[mad mark]

I have bought two packets of lettuce and mixed oriental lettuce and thats it so far. I have some spuds which we let go to seed, organic, and then plant into black bin bags on the tarmac outside the house, I have cabbages growing in bags overwinter, tomato seeds growing up in the living room in my newspaper pots along with strawberry seeds, purple sprouting, cauliflowers are heading up too. I dont have enough land in my very small cottage garden so have started didgging up the lawn and planting in there, much to the oh chagrin!!!! Might buy some raspberry canes to start off. Strawberries I have going from last year and replanted some runners in a home made box from an old bed. An old kitchen from a friend who didn't want a skip is now a raised bed and I plan to raid a skip I have seen with pallets in, when I can find someone to ask....need more raised beds.
Any one put a raised bed on tarmac or would I need to dig up the tarmac? Could make the bed really deep I guess........Cheers 

[Trillium]

In seeds, I've spent about 22 pounds equivalent this year, some of which I sent to friends. But this year I must make a lot of raised beds around the edges of my septic system so I had to buy lumber, about 50 pounds, and concrete blocks to replace rotted edgings of sloping beds, another 50 pounds or so, and about 90 pounds for a bunch of new blueberry bushes, cranberries, some eating grapes, another apple tree, everbearing raspberries and some strawberries. Won't need to replace them for a lot of years so its an investment year.   

[Bombers]

I've spent:
£10 on my 1/2 allotment rent
£18 on a full load of cow poo
£7 on my seed potatoes
£9 on my packets of seed.
__
£44
__
__

I know that i will still have to purchase some other bits and pieces, but that will soon be recovered when my first harvest is ready (Broad beans/spring cabbage/first earlies/garlic etc).
Ohh. and I scrounged some chilli seeds too....  (Cheers Sadgit  )

[Stripey_cat]

I spend probably about £20 on compost each year, but some of that is for ornamental patio pots, not vegetable-raising.  The allotment is £30, and I probably spend another £15-20 on things like fertilisers, seeds and bulbs, string and other sundries.  The big expense this year is about £30 on some fruit trees, but that's an investment for the future!  So my total expenditure for an allotment and a smallish town garden is probably to the tune of £100.

I also have RHS membership, which is forty-something a year, but that's from the entertainment budget rather than gardening.

[argaric]

One of the guys at our site has been keeping a record of what has spent for the last two years. He has taken into account the time has spent (minus the time and expense of shopping) on the plot and come with a rough figure that for every £1 spent on the plot he gets £3 worth of veg.

I have spent about £30 so on spuds and some new seeds.
Just had a look on one the supermarkets websites and they are selling Purple Sprouting at £6 per kilo (I know you can get it cheaper elsewhere). So far I have picked about 4 kilos from the plants (with more to come) and the plants cost £4.65 last year for 15 plug plants.

This year I am going to start working out the price of the veg I pick compared against the cheapest I can find and do the maths. I bet I come out better than buying the stuff 

Regards,
  Argaric

[digalotty]

with spuds fruit canes and seeds im just edging £50including £12on galvanised pots but still got to buy compost

[carrotboo]

This is our first year so it's going to be expensive, not from the seeds but from getting the ground ready, like hiring a rotorvator!   Due to family connections our seeds shouldn't be too expensive.

We had a good start with our free compost bin   I think of the cost of buying supermarket veg and think even the cost and labour are a far better saving.  Once my spring bulbs have gone I'm replacing my window tubs with herbs and salad leaves.

[Can you eat that?]

This is a tough one , on one hand I'm very very mean and love saving money on the other I like buying different and therefore usually expensive seeds.  But I've started saving seed from the previous year, even tomato which is a bit more fiddle than most.

The one thing I have noticed down at our plots is a lot of new growers seem to go in for what amounts to very fancy building work for no purpose. One of my neighbors plot is sporting a beautiful fence suitable to keep cows out but will do nothing to slow the average bunny up.

[pumpkinpatch]

this year ill probably spend £5 iv got all my seeds from crops and old seeds the old seeds still seam to work why not re use them buy in bulk one year buy the od the next   

[p00rstudent]

ok i have hardly been frugla at all my allotment in the first year, though i think for what i have, it is a bargain.

i have 3 plots broken up into various sections

plot one
has two sheds ( first one cost £90 the second one about £20 as i built it out of pallets but had to buy a hammer, nails, saw, screws, hinges and padlock) plus 2 plastic 8x4ft green houses (£200). and holds all my raised beds (cost of a few nails, but these were left over from the pallet shed) plus 4 blueberry bushs (actually i didnt buy these the girlfriend did but still should be included so thats another £24) 4 apples trees costing £7.99 each (call it £32), and two munty bean frames (cost £4 for pegs and ball of string again made from skip dived timber) and a loo again cost of a couple of hinges and nails

plot 2
is divided in to 5 parts
4 large beds for maincrops, 1 for potatoes, 1 for peas, 1 for brassicas and currently 1 for my wheat experiment (cost £24 on a spade and fork, plus a sore back and some nasty blisters) a fence running along the back to act as a wind breack (cost nothing built from pallets) now i spent £20 on seed potatoes but thats is for 30kg of them so i have more than enough, i spent another £20 on some fencing pins and 50m roll of chciken wire which i plan to use to grow my peas up. (should last quite a while though), plus the cost of pea seeds £7.50, brassicas (seeds cost me about £3 but with plenty left over for this years sowing, about £10 on pots and £14 on compost)

then there is the fruit bushs running along the edges that came from poundland and likes there are

20 black currant bushs (£20)
7 goosebarry bushs (£7)
12 blueberry bushs (£12)
12 raspberry canes (£12)

it also has two manure pens (free built from pallets)

then there is the chicken coop and pen that is 10m x 10m

for this i needed 40m by 9ft 19g wire mesh which i bought for £60, the coop i bought for £80, say £15 on staples, nails, hinges locks etc, automatic pop hole opener £90 (not necessary but as it is only me looking after them i like the contingensy if i fall sick and cant make it down there) £10 on scaffold netting for the roof, 5 apple trees and 1 pear tree (costing £4 each total £24) £3 on tree guards. i have also planted 10 blackberrys around the edge (again poundland ones so £10) plus £30 on feeder and drinker, i have 8 warrens living in there which cost 7.50 each ( £60) plus 20kg of feed £7 which i had planned to last 20days but i have only had them for a few weeks (i will be 3 on sunday) and as of yet havent finished the first bag so will say £7 a month for now so £84 , with mite powder grit and oysetr shell etc costing a further £25, straw costing £4 but this only lasts a week so actually costs me £208 a year

then i have the thrid plot.

this has a shed on it ( that is used as an escape from the weather) cost of nails, left over roofing felt, some perspect sheets but not too much)

it also has an orchard on it consisting of

6 apple trees ( costing £6 each so £36)
2 plum trees ( cost of £7 each = £14)
1 nectarine ( £6)
1 cherry (£4)
1 peach (£4)
1 olive (£2)

the rest of it i am in the process of building a vineyard consiting of

48 vines at £2.50 = £120
16 posts ( £32)
200m of wire rope £20

so in short thats a lot. not really frugal at all but i have been working down there on average 30 -40hrs a week for nealry a year, and most the expense has been on tools thats will be reused or buildings that shouldnt need replacing any time soon.

so the running cost should be as of 2nd year.

£120 on rent
£300ish on chickens
£40 on seeds and potatoes

so about £460 ish. still not overly frugal but i will easliy produce that vaule of fruit, veg and eggs from the plots in a year.

so money well spent i think

[Bombers]

I would really like to see some pictures of that poorstudent!  sounds fantastic!

[woodburner]

I dread to think what I have spent for my veg growing.
Significant items are:-
50m of rabbit fencing,
50m of temporary fencing, to be used for the chickens later,
enough lamp hooks to support 50m of fence, (less corner posts which were reclaimed from somewhere and left for me by the previous owner of my house. )
a big roll of fleece,
ground cover fabric,
ring culture pots,
30 raspberry canes,
9 blackcurrant bushes,
about 3 dozen strawberries,
seed potatoes,
and then there's all the seeds ofc

[vetskh]

Wow p00rstudent,
Your allotment plots sound amazing. bet you can't wait til late summer autumn when you can start to see the fruits of you labour (and budget!).
 

[matron]

I try and do frugal and then I visit Wilkos 

[mad mark]

Wow there is money out there after all, what happened to the credit crunch or is everyone just staying at home this year and growing stuff?? Poor student is going to have a busy backend of the year harvesting and picking that lot, most envious though the hours you put in I dont think my wife would put up with me being out in the garden for 30 to 40 hours a week. OH says she might after all!!!
I've just bought some raspberry canes 9 for about 15£ bit expensive but got three varietys so they will last a decade I reckon. Some sunflower seeds for £1.55 for my daughter. Some seeds for free off my brother who shares his seeds with me and vice versa so we dont end up with too much stuff.
Morrisons is still seeing my food money every week so roll on the end of month when I can eat some of my early lettuces.