Allotment Profits and Money Saving Tips

Cost/Benefit of our 9m x 18m plot at Ards Allotments

Crop	Supermarket cost*		Weight	Our Produce	Cost Of Plants
Raspberries	£1.47 per 100g		3400g	£49.98	£16.00
Redcurrants	£1.67 per 100g		7850g	£131.09	£2.00
Blackcurrants	£1.16 per 100g		2250g	£26.10	£2.00
Blueberries	£1.00 per 100g		1475g	£14.75	£13.00
Green Gooseberries	£0.50 per 100g		2350g	£11.75	£9.00
Pink/Red/Other Gooseberries	£1.20 per 100g		4500g	£54.00	£18.00
Tayberries	£1.67 per 100g		1100g	£18.37	£12.00
Apples	38p each		7 apples	£2.66	£5.00
Strawberries	£0.46 per 100g		2150g	£9.89	£12.00
Garlic	£0.30 per bulb		59 bulbs	£17.70	£2.00
Lettuce	£0.50 per head		32 heads	£16.00	£4.00
Onions	£0.75 per 100g		900g	£6.75	£4.00
Courgettes	£1 for 3 fruit		11 fruit	£3.66	£4.00
Peas	£0.78 per 100g		4150g	£32.37	£2.00
Pea Shoots	£2.00 per 100g		350g	£7.00	£4.00
Mangetout/sugar snap peas	£0.62 per 100g		2750g	£17.05	£3.00
Beetroot	£0.33 per 100g		375g	£1.23	£6.00
Herbs	£2.30 per 100g		1170g	£26.91	£7.00
Rainbow Carrots	£0.33 per 100g		2050g	£6.76	£2.00
Turnip Greens	£0.42 per 100g		450g	£1.89	£1.00
Radish	£0.30 per 100g		650g	£1.95	£1.00
Chard	£1.50 per bunch		24 bunches	£36.00	£3.00
Pink Fir Apple/Charlotte Potatoes	£2.00 per kg		21.35kg	£42.70	£7.00
FRUIT AND VEG TOTALS				£536.56	£139.00
TOTAL PROFIT ON FRUIT AND VEG £536.56 - £139.00 = £397.56
Edible flowers		£30 per 100g	450g	£135.00	£6.00
Cut Flowers		£3 per bunch	33 bunches	£99.00	£12.00
FLOWER TOTALS				£234.00	£18.00
TOTAL PROFIT ON FLOWERS £234.00 - £18.00 = £216.00
Total Produce Profit £216 + £397.56 - cost of plot £220, manure £36, fertilizer £14 = our plot profited £353.56!

*Harvests from Open Day 2017 to Open Day 2018. Supermarket costs based on Sainsbury’s online prices July/August 2018.

Plus we had all the benefits of incredibly fresh, naturally grown produce, free from pesticides and insecticides, and the pleasure of fresh air and exercise in a beautiful location. We were able to involve the grand children in gardening—they loved seeing who could find the biggest worm or the pod with the most peas inside. And best of all we were able to grow things that we love to eat and which are often impossible to find in shops.

Money Saving Tips:

For the best value, grow things that you love and that are hard to find or expensive in the shops. When you plant seeds, only sow what you need and keep the rest in a cold dry place for next time (seeds are still fine to use after the “sow by” date, but germination rates may be lower).

Cheap berry and fruit bushes are available to the public from www.dutchbulbs.co.uk. They do charge a £4 supplement for small orders, but the savings more than make up for this. For example: 5 gooseberry bushes for £9 (you could expect to pay more than that for one plant in a garden centre). Other retailers sometimes have great special offers, so keep an eye out for those, but don’t be shy to complain and return plants if they are in poor condition. Always buy fruit “bare root” as this is much cheaper and in my experience the plants will settle in and be productive faster than pot grown plants.

Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, and Goosberries are all tip rooting. Simply peg a shoot tip to the ground, and next year it will have rooted and can be snipped away from the parent and replanted. Strawberries are particularly free rooting, so ask friends and neighbours if they have any spare strawberry runners. Be kind and offer any spare plants or unwanted seeds to others.

Look for “Grow Your Own” and “Kitchen Garden” magazines. Both are £5-6 and usually come with £10-£25 worth of free seeds. The magazines are both worth getting for the articles alone, but choose the one with the seeds you can make best use of. Then take advantage of seed swaps with friends and neighbours, and you’ll hardly ever need to buy seeds again.

Think of new ways to use your crops: Turnip and beetroot leaves are delicious, either as young leaves in salads or the older leaves can be cooked (“turnip greens” are a favourite American side dish); batter and fry the young flowers of bolted onions for a delicious alternative to onion rings; use the seed pods of bolted radish to add crunch to salads; use edible flowers to spice up your salads and desserts; and harvest and dry any spare herbs to make your own herbal teas. And if all else fails, give unwanted veg tops and bolted greens to someone with chickens or live stock. The compost heap is good, but it can't lay lovely eggs!