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Taming the Grocery Budget Part 3 - Grow Your Own Grub
This is my very favourite way to keep our food budget down.
I grow as much as I can of the food we eat. I don't grow a lot of potatoes, onions or carrots - they are all slow growing, take up a lot of space and are the three staples of our vegetable diet. I grow some of each every year, mainly because homegrown is better, but they are the three vegetables I buy regularly.
Most other veggies are grown in my very small backyard garden. This past summer I've grown tomatoes (15 plants), capsicum (6 plants), eggplant (5 plants), cucumbers (3 vines), bush beans (12 plants), sweet basil (6 plants), parsley, mint, rosemary, lettuce (6 at a time on a two week rotation), pumpkins (2 vines and there are now 15 pumpkins growing in the backyard!).
I've just planted broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, bok choy, silverbeet, spring onions, sugar snap peas.
I've left a bed for parsnips and turnips. They like cooler weather and it's still a little warm here to plant them. I'll also keep planting lettuce - it grows all year round here, just slowing down a little in winter.
This is my very favourite way to keep our food budget down.
I grow as much as I can of the food we eat. I don't grow a lot of potatoes, onions or carrots - they are all slow growing, take up a lot of space and are the three staples of our vegetable diet. I grow some of each every year, mainly because home grown is better, but they are the three vegetables I buy regularly.
Most other veggies are grown in my very small backyard garden. This past summer I've grown tomatoes (15 plants), capsicum (6 plants), eggplant (5 plants), cucumbers (3 vines), bush beans (12 plants), sweet basil (6 plants), parsley, mint, rosemary, lettuce (6 at a time on a two week rotation), pumpkins (2 vines and there are now 15 pumpkins growing in the backyard!).
I've just planted broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, bok choy, silverbeet, spring onions, sugar snap peas.
I've left a bed for parsnips and turnips. They like cooler weather and it's still a little warm here to plant them. I'll also keep planting lettuce - it grows all year round here, just slowing down a little in winter.
There are also lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, mandarine and apple trees to provide fruit for us.
Growing all this food not only keeps the grocery bill down, it doesn't take very long at all. I spend less than two hours a week pottering in the garden, and that's spread over the entire week. Just a few minutes a day to water, pull a weed or two as they appear (so much easier to do this than to devote a day to weeding), planting new seeds or seedlings and harvesting the fruits of my labour.
Growing your own grub isn't hard. It isn't time consuming. It isn't costly.
With the interest in organic foods, the popularity of the backyard veggie patch is seeing a revival, but with a modern twist. Gardens are no longer long patches of dirt with rows of plants.
Instead they are tubs and pots, bags and hanging baskets, wall mounted, vertical cages, boxes and raised beds. They are interesting and cheap. But most importantly they work.
Why would you want to grow your own grub?
1.To save money. For example I picked a pumpkin last Sunday and used a portion for our dinner. Pumpkin in Coles was $3 a kilo last week. The pumpkin I picked weighed in at 4.267kg. It would have cost me $12.80 to buy. There are another 15 pumpkins growing in the garden. Just that one pumpkin has already paid for the seedlings with change. The rest are basically free food, and if I sell some of them they will be making a profit.
The tomatoes are the same. So far this summer we've enjoyed fresh tomatoes whenever we've wanted them. I've also made a batch of chutney and three batches of tomato relish. There are also 15 bags of pasta sauce in the freezer. All made with tomatoes from the garden. The saving? Well the seeds cost $4.70 and tomatoes have been expensive so again, the cost has been covered and we're now enjoying free food.
Cucumbers this summer haven't done as well as in past years but I still have 6 jars of bread and butter cucumbers in the pantry and we've enjoyed them fresh in salads and in tzatziki for the last three months. Again free food - and I noticed they were 90 cents each yesterday.
2.To enjoy truly organic vegetables and fruits for a fraction of the cost at the greengrocer. Organic produce is very expensive, at least three times the price of regular fruit and veg. Growing your own organic food will save you a fortune and you will know that it really is organic. Use compost and worm tea as fertiliser and your garden will thrive, and for free - you won't be buying expensive fertilisers.
3.Exercise. Growing your own food is great exercise without you actually thinking of exercise. It's also a great activity for the whole family to enjoy together. You'll be stretching, bending, using muscles you didn't know you had. You'll be breathing in fresh air and getting a good dose of sunshine to boost Vitamin D. You'll be able to ditch the gym and stop buying expensive vitamins, another saving for you.
March isn't really the time when most people are thinking of starting a garden, but it is the perfect time to plan and plant a winter veggie garden. It's also the perfect time to plan for your spring and summer garden, read and learn about growing your own food and to get started on building up beds or collecting pots and starting a compost heap and worm farm so you are ready to get started at the end of winter.
I grow as much as I can of the food we eat. I don't grow a lot of potatoes, onions or carrots - they are all slow growing, take up a lot of space and are the three staples of our vegetable diet. I grow some of each every year, mainly because homegrown is better, but they are the three vegetables I buy regularly.
Most other veggies are grown in my very small backyard garden. This past summer I've grown tomatoes (15 plants), capsicum (6 plants), eggplant (5 plants), cucumbers (3 vines), bush beans (12 plants), sweet basil (6 plants), parsley, mint, rosemary, lettuce (6 at a time on a two week rotation), pumpkins (2 vines and there are now 15 pumpkins growing in the backyard!).
I've just planted broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, bok choy, silverbeet, spring onions, sugar snap peas.
I've left a bed for parsnips and turnips. They like cooler weather and it's still a little warm here to plant them. I'll also keep planting lettuce - it grows all year round here, just slowing down a little in winter.
This is my very favourite way to keep our food budget down.
I grow as much as I can of the food we eat. I don't grow a lot of potatoes, onions or carrots - they are all slow growing, take up a lot of space and are the three staples of our vegetable diet. I grow some of each every year, mainly because home grown is better, but they are the three vegetables I buy regularly.
Most other veggies are grown in my very small backyard garden. This past summer I've grown tomatoes (15 plants), capsicum (6 plants), eggplant (5 plants), cucumbers (3 vines), bush beans (12 plants), sweet basil (6 plants), parsley, mint, rosemary, lettuce (6 at a time on a two week rotation), pumpkins (2 vines and there are now 15 pumpkins growing in the backyard!).
I've just planted broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, bok choy, silverbeet, spring onions, sugar snap peas.
I've left a bed for parsnips and turnips. They like cooler weather and it's still a little warm here to plant them. I'll also keep planting lettuce - it grows all year round here, just slowing down a little in winter.
There are also lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, mandarine and apple trees to provide fruit for us.
Growing all this food not only keeps the grocery bill down, it doesn't take very long at all. I spend less than two hours a week pottering in the garden, and that's spread over the entire week. Just a few minutes a day to water, pull a weed or two as they appear (so much easier to do this than to devote a day to weeding), planting new seeds or seedlings and harvesting the fruits of my labour.
Growing your own grub isn't hard. It isn't time consuming. It isn't costly.
With the interest in organic foods, the popularity of the backyard veggie patch is seeing a revival, but with a modern twist. Gardens are no longer long patches of dirt with rows of plants.
Instead they are tubs and pots, bags and hanging baskets, wall mounted, vertical cages, boxes and raised beds. They are interesting and cheap. But most importantly they work.
Why would you want to grow your own grub?
1.To save money. For example I picked a pumpkin last Sunday and used a portion for our dinner. Pumpkin in Coles was $3 a kilo last week. The pumpkin I picked weighed in at 4.267kg. It would have cost me $12.80 to buy. There are another 15 pumpkins growing in the garden. Just that one pumpkin has already paid for the seedlings with change. The rest are basically free food, and if I sell some of them they will be making a profit.
The tomatoes are the same. So far this summer we've enjoyed fresh tomatoes whenever we've wanted them. I've also made a batch of chutney and three batches of tomato relish. There are also 15 bags of pasta sauce in the freezer. All made with tomatoes from the garden. The saving? Well the seeds cost $4.70 and tomatoes have been expensive so again, the cost has been covered and we're now enjoying free food.
Cucumbers this summer haven't done as well as in past years but I still have 6 jars of bread and butter cucumbers in the pantry and we've enjoyed them fresh in salads and in tzatziki for the last three months. Again free food - and I noticed they were 90 cents each yesterday.
2.To enjoy truly organic vegetables and fruits for a fraction of the cost at the greengrocer. Organic produce is very expensive, at least three times the price of regular fruit and veg. Growing your own organic food will save you a fortune and you will know that it really is organic. Use compost and worm tea as fertiliser and your garden will thrive, and for free - you won't be buying expensive fertilisers.
3.Exercise. Growing your own food is great exercise without you actually thinking of exercise. It's also a great activity for the whole family to enjoy together. You'll be stretching, bending, using muscles you didn't know you had. You'll be breathing in fresh air and getting a good dose of sunshine to boost Vitamin D. You'll be able to ditch the gym and stop buying expensive vitamins, another saving for you.
March isn't really the time when most people are thinking of starting a garden, but it is the perfect time to plan and plant a winter veggie garden. It's also the perfect time to plan for your spring and summer garden, read and learn about growing your own food and to get started on building up beds or collecting pots and starting a compost heap and worm farm so you are ready to get started at the end of winter.
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