisine: “It’s one of the easiest ways to add a lot of flavour to what you’re cooking,” Richards says. Whereas in the same amount of space, if you just grow potatoes, it might only last you about a month.” “In a very small space, you can grow enough to supply your whole household. He highly recommends planting salad leaves and herbs from seeds if you want to save money.
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Lettuce and radishes in particular grow quickly, says Richards, who gives lessons on how to grow food cheaply on his YouTube channel. If you urgently need to cut your food bill, the good news is it usually takes only an extra week or two to get a harvest when you grow from seed rather than seedlings.
And you will be able to use those seeds for another four or five years.” But if you spend that amount on seeds, you might get 300-400. “If you buy seedlings at the garden centre, it might cost you £3 for six kale plants.
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Huw Richards, the author of Grow Food for Free and The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook, says the biggest trap gardeners fall into is buying seedlings. Growing your own coriander can save you money but it’s best to stick to herbs you enjoy eating. They’re so easy to grow, and a couple of plants can give you 10 or more tennis-ball-sized heads a year.” Plant seeds … “You plant them and you never have to sow a seed again. Perennial vegetables, such as Nine Star perennial broccoli or cauliflower, are also excellent value for money, Perrone says. “Given that bunches are £2 or £3 in the supermarket, that’s very good value – and it always tastes better when it’s picked fresh,” he says. Hunt says it takes four years to crop but for the few pounds he spent when he planted it, he now has three or four servings a week.
“And you will find they will crop over quite a long period and produce heavy crops.”Īsparagus is another good option, if you can afford to wait a while for your harvest. “You will get a good crop of flowers,” he says.
Plus, if you want plants that also look good in the garden, runner beans are among the prettiest food to grow. “Then you will have a supply through the winter,” she says.īeans also freeze well, Hunt says, and offer good value. “You can buy them quite cheaply as small bushes and they will, without much effort on your part, produce pounds of fruit every year.”Īn advantage of growing currants and berries is that if you get to the point where you have too many to eat fresh, you can freeze the rest. “If you look at the price per pound of fruit like blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries and redcurrants, they are quite expensive at the supermarket,” she says. Jane Perrone, who presents the gardening podcast On the Ledge, recommends growing fruit bushes. “And they will then regrow and you will get another crop out of them.” You can do this two or three times, he says. Photograph: Deborah Vernon/AlamyĪt harvest time, you can simply trim the top off these plants. This lollo rossa variety is a cut and come again classic. Take a leaf out of this gardener’s book and grow your own lettuce.
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