What to grow...

[floatingshed]

I'm new to growing my own food. Last year as an experiment I tried potatoes, red peppers, chilli peppers, aubergine, loads of salad leaves and tomatoes. All very successful with the exception of the aubergine.
My problem is that all the stuff I grew successfully was so cheap in the shops that it didn't really seem worth the effort. Obviously there was a great sense of satisfaction and the freshness was a treat.

Any ideas for other less obvious crops would be welcome...

I am limited by the fact that I live on a narrowboat and everything has to be in boxes on the roof.

Thanks.

[Flo]

Salad things like lettuce are expensive in comparison to growing them and they will do OK in tubs. What about a few peas? You can do short ones in tubs too.

[Jandra]

Mangetout peas and sugarsnaps are usually very expensive. I'm not sure if you could grow them in containers, but don't see why not.

Jandra

[Millymollymandy]

Lucky you to have cheap tomatoes and peppers etc in the shops - they are very expensive in France. I would have suggested cherry toms as they cost a fortune here even in summer and ditto sweet peppers. I can't think of anything else to grow in pots that would save you money. What country are you in by the way as we don't know your climate?

[floatingshed]

Oops sorry. Climate can make quite a difference!
I'm right in the centre of England on the River Soar/Grand union canal in Leicestershire.

[Mrs Moustoir]

How about growing some unusual or heritage veg such as purple podded dwarf French beans, red spring onions, purple carrots? I grew all these this year for the novelty value and the beans in particular were very easy to grow.

Strawberries also grow well in tubs especially the little wild strawberry varieties and I can't imagine that you would have any problems with slugs and snails on your boat.

[Cheezy]

Your quite right buying seeds and growing veg is not always cheaper. But it's not just about that, it's about getting fresh seasonal, local veg, growing varities that are better for flavour rather than what keeps well on supermarket shelves.

However I heard a good discussion on GQT with Peter Seabrook about this. He was saying that the gardening community is trying to sell a life style to people under the impression it's cheaper. Without flagging up the fact that modern seed varieties are expensive, and not always reliable.

His advice was to buy non F1 hybrids so that you can collect the seed , and the following years the seeds will cost you nothing. The example he gave was tomatoes, he recommended red alert a bush tomato which is very prolific, good taste, suited to our climate good blight resistence, and you can collect the seeds . I bought some and I must admit its a great plant. I have loads of seed still from the packet, but once used up in future years I will collect the seed.

Another crop that you can do this with is garlic. I initially bought seed bulbs then for the last 3 years I have grown a years supply, plus extra to grown next years supply. If you choose the right variety you can store them in a cool place and they are good for nearly a year.

And finally, one of the things you can do when you grow your own is grow a lot of something. Then when you get the glut you can add value to it. Say freeze some so that you can eat it out of season when flown in stuff is expensive, or make jams and preserves out of it.

I've managed to get a glut in strawberry's (have 5 jars of jam), raspberries (3 jars, but still producing crop), blackberries (7 jars of hegderow jelly), french beans, (two big jars of whole sweet pickled beans, great with cheese, or even fish n' chips!),also went into piccalli with the cauliflower/courgette glut.(5 jars)
garden pea's, (now dried some for next years planting, but some for mushy peas), broad beans, (dried as fava beans, which are very expensive to buy.),
I have a tomato glut currently and I can't make up my mind to make, "sun" dried toms, ketchup or sauce.

The green ones will be made into chutney in the next couple of weeks (by the looks of the weather and the temperature at 13'C currently!)

[MuddyWitch]

The dumpy types of carrots grow well in buckets. You could grow spring onions in a window box style planter with tumbling tom cherry tomatoes over the edge.

Alot of herbs are better fresh and they look great in pots; try various mints (although you have to replant every alternate year or they sulk & die), parsley, thymes, sage (keep it in scale with regular trimming). A few chives in a pot look really cute & if you let a few flower you can add the purple tops to salad to add interest.

MW