How To Save Money By Growing Your Own Vegetables; A Guided Tour Of My Vegetable Garden

July is the month when all my vegetable-growing efforts start to come to fruition.

Oh sure, I’ve already picked a lot of strawberries by now. I’ve also had a few fresh-from-the-pod peas.

But July is in many ways the “high point” of the vegetable gardening year for me – where all sorts of things start ripen and become overrun (in a good way!) with fresh, homegrown produce.

So, after starting out in April this year, clearing away weeds, planting seeds and planning for the forthcoming season I thought that some readers might be interested to see what I’ve got growing at the moment to give you some idea of what’s possible with a small vegetable garden and very limited time.

Oh yes – don’t go thinking that I’m a hardcore vegetable expert. Nothing could be further from the truth. In total I probably spend around 4 hours a week working on the veggie plot, with my girlfriend checking in just to water an harvest every so often.

So even if you only have just a few hours a week it’s entirely possible for you to save a surprising amount of money (as well as feel a surprising sense of satisfaction) by growing your own vegetables.

What I’m Growing Right Now

Firstly let’s talk about my trusty greenhouse. In here I’ve got some seriously good-looking tomatoes that are growing every day. They’ve still got a while till they’re ripe enough to eat but all the signs are pretty hopeful!

Next my capsicums (sweet peppers) are looking the best ever. Don’t ask me why; here in the UK I normally struggle even with a green house but it seems through a combination of trying a new variety this year (Californian Wonder), getting started early in the season and adding plenty of organic fertilizer we could be in for our best year yet of fresh, juicy peppers.

This is an outside view – showing just the end of the greenhouse in the distance. While it may look a bit of a mess – thanks to the purple sprouting broccoli in the foreground that I’m waiting to collect seeds from – what you can see growing away here in rows are leeks, peas, rainbow chard and mange tout. The peas haven’t been too successful sadly but I’m still harvesting so fingers crossed they’ll continue.

Also note the butternut squashes in the foreground. They’ve been slowly establishing themselves and are now just entering “growth spurt” phase!

Next up comes one of my trusty courgette (zucchini) plants which are just starting to go wild. Normally I’m so excited to get the first few off the plant but by the end of the summer I’m sick of death of them 😉

I’m growing two kinds of sweet corn this year. I’ve gone for both “standard” corn and also my old favorite the baby corn. All of it is doing really well and seems to be twice the size of most other people’s right now. I hope to be picking corn by the end of the month though of course it’s pretty weather dependent. Also, note the tomatoes in the foreground which are doing almost as well as the ones in the greenhouse.

I’ve got brassicas on the go too. This year I’m doing calabrese (broccoli) which has tiny little heads on and we should be harvesting in the next few weeks. There’s also purple sprouting broccoli in readiness for next spring, savoy cabbages and purple cabbages for a late summer/early winter treat.

The bugs tend to eat my brassicas to shreds during the summer – hence the reason for the “cage” to keep them safe. So far, so good…

Here’s a snap of my little strawberry patch. You can’t tell from the photo but I’ve got four different varieties there that produce fruit from June almost through to Christmas.

I’m a big fan of beans so this year I’m trying pole beans for the first time ever. The plant in the photo is still a youngster – in the last couple of days since I took this picture it’s shot up and is over a metre in height now with plenty of flowers coming. I’ve got a row of about 10 plants going so I have a nasty feeling I could have overdone it on the bean front this year!

Alongside this we’ve got melons, red onions, broad (fava) beans, beetroot and a few other bits and pieces on the go.

So there you have it – an investment of a few hours a week in exchange for a bounty of fresh, money-saving vegetables.

Do you grow any of your own vegetables? How far along are yours in comparison to ours? Leave a comment below…