Overcome the credit crunch: grow your own fruits and vegetables and become self-sufficient

Living on a budget is an issue that affects many families these days, not just in the UK, but all over the world. Food prices are rising while incomes are falling. Taxes are rising as countries, especially in the euro zone, try to balance their budgets and extract more and more cash from the people so that governments can balance their books. This is evident in the recent tax changes imposed by the governments of the UK, Greece, Germany, Spain, Ireland, France and Portugal.

We’ve already discussed some of the things we can do to help save on our food budget in our previous article, ‘Cooking on a Budget’. In this article, we will see how we can grow our own fruits and vegetables for the table and supply products for the long term by freezing and converting fresh fruits into preserves, such as jam, hot sauce and condiments. All of these little “luxury items” cost money. If we can make them ourselves, much better.

When we retired to Spain in 2003, we had all kinds of plans to be self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables. However, it didn’t quite work out that way, as the soil was poor and irrigation was non-existent. We have fruit trees all around us and we grow oranges, tangerines, clementines, pears, figs, grapes, olive trees, lemons, nosy apples and quinces. This gives us a long time to prepare jams, marmalades and chutney because the fruits ripen at different times.

We found that all the vegetables we tried to grow would spoil or wilt due to the immense heat during the summer growing periods. We could grow lettuce, but we had to use them very young because they tended to go to seed very quickly. No problem with that though, as baby fresh lettuce leaves go great in any salad dish. Then we discovered that if we planted in large plastic buckets, we could move the plants and place them under trees to protect them when it got too hot. The plastic bucket we use is actually a fruit-picking basket made of strong, flexible plastic about two feet wide at the top and about two feet deep.

We found them ideal for growing all kinds of vegetables, from potatoes to spring onions. Just a small hole in the base to keep the soil from getting soggy is all that is needed. We paid around 2 euros for these containers, a fraction of the cost of the pots. A brisk walk around the site with a 2-gallon watering can every morning provides all the water the plants need. You can use any type of container to grow your vegetables, from old boots to paint cans (just make sure the paint is clean and non-toxic). Grow bags are great for tomatoes and green beans, while hanging baskets and planters are great for herbs and even forming tomatoes. Using these techniques, you can easily turn your backyard into a small plot that produces all kinds of fruits and vegetables.

You can also go the ‘organic’ route by growing your vegetables this way. There are many concentrated organic fertilizers available that will help your plants thrive. One or two capfuls of concentrate in a watering can once a week can do wonders for the size and flavor of your crop.

Depending on the space available to you, these are just some of the plants you can grow in a backyard:

Tomatoes. There are many outdoor variants available now that don’t need a greenhouse to produce lots of good sized, good tasting fruit. All you need is a large pot to plant your seed in and provide a tall pole for the plant to climb. . A tomato is a vine, don’t forget, so it needs something to cling to. Give it plenty of water and some organic fertilizer once the blooms appear and you’re on your way. You can even wrap it with a polyethylene sheet to create a greenhouse effect. He will love you for it and give you a better harvest. Cut the top of the plant to about six feet and also cut off any small side shoots that will appear at branch joints. This will force all the nutrition into the fruits instead of producing new side shoots. You can start your new plants indoors in February and plant them outside once there is no chance of frost. There are also training varieties that you can put in hanging baskets. When they are in the fruit they look good and they taste good.

potatoes they are the next good harvesters for you to grow. We found that after a week or so, the bottom of a bag of potatoes contained at least half a dozen tubers that were beginning to produce seeds. Small green shoots appear with tiny hairy roots that probe for water. This is exactly what you want and you shouldn’t throw them away. Collect them and every two weeks put away a new bucket containing the seed potatoes. Place about an inch of peat or clay soil in the bottom of the container. If you live in a rural area, you have a gold mine of organic fertilizer at your disposal. I need to say more! A cover of this valuable organic fertilizer, be it cows or horses, will ensure that the seed potato has enough food to go on. Cover the ‘fertilizer’ with another inch of peat or loam. Water well and set aside for a few weeks. Once the green shoots start to come out of the soil, apply another couple of inches of soil. New potatoes grow from nodes outside of the main stem, so the longer you force stem growth, the more potatoes you will get. It takes about 4 months from sowing to cultivation. Depending on how much space you have, if you plant a new container every two weeks, after your initial four month period, you’ll have a weekly supply of potatoes absolutely free.

Onions they are another good option for growing in containers. Standard onions, spring onions, Paris onions, chives, and shallots are all good choices for container growing. Onions need plenty of water and a regular supply to keep them from sloughing off. All onions can be sown fairly thick and as they grow thin and use the thinnings in salads, soups and relishes. You will be surprised how fast onions grow.

carrots are the next to watch closely. There are dozens of varieties available. If you have a deep container filled with soft peat moss without stones, then the long varieties will produce a beautiful, fully formed, thick carrot about six inches long. It is the stones in the ground that cause the deformities in carrots that make them look like a two-legged creature. Soft, pitted soil is the answer for long, soft, show-quality carrots. You can also get short, stubby carrots, which are great for container growing and are packed with flavor. You can grow parsnips this way after the carrots have harvested and let them overwinter for spring harvest. The choice is yours. Stagger planting times over three to four weeks to give you a continuous supply throughout the summer. A packet of seeds will provide you with months of fresh carrots throughout the summer and fall.

salads – Lettuce comes in dozens of varieties and grows very fast. A couple of packets of mixed lettuce seeds will give you fresh salad greens all summer long. Three containers are all you need. Start one in April, one in May, and one in June and you’ll have fresh salads all summer long. Simply take the outer leaves of young plants and the plant will continue to produce new leaves for you. If you can’t get a package of mixed lettuce, buy about four different varieties and mix all the seeds together. That will ensure that each of your containers will produce a few varieties to choose from.

Herbs They are ideal for growing in containers. All of the popular varieties are very hardy and will grow almost anywhere. They also make very pretty green plants for display and fragrance. We grow rosemary, sage, parsley, lemon thyme, coriander, mint, lavender and even ginger in pots. You won’t be able to grow ginger in a country like the UK. We had a great success this year because we had a temperature in the 40+ in August. However, all other herbs are easily grown throughout Europe and the United States. Visit our herbs page for more tips on individual herbs.

There are many other vegetables that can be grown in the container system; all depending on the space you have available for you. Beets, celery, turnips and parsnips can all be grown in containers, but they all have different maturity periods and planting times are more difficult to calculate to give you a regular supply. However, it can be done with patience and practice.