FREE Food for life - is it possible?

[NigelJ]

Thus far, we've spent a small fortune on bought in compost to make all our beds.

So even if you never spend another penny on anything your veg will never be truely free, because of the initial set up cost.
In earlier times there was a lot of foraging done in hedgerows and along field margins, for fruit, fungi, seeds, leaves and roots.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have created a bed next to the hedge. It was solid clay with sparse grass on it. The first year I turned over complete cubes, a spade width in each direction and left it to overwinter. Then I cut the hedge next to it severely , mowed up the clippings and dumped them on the bed. When they had settled down a bit I dug them in and turned up the top layer that had been underground for a year, added some well rotted compost and planted potatoes. I mulched them heavily with lawn mowings. Various other bits of wood ash and stuff have gone in it as they came available and the top layer is now pretty friable., with a lot of grass mixed in. I have leeks growing there now. It is possible without buying in stuff, but you pay the equivalent in work and time.

 

[Susan BBPM]

So even if you never spend another penny on anything your veg will never be truely free, because of the initial set up cost.
In earlier times there was a lot of foraging done in hedgerows and along field margins, for fruit, fungi, seeds, leaves and roots.

Part of the thought process was that when the government started spending like there was no tomorrow over covid it was obvious we had massive inflation on the way.

It seemed to me that if an initial outlay allowed me to grow free food indefinitely it was like money in the bank. I did something similar by investing in a wood burning stove and 3 year's supply of wood. Inflation now ramping up towards 10% and energy costs predicted to go by more than 300% by Jan 2023!

But mostly it's for fun. I like the goal of trying to produce food with whatever I have in my own garden and what I can get for free locally (seaweed, fallen leaves, manure from the farm, neighbours clippings).

 

[headfullofbees]

I'm very inspired by the goal of seeing if it's possible to grow all the vegetables I need for free - without any costs at all.
I would love to hear from more experienced gardeners - is it possible?

We're new to this - on year 2. We've started out using the no-dig approach and so far so good. Using the Charles Dowding approach, all you need to do is add 2 inches of garden compost to your beds every December. No other amendments necessary.

Thus far, we've spent a small fortune on bought in compost to make all our beds. We're hopeful that by next year we'll have enough of our own compost. Our neighbour gives us all her grass cuttings, prunings etc (she has a huge, mature garden). We collect nettles and seaweed locally. We back onto a farm so have access to as much manure as we need.

We have comfrey growing everywhere and make our own comfrey and nettle fertilizer.

We have a worm farm, and a hot composter that we put in the polytunnel in winter and that produces compost all year round.

Our goal is to save all of our own seeds.

Has anyone achieved this - is it really possible to grow veg without buying anything?

All tips and ideas welcome!!

I live just down the coast from you in Luce Bay, & I would say that you can definitely grow all the veg you need, & I see you have a polytunnel polytunnel, so if you & are prepared to eat seasonally, & on what you can preserve, it's definitely possible.
I, too, use comfrey & manure & seaweed as fertiliser.
I. like meadowlark, enjoy fruit that can't be grown here, so I don't let good be the enemy of perfect, & I'm quite content buying oranges.
It's also the case that we go through so many carrots, that I don't have enough ground to grow them all.
The good news is that the climate is good for a multiplicity of fruit & veg.
Ayrshire is famed in Scotland for its potatoes, but it's also great for a number of other veg.
I can't think of a root veg that won't grow, & have in my plot neeps, beetroot, parsnips.
The only cereal I grow is sweetcorn, but peas & beans, especially runner beans, do very well & I've a glut of them right now, as I have courgettes. If you've a sunny but slightly protected area, butternut squash gives reasonable results.
Alliums, leeks, onions & garlic do well, & you can grow both short day (over-winter onions) & long day (spring planting onions).
Garlic is best going in Sept Oct to make sure it gets the cold it needs.
Since you already have a polytunnel, you probably are well aware how to use it to grow marginals, like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers & aubergines, as well as extending the season in other crops.
Brassicas are cool weather crops, & all do well in Ayrshire, & the good news with them is that they like solid ground & don't require to be grown in your no-dig beds.
It may take a couple of years to get the right balance, but it's certainly possible, if you have the space, to grow a highly nourishing mix of veg which will last all year.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I can't think of a root veg that won't grow, & have in my plot neeps, beetroot, parsnips.

I am reminded of something I read about Vikings having an almost perfect diet in that it consisted mainly of root veg and fish.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

i was knocking up some potting mix the other day and realise I frequently add a bit of bone meal, or fish blood and bone, which of course I have to buy, but I reckon you could easily make that up by simply upping the proportion of manure. If you do buy stuff it is worth watching the prices. The last lot of bonemeal I bought was in 750 gr boxes from the cheap shop. I had seen a 20 kilo 'Bargin' tub advertised as though it was the bargain of the month in my local garden center at what worked out about 5p a kilo dearer. Ten little boxes has kept me going for ages.

 

[Meadowlark]

i was knocking up some potting mix the other day and realise I frequently add a bit of bone meal, or fish blood and bone, which of course I have to buy, ...

Fishing is one way to address that. Instead of discarding your fish remains in the trash or elsewhere simply plant them sufficiently deep in the garden. I did that for years and raised some fantastic corn in the process. The American Indians absolutely knew what many today have never recognized.

 

[Susan BBPM]

HeadFullOfBees - The only things on your list that I haven't grown with ease (this is my second season so my skill level is stick it in the ground and hope for the best) is Aubergine and Pepper (sewn early, nursed indoors under lights - but they just sulk when they go out to the polytunnel). Chilis of all types do well but not peppers. And I always lose my brassicas to cabbage whites - the only success I had was starting them very early so they were out the ground before the cabbage whites really got going. Kale and perpetual spinach are the only ones that don't get attacked.

I haven't tried over winter onions - I'm going to look into that. I think I pulled up my butternut squash too early last year - I thought there were no fruit and pulled them out sometime in Sept, but noticed lots of little green baby squash. So I'll leave them longer this year.

But what I was really getting at (and I phrased my question badly) is can you do it for absolutely no cost? So without buying seeds, compost, fertilizers etc? Of course you'll have setup costs, but my goal is to get to a point within a couple of years of having 100% free veg. Saving my own seeds, making compost (adding in seaweed, manure from the farm next door, anything the neighbours give me), making my own potting soil, wormery, comfrey and nettle fertilizers etc.

p.s Do you keep bee's? Just wondering given you name?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Years ago I was in the garden and a cabbage white flew past, I knocked it out of the air with my hand and stamped on it and there was a yell from my daughter "You b******, you killed a butterfly". I explained how many eggs a butterfly lays etc. - she was not mollified. Now about fifteen years later she has taken up gardening, and confessed that in her second year at it she too has killed a cabbage white.

Have you tried chard? They don't seem to touch it , and the stalks are delicious with a bit of cheese sauce. Don't bother with the 'Bright lights', the white one grows better and the colour goes in cooking.

 

[Susan BBPM]

Years ago I was in the garden and a cabbage white flew past, I knocked it out of the air with my hand and stamped on it and there was a yell from my daughter "You b******, you killed a butterfly". I explained how many eggs a butterfly lays etc. - she was not mollified. Now about fifteen years later she has taken up gardening, and confessed that in her second year at it she too has killed a cabbage white.

Have you tried chard? They don't seem to touch it , and the stalks are delicious with a bit of cheese sauce. Don't bother with the 'Bright lights', the white one grows better and the colour goes in cooking.

I've grown Perpetual Spinach - which I *think* is the same thing. Another thing they don't touch is curly kale. Sadly I'm not keen on either - although I haven't tried PS with cheese sauce. I tend to love anything with cheese sauce!! I know kale is nice in a smoothie with banana.

I'd like to grow broccili (calibrese) and cauliflower (to make cauliflower and broccili gratin), and also white cabbage which I love in bubble and squeak.

It may have been beginners luck, but I got an early crop of these last year - they were out of the ground by mid june before the cabbage whites got going. I also sprayed them with neem. This year I got them planted out and sent my husband out to spray them all with neem and within two days they were all dead!! I think he forgot to shake the spray bottle and sprayed them all with neat neem! They looked as if someone had painted them with varnish.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

've grown Perpetual Spinach - which I *think* is the same thing

Common names ....
I think 'perpetual spinach' is sometimes called 'chard; but grows more like spinach, 'Swiss' chard grows with really thick white stems, which are what I am talking about, but yes, the leaf itself has that 'spinach' taste.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

Probably, but there will be accidents. For example, I have saved runner bean seed for years, but last year stored it badly in a margarine tub and it all went mouldy so I had to buy new seed and start again.

You can make your own compost, it is the nitrogen element that will be lacking, keeping chickens would be a good way round that, but there are usually local sources available for a bit of work. Round here farmers are quite happy for gardeners to collect hop shoddy, and anyone with horses will usually give you as much as you want if you help with mucking out.

There was an interesting article about immigrants who had brought seed with them and were growing from saved seed for ten years or more, their plants were better adapted to British conditions than the ones specially produced by the seed companies, so presumably un-natural selection would improve almost anything to suit your own climate and soil. I mourn the loss of my runner seeds.

I can't see growing Caribbean veg. in Ayrshire is going to be very successful

PS, Cobbett is a lovely read, but take him with a pinch of salt, he was an idealist gentleman farmer, Grew seed on a farm in Notting hill, now solid housing, and had to leave for America for a while because of his political views.

It grows in USDA climate zones 2 thru 11, so it's pretty versatile.
BTW, folks: Malabar Spinach is not a type of Amaranth and very different from Jamaican Callaloo. But like I said people in different places called different plants Callaloo. It is a vine, Basella Alba , with sort of musilagious leaves, I'm guessing a bit like cooking okra?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

(this is my second season so my skill level is stick it in the ground and hope for the best) i

That's probably the best thing possible, most plants hate being fussed over and messed about with

 

[Meadowlark]

...BTW, folks: Malabar Spinach is not a type of Amaranth and very different from Jamaican Callaloo. But like I said people in different places called different plants Callaloo. It is a vine, Basella Alba ,

Lots of different unending opinions on that:

1. Malabar spinach also known as Guyana thick leaf callaloo, Ceylon, Chinese, Surinam or Vietnamese spinach https://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/unusual-plants-for-the-survival-garden/
2. Malabar Spinach (Basella Rubra) [Guyana thick leaf callaloo] Also Known as, Poi Calaloo, Ceylon-, Surinam-, Chinese-, or Vietnamese (mong toi ) spinach, Malabar climbing spinach, broad bologi, poi baagi, callaloo and buffalo spinach. Amazon.com : 100 Red Malabar spinach Seeds [Guyanese thick leaf callaloo] fast-growing vine : Patio, Lawn & Garden
3. Malabar Spinach (Basella rubra) also known as Guyana thick leaf callaloo and Indian spinach. Heat loving in Bangladesh https://bangladesh.desertcart.com/brand/malabar
4. Malabar Spinach (Basella alba) Also known as Indian spinach... ad nauseum

The names go on and on...not that it matters one iota to me. Good stuff and loves the heat/humidity of East Texas and its nothing like Okra in taste or cooking.

Out of curiosity, have you ever grown it @cntrlwagdnr?

 

[Durgan]

Growing is part of the equation. Preserving is the other major part.
I am now at te peak of the growing season. Tomorrow I am looking at economical produce to purchase.
I want squash, cucumbers, beets, carrots, sweet potatoes. I have from my garden: potatoes, onions, garlic.
I will use root cellar for some, but will juice most and pressure can.