A Pocket Friendly Kitchen Garden

Whether you have a small garden, a patch of land you grow on or rent an allotment there are ways and means of keeping the costs down.  You may have to spend some money to save some but a bit of recycling can go a long way.  Below I will list several methods I use personally to cut the cost of running my 10 perch allotment.  These methods will require planning to make them work but are well worth the extra effort.  When you are out and about be sure to have a look around any discount store and take advantage of end of season sales.

Fertilizer
Scout around your community for stables, rabbit owners, farmers and chicken keepers.  Offer them free removal of their animal waste and make sure you keep a good relationship going with them by offering them bits and pieces of what you have grown over time.  Some people may just be content with you taking the manure off their hands.  You may have to bag it up and transport it yourself so arm yourself with a shovel or scoop, some old animal feed or compost sacks and means to transport it, this can be your own vehicle or a garden trolley that you pull, whatever is feasible for your circumstances.  You very likely will have to compost your collectings until they are well rotted before you can use them on the garden.  I collect all the rabbit cage waste on my estate whilst I walk my dog, offering the owners the carrot and radish tops that my family do not eat when they are available and I am lucky enough to live close to two stable yards.  If you live close to a busy town or city this option might not be so easy for you to take.

Plant food

Plants need three major nutrients to grow, Nitrogen, Phosphates and Potash.  You can get these nutrients from free sources.  Nitrogen can be used in the form of grass clippings, phosphates  and potash from comfrey.  Nettles grow almost everywhere and comfrey grows wild or can be sown.  There are several ways to use these as plant food, chuck in on the ground and fork it in or make a "tea" by soaking it  in a bucket of water (weighing it down with a brick) and putting a cover on it for two weeks.  By this time it will have fermented, will stink abit and will be perfectly good plant food.  Don't forget to dilute it to one part solution by nine parts water before you use it or you may overfeed your plants and create a toxicity problem.

Pots
There are many receptacles that can be used as pots or planters, some are obvious and others take a bit of imagination.  Recycling is the main theme.  On my allotment all normal pots are washed and reused but i use a variety of other containers with holes drilled in.  I use mushroom trays for growing spring onions in and for water trays, pot noodle pots, polystyrene cups, tires, crates, cooking pots, half pipes, and anything else i can find for putting plants in.  I have plastic biscuit containers that act as propagators, baby formula cartons that hold dried seed. Ive even heard of someone who converted their old bath sink and toilet into planters and painted them to give them a surreal arty twist.  Many of the people at the allotment collect big wooden crates from outside warehouses to make into raised planters for those unable to bend or work their plot.  Don't forget empty soft drink bottles are useful as cloches for protecting young seedlings.  I have also seen a whole greenhouse made out of recycled 2 lt cola bottles.  Use a pencil to write on plastic or wooden plant markers so that you can rub the writing off ready for next years plants.  To give my alliums a head start i planted them in compost filled toilet rolls on a tray until the weather was warm enough to plant out.


Heirloom Seeds and Seed Saving
Seed companies naturally want to make money out of you so they sell you hybrid seeds.  This means you cannot for example grow a pepper then use the seeds out of it to grow more of the exact same plant next year as the seeds will either be infertile or will not produce the same plant.  Not sure exactly how this works but it is the truth of it.  If you purchase open pollinated REAL seed  (non F1) and heirloom seed then providing you follow a few simple rules at the end of the growing season you can save seed from your own plants that you can sow the following year therefore never having to buy that variety of seed again.  If i were to put a whole guide to seed saving in this space it would take far too long to finish this post.  I personally purchase my seeds from www.realseeds.co.uk and they always come delivered with seed saving instructions.  This does a take a good bit of extra work but can save me a good £70 a year on seeds.  Another method i use to save money and get more plants is to use seed swapping sites with my saved seed, to plant varieties of fruit that need very little maintainance, take cuttings from your own plants to make more or swap seeds or produce for cuttings from your fellow gardeners.

Organic Pest Control
I personally, like James Wong's guide to  pest control.  It consists of two recipes.  A garlic and chilli spray, that kills slugs, snails, flying insects, caterpillars and deters birds, mice and rabbits.  It is as simple as blitzing up a lite of water with a bulb of garlic, chilli and marigold leaves, leaving to stand (the longer the better) and spraying on your plants in the evening.  The second recipe is for mildew, mould and any fungal damping off.  It consists of a litre of chamomile tea, marigold leaves and garlic all whizzed up together and brewed for a while.

Building
If you are genuinely talented with your hands build what you must with scrap wood, recycled timber and as mentioned above, build a greenhouse out of plastic bottles.  Those old shower curtains might convert into cloches.  I have an old indoor rabbit hutch as a cold frame.  These things don't have to look scruffy, with careful building and a lick of paint they can be dolled up nicely.  When my old shed finally fell down it was cut up and made into smart 3ft high raised beds.

Compost
See the advice about fertilizer above, and then research how to make good compost.  It probably sounds more complicated than it is but that little bit of extra effort goes a long way.  I go through many sacks each year costing up to £5 each, but the better i get at composting the less I have to buy.  There are a few things to consider about your own compost and they are to site it where it will not cause a nuisance, do not put seeds in it, keep diseased plants out and sterilize it using heat before you use it for germinating seeds.  If you are on friendly terms with your neighbors they may give you their waste for composting if you ask nicely.

Containers and Storing Produce
Keep containers like butter tubs, etc jars, take away containers, baby formula boxes and tins for storing meals you have made and seeds you may have collected. Old furniture like sets of draws can be kept in a shed or out house for storing root veg in.  Get a good book on food preservation and remember if it is done properly you can feed your family cheaper for a good while longer.  We mostly make meals and freeze them and had to save up for a chest freezer to make it worth our while but there is always a healthy home cooked meal ready within 10 mins available.

Tips

Use old tights or stockings for flower bags and onion holders.

Make sure you store grown food properly and don't waste it.

Learning everything about what you are growing decreases the chance of loss.

Look out for or instigate veggie and seed swaps.

Use your grown  food as currency with your fellow gardeners and neighbors (within reason obv)

keep an eye out for freebies online on face book selling pages, free cycle, craigslist etc.

HOW TO GROW ONIONS

Type: Seeds and Bulbs

Sow Time:
Seeds: January under glass, Late Summer outside. Bulbs: March and then August for over wintering varieties.

Position: Open sunny site but will tolerate shade, not in the same place as before.
Preparation:  Well broken up soil, feed 2:1 Potash: Nitrogen to the soil a week before planting
Soil: Well-drained, reasonably fertile but not freshly manured.
Ph: More than 6.5
Frost Tolerant: Some winter varieties, cover spring varieties with fleece if weather cools.
Annual/ Perennial/ Biennial: Biennial
Spacing: Seeds: Sow thinly 1cm depth, 10 inch rows, thin to 2-4 inches.
Bulbs: 10 cm apart, noses poking out, 10 inch rows

Sowing And Planting:

January: sow seeds in trays in doors at 16 0C.  Germination is slow.  When big enough space out 2 inches apart, harden off gradually plant out shallowly and water in generously.

March: Make a drill of fine tilth and sow seeds but do not thin until April then top dress feed with nitrogen.

March and August: Plant the bulbs into the ground with the noses poking half out and gently firm around the plant to prevent air pockets.

Companions: Carrots - Alliums inter planted with carrots confuse onion and carrot flies

Feeding:
Give an occasional feed with a general liquid fertilizer and a light feed of sulfate of potash in June will help ripen the bulbs ready for storage.

Watering: 
Only water if the seasons is dry and stop watering after the onions have swollen.  Mulching helps maintain moisture and deters weeds.

Pest Control:
Onion Fly results in yellow droopy leaves and can be prevented by not planting in freshly manured soil and burning any affected crop.   Most fungal diseases can be prevented by keeping the leaves dry and the soil well drained.  Use chamomile and milk spray as a fungicide. Cut the tops off when they are almost dried out.
Harvesting:
Onions are ready for harvest when the leaves turn yellow and flop down to one side, allow for maximum sunlight preparation by pushing the leaves aside and removing any mulch.  Gently lift the roots with a fork and harvest 2 weeks later ensuring the bulbs don't get wet.  Dry them out in a warm place.

Storage:
 Turning the bulbs whilst they are drying help prevent disease they may take up to 4 weeks to dry.

Seed Saving:
Leave an onion or 2 in the ground until it flowers, it may take a long time, let the flower start to dry out, cut it off then allow it dry right out before shaking out the seed

RICH KALE AND SQUASH SOUP

Whilst neither squash nor kale look anything special they both store well, kale where it grows and squash on the plant or in a cool dry place.  Both can be grown easily by the beginner gardener with the minimum of reading.  I like my recipes to be versatile, rich in flavor, nutritious and as cheap as possible.

This recipe is a firm favorite of the hubby and my twins who often cry for seconds.

There are no precise quantities as you can use your judgement and taste as well as how much you actually have, and change the recipe slightly to meet your needs.

Serves 4

1 tbs oil (or spray pot with low calorie cooking spray)

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 medium sweet potato  (or turnip)

2 vegetable stock cubes

750ml water

1 medium courgette

several handfuls of kale

Squash of your choice

Seasoning

If you fancy a meat version Lamb goes really nice with this recipe.

Chop all the ingredients, put them together in the pan , add a lid and cook on medium heat untill all the contents have broken down into a soupy mixture.  A hand processor can be used to blend the ingredients down into smaller pieces once the soup has cooled.

Cost to Make 

(excluding oil and seasoning)

£1.28 for the sweet potato (as i cant seem to grow them) and

less than 78p for the stock cubes

I often search the meat counter for discounted meat to add to my soups and take home "eat today" meat that can be frozen to preserve its shelf life.

Most of the time i already have a supply of stock cubes, oil, herbs and spices as these staples tend to last a long time before you need to buy them again and can make a huge difference in the quality and taste of everyday dishes.

So you have an Allotment Now what?

 Check it out, hopefully you wont have to remove any rubbish and it will be well cultivated and if your lucky it may already have a shed and a greenhouse, but we will start from ground zero just in case.

1. Remove anything that should not be there, by rights the council you rent it from or the previous tenant should have done this but by the time you get something done about it you could have done it yourself and already be well on your way to getting it looking good and being functional.
2. If your plot has not been well cultivated it may be over run with weeds.  We may like to thin we would spend hours pulling them up but the quickest easiest way is to blast it with weed killer and cover it up with some old carpet, taking care not to get too close to your neighbours plot, to follow the directions on the packet to the letter especially with regards to safety and to dig up or steer well clear of anything you want left well alone.  This could take up to three weeks or longer depending on how stubborn your weeds are.  
3. Whilst you are waiting for the effects of Weedol or whatever to kick in you can go about planning the layout of your plot.  Do you want a greenhouse or a poly tunnel, can you afford to buy right out or should you start trawling the net for a second hand one or start plans on building with recycled materials.  You need to think upon the same lines for your shed.  Will you be wanting a fruit cage?  How much of the plot is allowed to be under cover according to the rules?  Does the wind effect your plot much and if so where would be the best place to situate your buildings.  Having a chat with the other allotee's can give you a good idea of what to expect.  Security is another good topic to discuss before you go buying anything expensive.
4. Get your buildings erected if you decide to have them.  It would be ideal if you manage to get your allotment lease in the August (if you are in UK) so you can see what others manage to grow and you have plenty of time to get your plot into some sort of functional state.  You should not be charged any rent until the new growing season begins.
5. Work out how many beds you can fit and what size, consider where to put functional paths and do not make them too big (no more than 18 inch, unless you have a disability or use a wheelchair and need a wider path) as you dont want to waste valuable growing space.  Mark the beds out  and decide whether you want them raised or not and if you would like to mark them off with a wooden border.  Raised beds can be easier to work and deter certain pests.  If you decide to have wooden borders it keeps the bed neat and if painted with creosote can deter slugs.
6. Find out what ground you have.  You need to know soil type and whether it is deficient in Nitrogen, Phosphorus, or Potassium, if it drains well or not and if it is vulnerable to certain pests and diseases.  Your fellow allotee's can be a great help in acquiring this information but you may also need to buy a soil tester.  Providing you keep your plot well cultivated and practice crop rotation you will not have to do this again.  You will have to do some research yourself but there are plenty of articles on the web describing soil types and how to improve them.
7. Fertilize the whole plot with copious amounts of manure and then (if your up to it) dig it in, use a rotavator (either rented bought or on site use) or apply a no dig method.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-dig_gardening.  Keep working at it untill your soil is nice and crumbly and then it can be maintained with a once over twicw a year.  All this is weather permitting of course and if it seems a bit much you might want to take on a partner to share the work and harvest with.  Bare in mind once the donkey work is done the whole plot can be maintained with moderate to little  effort.
8. THE EXCITING BIT!  Decide what you want to grow and track down the seeds for the best price.  Buy a good book so you know the basics.  The more you know about basic principals of growing food the more likely you are to get a good harvest.  There is nothing more down heartening then excitedly chucking in a load of seeds and then little by little (or very quickly in some cases) losing it all to very basic mistakes.  You don't have to start off with everything.  Pick a few varieties and add to them once you have got your bearings.  I personally started off with low maintenance quick growing things like peas, lettuce and radishes and progressed to tomatoes, potatoes and beans.  I buy heirloom open pollinated seeds now.  I choose unusual varieties that grow well in short dull summers but are prolific and tasty.  You can find seeds like these at http://www.realseeds.co.uk/.
9. Take your time, get to know your plot and how to look after it and most importantly enjoy it.  There are many benefits to having an allotment, it provides a focus, exercise, healthy food, socializing opportunities and a sense of pride and achievement.  

Electric Daisy Tincture

I was especially pleased with the quality and quantity of my electric daisies.  Considering the slow growth due to my gardening mistakes, the slapdash way they were re-potted and planted they have bounced back with one hell of a kick.  They now completely smother a 8 x 3 ft bed and sport an abundance of yellow button heads.  I sowed these on the recommendation of James Wong's book.  

I did make the awful mistake of when first trying them placing a whole one in my mouth and chomping down.  It was like being kicked in the mouth by a lemon flavored battery, I coughed, spluttered and could not stop the saliva oozing out of my mouth.  The right way to eat electric daisies is to gently scrape the flower a tiny teeny bit at a time with your teeth, or put it in something else.

Electric daisies when used correctly taste like citrus and give the same in the mouth feeling of putting your tongue on a small battery.  They are also very efficient at deadening a sore throat.  There are 2 ways to do this.  

 Crumble up a flower into tiny pieces and put it in hot water or squash, or  make a tincture.

How to Make an Electric Daisy Tincture

1. Chop the electric daisies up very small with a knife
2. Put the results on kitchen paper to dry
3. Place in a few inches of hot water and leave to steep for a day or so, the longer you leave it but not for more than 3 days.
4. Sieve into a small bottle or container, you can use the remains of the steep in tea if you wish.
5. Add 2 Tbs of honey
6. Add 1 Tbs of whiskey
7. Stir

Keep in the fridge and take a tsp when needed.