How to save money and live better with a self-sufficient garden

With everyone concerned about the rising costs of living, the garden is the go to place where you can make changes to save money and reap big benefits from the changes. 

For many years I have been gradually becoming more self sufficient and, being of a naturally thrifty nature, am always on the look out for ways to shave off pounds from our living costs. Here are ways that I find can radically reduce costs without a downturn in living standards – the reverse in fact!

Cut Your Fuel Bills

Climate change means we are having more storms, more winds, more extreme temperatures and floods. Few people understand how effective shelter belts can be. The wind chill factor is big. This is the temperature that a person feels because of the wind. 

For example, if a thermometer reads 1C (34F) outside and the wind is blowing at 25 miles per hour, the wind chill factor causes it to feel like it is -6C (21F). We don’t like it – nor do plants. 

Shelter belts though, can lift and filter the wind to around 10-20 times their height so can really reduce our heating bills. Obviously, if you plant a shelter belt this autumn, it will take a few years to develop height and density to give benefits. However in five years you will start to reap rewards and then they improve year on year. 

Most of our winds in the UK are south westerlies, so I planted mine 38 years ago on the south west boundary (and on my neighbouring farmers land with his permission) and also planted a series of yew hedges running north to south to increase the wind filter effect. 

The microclimate has massively changed. The previous owners hated the horrendous winds (we are atop a hill) but now we are pretty balmy. If you don’t have enough space for a small copse, even a hedge will help.

Acquiring Plants

My hoarding borders are essential to my garden. I use these small beds to grow on cuttings I’ve rooted, before planting them into the mainstream borders. They can grow to a decent size in a more cosseted environment. 

I also use these beds if I’m cleaning up a border, in which case I will move the plants (making sure to clean their roots from any unwanted bits of bindweed, couch and the like) temporarily to the hoarding border while I clean up the main border. 

My mini nursery with four small hoarding borders is key to keeping my garden stocked with great plants, often ones not easy to buy, and they cost me nothing. 

Furthermore, they are great gifts, better than a fine vintage wine! My Aquapod speeds up rooting, so these borders can get very full – my new rose meadow is nearly entirely formed from home grown plants.

Growing Your Own/Making Your Own

It is useful to have some protected cropping for year-round veg. My greenhouses are both home made from reclaimed window frames. They cost me £1,000 and £2,000 about 25 years ago, and still look pretty good. 

They have produced tons of produce over the years. One is sunken to help retain heat in winter. On one of my jobs, they had a totally sunken “stove” house, which just had a glass pitched roof at ground level, and this apparently never fell below freezing.

Veg

I will have lots of cut and come again leaves in my cold frames and raised beds, sown a few weeks back, plus my tomatoes generally keep going until Christmas, looking manky but still productive enough to retain. 

After Christmas I replant the old tomato pots (using the existing compost) with young salad crops and radishes, which have been growing in cell trays. My root crops I leave in the ground and dig when needed (parsnips, beetroot, potatoes, and carrots), and mostly they survive pretty well like that – I don’t have time to lift and store. Celeriac, though, is more cold sensitive so these go in a bucket in a frost free shed. I have even been lifting young fennel bulbs as late as November and December in our recent mild winters. 

I always aim to keep all my raised beds planted throughout the year for produce and to stop the lashing winter rains leaching and damaging the soils. They keep us in vital winter veg, such as sprouts, leeks, cabbages. 

Growing your own means you can have things that are difficult to buy. Next spring, I plan to try the bitter gourd, Kerula. I already have wasabi, a fabulous curry plant (essential in Indian cooking), Buddha’s Hand Tree, a hardy Yuzu tree, plus a finger Lime Citrus tree. All are productive and inspirational to cook with.

Buying Trees

Research all grants available for tree planting; there are many different organisations targeting different groups and sectors. 

If you end up paying for the trees yourself, track down a good wholesale nursery that deals in bare root transplants. My local wholesaler, DoubleYew Nurseries will sell a minimum quantity of 25 native trees (60-90cm in height) at around £1.00 each. 

Plant small trees no bigger than 900mm high to ensure easy and fast establishment, do not stake but do put on a spiral rabbit proof guard if you are subject to rabbit attacks. Consider planting a mini “micro forest”, the Miyawaki method. These grow much faster as the trees are planted 500mm apart or closer.

My shelter belt is productive in other ways too: fallen wood for firewood, and we annually fatten two free range pigs in the understorey. The pork is second to none. Our edible lawn mowers, a handful of Soay sheep and Dexter cattle, both easy and ideal for small holders with a paddock, also graze the understorey at times as they love eating the fallen leaves.

What people don’t always realise is how trees moderate the environment; evaporation from their leaves cools temperatures on hot days and condensation warms the air at night. 

They also use, collect, enrich and properly direct water so helping alleviate flooding. So its a win-win all round. 

Bulbs

The bulb sales in January are always worth looking at. Bulbs will be disposed of if not sold, so its worth looking out for great offers. Smaller bulbs are not so good planted this late, but tulips are excellent candidates. Your choice will be more limited though.

Saving Seed

This is obvious, and can save a fortune. The key things to remember are to collect when dry, remove chaff and get the seeds out of the seed pods. Store them in air tight containers in a dark, dry cool place.

Herbs

I use many herbs, as they can radically alter the most basic dish. Add a small handful of French parsley to shepherds pie and you don’t need salt. 

I have a square metre of each of my favourites: thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, mint and basil (on my window sill), which I pick year round. 

I blanch lovage in spring by putting a terracotta forcer over it so I have succulent young shoots ideal for chopping in salads. By blanching many crops, including dandelion leaves and endive, you temper the strong flavour and make it less tough. 

I use many for herbal teas: thyme, mint, lemon verbena, rosemary, ginger – so much better than any herbal teas you can buy. Herbs reduce inflammation and improve your microbiome so it’s a tasty, healthy, great value drink. 

Recently, it has been shown in studies that quantities of herbs and spices used in culinary amounts can reduce inflammation even after a high cholesterol meal. So getting into good habits by consuming a wide range of herbs can really help to keep you healthy.

Compost and Mulch

With the new peat ban on compost at retail outlets, many are asking me what to do as they are finding the new substitutes give very inconsistent results. 

My wholesale horticultural supplier, Dejex who are based in Spalding, say they are happy to deliver pallets of peat based compost to clubs, groups of gardeners or individuals. 

They supply most horticultural items, from canes to organic and inorganic chemicals, and secateurs.

For mulch, I get free loads of Ramial (shredded young wood) delivered free from my local tree surgeon. It is brilliant to boost organic matter and help your soil build up good levels of humus, essential for good drainage and water retention.

Sourcing timber AND stone

Timber has increased in cost, but by buying from a sawmill as opposed to a retail outlet, you can make savings. For tables, benches and raised beds, I order the cut sizes I need for the different elements direct from them so it is fairly straight forward to assemble. 

Since 1997, I have been dealing with Malan Odedra, who runs Indistone with his son Sam. He imports all sorts of stone (including roof tiles they have used on historic buildings in Oxford) paving slabs, and setts. They are wholesalers and retailers and are the best value supplier I know. No swish catalogue with evocative sounding stones, but they will do pretty much anything. I have sent him photographs of antique stone urns which he then gets copied for me extremely reasonably. 

Facebook Marketplace, eBay, the Nextdoor app and other great second hand websites are good sources, too.

I freely admit to being an addict. I am just about to collect a pair of antique stone urns, bought on eBay for £24.

Sourdough

Finally, making sourdough bread is not mainstream gardening, but because you feed your own starter, it does become unique to you and grows and develops like a plant. 

If you love sourdough, making your own is a no brainer. At 60p a loaf, it is far cheaper and far better than those you can buy in artisan bakeries. 

Don’t forget you can use your old starters in many ways in the garden. Diluted sourdough starter can be a liquid feed, you can dry it and add it to the soil, put it in your bokashi bucket or wormery or, do what I do, and use it to feed the chickens!

Heating Your Greenhouse

Keeping part of my greenhouse frost free is key for my tender plants. I have tried building compost heaps inside them but you do need to add green material continually to keep generating heat and you need to keep vermin away.

Water barrels are a good way to absorb the heat releasing it at night. If you just partition off the minimal amount you need to keep frost free and use a good insulator, such as polystyrene, to surround it, you can then keep this space above freezing. 

I use a Heath Robinson device by putting five long-burning tea lights on a paving slab, which I enclose with four bricks.

Next, I place an upside down terracotta pot over the top and cover the drainage hole with a crock before adding an outer terracotta pot.

Once lit, this tiny device generates a fair bit of heat. Interestingly, polystyrene, just 3/4inch thick, has the same insulation value as 9 inches of brick work or 24 inches of stone, so start collect any packaging to create “a snug” for your greenhouse for any freezing nights.

Watch Bunny’s videos on Youtube: Pigs in the Garden; Gardening Hacks 101; Save Money Grow Great Plants