Budget-boosting homegrown crops
Weekend gardener
Readers were quick to respond when we asked if it saves money to grow your own food.
A few readers pointed out that although seeds and seedlings are cheap, once the cost of potting mix, containers, raised beds, watering systems, fertilisers, and pesticides, (let alone land and time) were taken into account, the final harvest was much more expensive than supermarket purchases.
But the overwhelming majority agree that homegrown food saves money in the long run.
Perpetual spinach and silverbeet
Top of the poll, these cheap and cheerful greens earn their place in the garden, especially over winter. They are versatile in the kitchen and crop over a long period if you keep picking the outer leaves.
■ The very best vege for growing yourself is perpetual spinach. It keeps growing for ages and can be used raw in salads, but also in soups, stir-fries, fritters, quiches, stews, so you always have a green vege.
— Kerry Pell
■ Silverbeet ‘Bright Lights’. I twist off just the stalks and leaves I need, and it keeps growing more. I end up with a big fat stalk, and some leaves on the top! I grow them year-round. — Renate Slykerman
■ My best value for money crops are silverbeet and NZ spinach (kō kihi, Tetragonia tetragonoides); they are still going strong, despite the frosts.
— Sue Freeman
Spring onions
Spring onions take up very little space in the garden and are easy to grow from seed.
■ When I need spring onions for a meal, I cut them off about 5cm above the soil, rather than pull them out roots and all. They keep growing back. My current lot of spring onions are in their third year. — Renate Slykerman
Lettuce, mizuna, mesclun and microgreens
All sorts of salad greens are quick and easy to grow. Harvested leaf by leaf over several weeks they are fresher and tastier than any bag of mixed salad from the supermarket. You don’t need a garden as they’ll grow on a windowsill or in a container on a sunny doorstep.
■ Mizuna, ‘Drunken Woman’ lettuces and perpetual spinach are my top performers. New frizzy lettuces sitting under big clear plastic bins (as a mini glasshouse) are doing well. Six ‘Popeye’ spinach plants are thriving in a bag of potting mix with a few drainage holes punched in the base. — Carole Meredith
■ Sow cos-style lettuce from seed, almost year-round. My favourite is ‘Vivian’ from Kings Seeds. There are so many seeds in the packet and if you have too many you can always give them away. — Steph Liebert
Leeks
I was surprised how many people recommended leeks, but they are praised for their ability to stay put for months in the garden over winter, waiting to be harvested when needed. The price is right too, one shopbought leek may cost $5 or more.
■ One punnet with 19 plants cost the same as one mature supermarket leek. — Dr Monica Lewis
■ Leeks are a low maintenance vege, very good in winter pies, soups and stews. But you must get them in early for a good crop. No later than March in our area. A punnet of seedlings usually yields dozens of plants. — Marie O’Sullivan
Climbing beans
Does any crop give more food value, over a longer harvest period from such a small footprint in the garden? Climbing beans can be picked as young green bean pods, teenaged plump beans, middle-aged shellout beans and mature dry beans.
■ You will need to buy bean seeds for year one. But save a few bean pods each year, choose the biggest ones and plant them in early November. Do successive sowings throughout the summer for numerous crops. Purple pole beans are reliable and big croppers. Borlotti beans have a long season and can be eaten fresh or dried for winter. — Marie O’Sullivan
Tomatoes and beetroot
Nothing beats the taste of fully ripened tomatoes straight from the vine, but they really come into their own as budget beaters when the prolific harvest is preserved for later use.
The same goes for beetroot.
■ While preserving can be a bit of a pain in the hot weather, there are two veges my husband consistently grows in our raised bed garden for both economy and taste. We vastly prefer homegrown beetroot to tinned, so he grows about 100 plants that I bottle using my grandmother’s easy recipe in proportions of 1 cup sugar, 2 cups vinegar and 3 cups water. It’s economical, tasty and sees us through from one year to the next. We grow enough tomatoes to eat for months and to freeze into soup, puree, and stewed tomato for a year. Tomatoes need a bit of attention, but where we live in the Far North they tend to grow well. — Sheryl Bainbridge
Herbs
Perennial and annual herbs are well worth growing, they’re pretty enough for the flower garden, smell wonderful and it’s so convenient to snip a sprig or two for cooking and herbal teas.
■ Herbs do well in pots and parsley, oregano, marjoram, sage, rosemary, and mint are all easy to grow. — Marie O’Sullivan
■ Tired supermarket herbs are so sad compared to fresh ones. One punnet of basil makes a year’s worth of pesto. Freeze in ice cube trays. — Pam Watson
Rhubarb
Perennial rhubarb is a stalwart in many gardens. Lavish it with a rich diet of manure and compost and it will repay you with enough tender red stems for stewed rhubarb, crumbles, pies, cakes, and muffins.
■ Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, rhubarb all do well and save heaps of money. Rhubarb needs lots of food but it’s easy to grow. — Julene Burstall
Gardening by the maramataka
We are in traditionally the coldest month – Hō toke – but that has different connotations depending on where you live. Regardless, the influence comes from the star known as Takurua (Sirius), which represents the full onslaught of the cold. The full moon on Thursday will be the absolute coldest, so protect vulnerable plants as necessary. Perennial plants will move into a phase known as moe-hō toke or hibernation, and we can take advantage of this for tidying up and pruning, as the essence of these plants will be protected below ground. So prune your orchard and perennial trees and clean up the site to reduce any impact of lingering pests or diseases. Remember, many plants need exposure to cold in order to assist their maturity and flowering (such as cane fruits), so support their needs as much as possible – prune before Thursday.