Families who turn to The Good Life, like TV legends Tom and Barbara, and grow their own produce could save £2,000 a year if a salad shortage hits UK shops.
Tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage and raspberries are scarce in the shops due to bad weather and high prices.
Secretary of State for the Environment Therese Coffey suggested buying turnips instead – but tesco doesn’t sell them anymore, and Asda, Morrisons and Co-op do not mention them on websites.
Experts warn that potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli could be the next rationing, with some saying the shortages could last for months.
Fortunately, these are all relatively easy to grow at home.
If shortages persist, you can make more profit by selling nearby surpluses.
The National Allotment Association says the cost of running a typical plot is £247 a year and the value of produce grown on it can be as high as £1,900.
Families who turn to The Good Life, like TV legends Tom and Barbara, and grow their own produce could save £2,000 a year as salad shortages hit UK shops
Even if you only have a sunny balcony, a few tomato plants could save you £30 in the summer.
Leigh Hunt, from the Royal Horticultural Society, said: “Growing your own can save money, but novice Barbaras and Toms need to plan a bit at the beginning of the year before planting.
“See which fruits and vegetables you buy the most and prioritize growing the most expensive ones.
‘Carrots are cheap and easy to grow, but you save more by growing lettuce, for example. For example, you can cut off the tops of lettuce and arugula and they will grow back for several harvests.’
While it is much cheaper to grow some plants from seed, buying established plants in the spring is much more convenient and can still save you money. This is true for most fruits, including tomatoes and peppers.
In April you will see plants for sale in shops such as B&Q and Homebase. For tree fruits, you need to buy saplings that begin to bear fruit within a few years of planting.
Richard Borrie, of retailer Orange Pippin Fruit Trees, said: ‘Bare root young trees don’t have the immediate impact that gardeners are looking for, but they are much more beneficial in the long run. However, they can only be planted in winter, so buy them in the coming weeks.’
Vegetables such as onions, potatoes and lettuce are easier to grow from seeds or bulbs.
Usually you need to sow three to four seeds per grown plant, while bulbs, potato tubers and some seeds such as cucumber are one to one. ‘February and March are the perfect months to sow. We offer a range of £1 vegetable seeds, including tomatoes,” said a B&Q spokesperson.
But can a novice gardener really make a homegrown feast – or is investing in an allotment a recipe for famine?
Last summer my wife and I tried to grow our own in our garden and had some great harvests, but there were a few growing pains.
We started late (late June) so we didn’t grow anything from seed. We have five tomato plants, a strawberry plant, chilli plants and a few different herbs from Homebase.
We also have a six year old Discovery apple tree.
We have struck gold with our apples and tomatoes and have harvested hundreds over the summer.
In recent years we lost 90 percent of our apples to insects, but this time we kept almost all of them by spraying them with the right pesticides in the spring and early summer. Discoveries notoriously don’t keep very well, so we ate a few every day, as did our neighbours, friends and colleagues. There was some wastage though as dozens spoiled in the fridge before we could get through.
Experts warn potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli could be next in rationing, with some saying shortages could last for months
This year my wife plans to make homemade apple cider vinegar with the leftovers – a surprisingly easy task.
Our five tomato plants also did well – too well. We failed to pinch out certain stems as they grew (as advised on the Royal Horticultural Society’s website), which meant huge sprawling bushes that had to be held up by an intricate tangle of canes.
We easily ate half a dozen a day with salads at every meal and fresh tomato slices on sandwiches and supermarket pizzas.
A fresh off the vine with a piece of cheese quickly became my favorite snack.
We planted late, which meant the late season tomatoes were very slow to ripen, and we didn’t pick these fast enough to ripen them off the truss, which led to quite a bit of wastage.
This year we will plant and harvest earlier and from the surplus we will make passata that we can freeze for later use.
But our strawberry plant has given us very little in return for the amount of time we put into it.
We only picked one or two strawberries a day at the best of times, but they were delicious.
Our bay leaves, basil, mint and coriander did well and we had plenty of hot peppers.
It was incredibly convenient and rewarding to have fresh herbs in the garden all summer to cook with.
Unfortunately we forgot to bring the chilli plants inside for the winter and they all perished during the early frost. But on the bright side, we’re still cooking with the bay leaves we’ve grown.