Cost of Living
29 watchers
Aug 2022
10:22am, 21 Aug 2022
92,086 posts
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Hanneke
Getting back to my food growing: I eat a LOT of berries over the course of the year. I eat all organic. Just growing my own blueberries saves me roughly £250/year with very little input from myself. I just pick them! Same with raspberries etc... Blackcurrants need pruning, as do gooseberries and red currants but the rest of the time it is free pickings! In stead of spending £85/week on food, I now spend about £5... I know I am blessed with a love of growing stuff, especially edibles, and have designed my garden according to no-dig and agroforestry principles. This requires relatively little input from myself. Also about 90% of the plants is edible or medicinal and gets used! As well as it looking great. If there was interest, I'd be happy to do a tutorial about basic food growing for small spaces, for Fetchies? |
Aug 2022
10:23am, 21 Aug 2022
59,421 posts
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Velociraptor
Going for confirmation bias, I'm sure I read a thing on a newspaper website in the small hours of this morning saying that if you're going to grow food crops at home things like carrots and potatoes which are cheap to buy are a false economy but it's worth growing expensive things like salad leaves, berries, and herbs that you actually use.
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Aug 2022
10:26am, 21 Aug 2022
92,087 posts
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Hanneke
Indeed V-rap! Correct! Rhubarb is for example a silly thing: one portion of rhubarb for a crumble costs more to buy than the plant and once planted, it looks after itself! Only input from you is pick and cook!
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Aug 2022
10:28am, 21 Aug 2022
92,088 posts
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Hanneke
Also: blueberries for example are great shrubs with year round interest in the garden! Stunning Autumn colour... If you get 3/4 bushes that crop at slightly different times, you will be pucking fresh berries for months! The surplus gets frozen for off season use. Birds love them, so you do need to net but I have incorporated perennial edibles in client's borders and they say, even without netting they get a good berry bonus!
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Aug 2022
10:35am, 21 Aug 2022
59,422 posts
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Velociraptor
One of my blueberry bushes looks as if it's going to fruit mightily this year. In around two weeks' time when I'll be away on holiday. Lucky birds  (The berries aren't as nice as the ones that come in a punnet from Tesco anyway. I didn't do any research about varieties before buying them.)
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Aug 2022
10:48am, 21 Aug 2022
92,097 posts
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Hanneke
Shame V-rap... I did research and mine are lush. Only marginally less plump because of dry weather. I don't water anything that is established... On that note: my coriander quickly started flowering: bolted. I am still picking the leaves, which are stronger in flavour plus, bonus: seeds are ripening! I will dry these and use in the kitchen and keep some to sow again  In the meantime they look very pretty in and amongst other bolted and self seeded salady things. My lettuces and spinach may have bolted, I still use their leaves: bitter, stronger, mixed with edible flowers, tree spinach = posh salad leaves for free as they also self seed all over the place. All I need to do is know what is "weeds". All edible "weeds" get to stay as well... Again: low input: don't try eradicate ground elder for example. Cut it and eat it! Then there is foraging! On that note: I need to go pick elderberries. They are ripe early this year. As I have just picked a second lot of black currants, I am thinking of making 1/3 elderberry syrup, 1/3 black currant cordial and 1/3 of elderberry and black currant coulis... |
Aug 2022
11:38am, 21 Aug 2022
2,212 posts
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Welshpoppy
As my new garden is a blank canvas we wanted this past 3 months to see what is what.But have made one raised bed 4 ft x 4ft and an ideal size.We have grown courgettes, tomatoes and salad leaves this year.But the plan is plum tree, raspberries, blueberries,black currants and cooking apple tree.All of which I left behind so starting all again.
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Aug 2022
11:45am, 21 Aug 2022
92,099 posts
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Hanneke
That sounds like an excellent plan WP.
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Aug 2022
12:08pm, 21 Aug 2022
307 posts
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nme2no1
Regarding Jen HB’s question on WiFi router power consumption. jda correctly advised that they use very little, but it’s also worth noting that switching the router off every night is likely to have a detrimental effect on your Internet service. My understanding is that the ISP may detect what they think is a fault, and “throttle” your connection to compensate. Whenever starting with a new ISP, they typically advise you to give the service a few days to find equilibrium, and I think this is the same principle. So, I think any meagre saving from the miniscule power consumption would be immediately offset by frustration with the resulting service. |
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Aug 2022
12:10pm, 21 Aug 2022
308 posts
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nme2no1
Oh, and it’s good practice to switch off chargers when they’re not connected to their device, so a timer on the laptop plug would be more beneficial.
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