[Kristen]

crops that I can't used the membrane on.

Which crops are you not using membrane on (i.e. decided you won't rather than haven't got around to doing yet )

I reckon for me its just Parsnips, Carrots, Spuds ... and I might use Cardboard on the Parsnips so it lasts the season and is gone by digging up time.

[Growster...]

Loads, really!

But Mrs Growster and I meet more and more  chums regularly, we laugh more, as the carrots just look that way sometimes, we give countless courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes away to friends, who presumably appreciate them.

We are usually seen, trundling our wheelbarrow down to 'The Patch' and are nodded to even by the sparest folk, so what is the value here?

Answer - Immeasurable in our small, green/red/purple, irregular bedded crop beds - about fifty plus this year', less next year...

Don't even try to cost it all out, because it really isn't worth it - if you're thinking of just money..;0)

[Comfreypatch]

Couldn't even guess, just grow because I enjoy it, total relaxation even when I'm digging! I just don't like the idea of chemicals on my food, try to buy only veg I can't reliably grow in UK. Have spent a lot on enviro mesh but it lasts years, same with the permeable membrane. I use it to cover beds after I have finished with them for the year, keeps the weeds down :lol:so not so much to do in the spring. I grow courgettes and squashes through membrane but no other crops. Surely it can only work if all the beds are the same size allowing for crop rotation every year. Unfortunately my beds vary considerably in size. It could be useful in my brassica cages(harrod  horticultural purchase) as I find it hard going bent double around the sprouts and PSB :lol:will bear that in mind for next year.

[cadalot]

crops that I can't used the membrane on.

Which crops are you not using membrane on (i.e. decided you won't rather than haven't got around to doing yet )

I reckon for me its just Parsnips, Carrots, Spuds ... and I might use Cardboard on the Parsnips so it lasts the season and is gone by digging up time.

Membrane used on Potatoes, Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Strawberries, Sweet corn and next year the Marrow and Courgette - All my full sized beds are 1.2m x 2.4m and the pattern of the holes in the membrane are there based on the spacing for the vegetables.

As you can see in the photographs I use timber / plastic and soft bricks (milk bottles filled with dry sand) to hold down the membrane until the plants grow through the holes. 

[Robster]

Like so many here I don't tot up my spend or the hours.  I would not count my hours at the lofty in the cost column either, no that would be in the profit column.  I must admit that some time when I harvest I think about it in terms of how much of the rental I have covered.  This year about 30 sweetcorn cobs thats about 50% of my rental covered.  I do it because it makes me smile, it's not serious.

It's the benefit of flavour quality and variety and varieties that started me off many years ago.  But now of equal value to me is the friendship, exercise and just being outside.  The benefit of connectedness to cultivation, the knowledge and skills that I've had to develop and hopefully continue to do so is also a source of satisfaction.

I do occasionally think about the number of hours of effort that is required with hand cultivation to win a consumable calorie from the soil.  I suppose the most efficient crop this year is potatoes.  I imagine my total hours outlay in soil prep planting earthing up weeding general TLC etc etc is about 20 hours for about three quarters of the potatoes we'll eat.

Least efficient would be my outdoor tomatoes maybe 40+ hours total and not a single tomato as they all had the blight.  But then I did learn something as I said earlier that has value.

It's a fascinating enjoyable hobby with so many great benefits.  As has been said by so many- priceless

[Steveharford]

I did my marrows and courgettes for the first time this year. What a difference. no weeds and all the fruit was beautifully clean. i will do my onions and garlic in the Autumn if I can get around to it.

[Kristen]

As you can see in the photographs I use timber / plastic and soft bricks (milk bottles filled with dry sand) to hold down the membrane until the plants grow through the holes.

Here's a couple of pics of mine (in the under-construction phase, I need to take some progress photos ...)


Laying Mypex for Sweetcorn


Leeks planted out - July 2014

[Aled]

I find gardening very good for the soul. So any time i spend on my plot is not time i can measure in monetary terms. I feel the same about when i'm spending time with the family, fishing, or shooting food for the pot.
My brain always feels washed clean. Priceless!
Cheers
Aled 

[Snoop]

I know how much I've spent, but really the amount of money is by the by. For the record, though, this year I've spent maybe a 100 pounds or so on seeds and plants (including a lot of my seeds for next year and the spring veg), 30 pounds on petrol, 15 pounds on muck, 30 pounds on sowing medium and 75 pounds for the rotavator itself. The plot is on our own land, so I don't have to pay an allotment fee. Overall, that's less than 5 pounds a week for veg for the two of us and our pretty constant and numerous visitors, plus the spoiled produce (bolted lettuce, overgrown courgettes, over-ripe melons and the like) that goes to the chickens. I rarely buy anything to supplement the veg except in winter (sun-dried toms and the occasional lettuce for salad plus courgettes). These last ten days or so, there were eleven of us and I bought a cauli and a couple of courgettes for a tagine and some red peppers for grilling, that was it.

I don't calculate the value of my time. I work from home and can't possibly sit at the computer all day. So an hour or so in the morning watering and then a bit of pottering in the evenings is my fun time. If I wasn't doing this, I'd be glued to YouTube or doing something else equally passive and unproductive.

I agree with Aled and lots of others who have posted here: my vegetable patch is a rewarding activity that is good for my body and soul. And that's what matters most of all. I would even go so far as to say that life here almost wouldn't make sense if I didn't have a vegetable garden.

[Salmo]

As you can see in the photographs I use timber / plastic and soft bricks (milk bottles filled with dry sand) to hold down the membrane until the plants grow through the holes.

Here's a couple of pics of mine (in the under-construction phase, I need to take some progress photos ...)


Laying Mypex for Sweetcorn


Leeks planted out - July 2014

How are you going to lift those leeks?

Back to the real topic. I spend a lot of time fishing. We anglers believe that time spent by the water does not count towards your three score and ten years. Probably the same applies to time spent growing things. Looks like I should make 100.

[Kristen]

How are you going to lift those leeks?

I'm planning to lift the whole sheet off at the time I want to harvest the first one.  It will be late Autumn, so no significant weed growth thereafter, so not worried if the soil is then uncovered for the winter

That's the plan anyway!