Is an allotment cost effective?

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Is an allotment cost effective?
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Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91ï¿½ N

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 10:44 am Post subject: Is an allotment cost effective?

Opinions?

If I don't count time and energy, or even discount the cost of getting there and back, by the time you've paid out for seeds, spare tools, hosepipes, whateever else you might keep at your plot does it really make economic sense? Particularly given that when you harvest will be when everyone else is in glut and your local farmshop and greengrocers will have their cheapest prices.

Not that I am thinking of giving up my plot, in fact I was thinking of taking on a second plot, but given that for what I paid for seed potatoes I could buy 30 - 35 Kilos from the farmshop is it sound economics or just a hobby?

Katieowl

Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Posts: 4317
Location: West Wales

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 11:18 am Post subject:

We had two ten rod plots in London...one year we managed to be entirely self sufficient in veg - including Potatoes and onions. It was incredibly hard work (especially as we weren't allowed a hosepipe and all had to be watered by hand!)

We came to the conclusion that it was probably better to grow the more exotic and less commonly available/expensive to buy stuff - Like Purple Sprouting broc, globe artichokes, soft fruit.

I guess it depends how much time and energy you have to throw at the thing

Now if you were able to grown something on plot 2 that you could sell on, or use to replace substantial amounts of gifts...??? We tried to think of stuff that would fit this category ourselves, and came up with herbs, cutting flowers, soft fruit which we could convert to preserves/liqueurs, willow for structures or baskets (But double check as not all allotments will allow you to grow willow - ours didn't!) and of course the one thing we really wanted to do with some extra land was keep some chickens, but having seen the amount of toing and froing that it involved for the girls who DID have chickens there, we knew we couldn't manage it! We decided we'd have to wait until we could have them 'on site' but lots of people do manage it...

Kate

VM

Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 1748
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 11:34 am Post subject:

I think it's hard to cost it like for like. Personally, and with less space (partner has two full plots) I'd not bother growing maincrop potatoes and lots of onions as we have a very good organic grocers/fruit and veg/everything near us. But partner likes growing own potatoes, so we do.

On the other hand we produce masses of soft fruit, which is very expensive in the shops - perhaps less so if you live in the country rather than town and are near farm shops or pick your own places - but still one's own fruit must be cheaper. As said above, we make lots of jam, chutneys, pickles, for ourselves and for gifts.

I can't really say if it saves a lot of money - we do produce about 90% of the fruit and veg we eat - and we cook for a lot of other people and give away salad to friends during the summer. But I think we eat differently than if we were buying veg - eat a lot more greens than would buy, I guess. Also most of what we eat has been picked the same day - which must make it healthy as well as tasty.

I guess it's mainly a hobby - but one which promotes social contact and community, uses land organically, keeps skills alive etc etc as well as producing tasty food.

But I expect you know all this - like I said, I think it's hard to do a direct comparison with shop-bought veg and fruit.

Now if you costed in the time one spends there of course, it would be a VERY expensive way of producing food!

Andy B

Joined: 12 Jan 2005
Posts: 3920
Location: Brum

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 11:37 am Post subject:

We gave our allotment up this year because it didnt make economic sense, it took up a lot of time and the onlt sesible use of that space was for crops like spuds and onions. We got two sacks of spuds that would have cost us less than a tenner, the seed potatoes cost us more than that, sames scenario for the onions. We did try some differnt varieties like epicure but found that the crop was heavily reduced by disease and slugs.
So we have opted to spend more time growing more expensive and unusual stuff at home under glass, we feel that our time is being bettter spent this way, we have also planted up lots of the borders with soft fruit, a bit in the style of forest gardening with Apples and pears under planted with Goosberries and loganberries and such like surounded by flowers to pull in the bees and stuff.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45432
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 11:40 am Post subject:

The biggest issue for us (we haven't had a veg plot for 2 years) is that you just can't get the variety in the shops, and it's never anywhere near as fresh as just pulling it up and cooking it.

Even on staples, home grown carrots vs shop bought, no comparison.

And you never have to panic about forgetting to buy something, just nip out and harvest.

But I can't imagine that it's even remotely cost effective.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 11:53 am Post subject: Re: Is an allotment cost effective?

Hugely, massively, enormously cost effective, especially if you concentrate on high value products. I grow only a few main crop spuds every year now because I can buy a sack of good local spuds for next to nowt. Same goes for onions. But I grow nearly all of our own carrots (think I've bought two or three little bunches of local carrots in the last two years), beans, peas, brassicas, salad crops, sweetcorn, tomatoes, tomatillos, courgettes, pumpkins, squashes, raspberries, gooseberries, leeks, rhubarb... I could go on.

Total cost per year is probably about £150, if I'm generous. At least thats what I've calculated from the last year or so.

You can do it cheaper than that of course; less varieties of vegetable, more seed saving, etc. But it ain't expensive!

SarahB

Joined: 09 Sep 2007
Posts: 869
Location: South Wales

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 11:53 am Post subject:

tahir wrote:

That's my take too. I grow stuff at home, no lottie, and it's fresh and tastes so much better and I know exactly what I've used on it. We eat more fruit and veg fresh from the garden and have jams that we've made too.

All manure/fertiliser is home grown too thanks to hens and guinea pig and a pair of compost bins.

I've not considered the economics really until this year.

Seed spuds cost me about £3 and I can get good spuds locally for the same price that will feed us for 2 weeks, or ok ones for 3-4 weeks. So if my approx 20 plants can feed us for over a month I'll be happy.

Other plants and seeds vary as to economics - but I think the taste/fresh aspect out weighs most other factors for me to an extent - I'm not stupid about it.

Having said that, it's time consuming and I know I couldn't manage a lottie.

Vanessa

Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 8324

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 12:11 pm Post subject:

I haven't got an allotment, but I do grow a lot of our own veg and fruit. Fruit is a bigger initial outlay, but the sheer flavour of soft fruit that has ripened on the plant (instead of being picked 2 days too early) is so wonderful it's worth it every time!

Veg ... I'd say we much more than break-even. We're nowhere near self-sufficient in veg, we haven't the room at home for that, but the cost of seeds isn't a lot ... so a pack of carrot seeds (for example) for about a quid ... as long as I pull a couple of kilos of carrots from that, I've broken-even.

I prefer to grow the less-available stuff, or things that, like the soft fruit, really benefit from being so fresh; you really cannot beat home-grown sweetcorn, for example!

I'd never-again bother trying to grow spuds or onions for us; they take up too much space, and are so cheap to buy, it's just not worth the effort. For me, anyway.

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 12:13 pm Post subject:

There is another side to this argument. Growing your own food is another way of working from home. If you work away from home instead then part of the wage/salary is needed to buy food you are not/can't grow yourself.

But the cost of going to work is often higher than we like to think. If you deduct the full transport costs of getting to work in the first place (train/bus fare/car tax/insurance/parking/depreciation, etc, etc.) not to mention indirect costs of clothes, cleaner(?), fast food, child care, lack of time so you have to pay people to do things, etc. then what you have left to live on is considerably reduced.

Sometimes money is used as the only yardstick too - there are others just as valid.

Of course there are loads of things that require cash but working less and producing more at home (diy repairs, etc) could actually make more sense - as well as the greater satisfaction of growing/making things for your self.

T.G

Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Posts: 7280
Location: Somewhere you're not

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 12:18 pm Post subject:

Most activities cost to start - but the next year and the years after the costs will drop some significantly.

You won’t be purchasing tools every year, and the crops you grow if you allow those possible to go to seed you collect seed for the next year etc. Some costs are ongoing, like the plot rent. But getting out into the fresh air; exercise you gain by getting up and doing it; social interactions; sense of achievement from the first shoots to when you harvest are all added benefits.

Katieowl

Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Posts: 4317
Location: West Wales

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 12:28 pm Post subject:

Something else I just thought of too...if your plots are not adjacent you will spend a lot of time going from one to t'other looking for *insert tool of choice* I
It might neccesitate (as it did for us) a second set of tools for the other shed (or indeed a second shed if you don't have one...)
I don't think we were particularly disorganised either, but it was very common (especially as I was site sec.) for one or the other of us to get way-layed by other plot holders en-route to the other shed for a natter, costing us valuable time!

Kate

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 12:37 pm Post subject:

Lets think... Two packets of leek seeds this year, allotment catalogue, total cost I think about £1.20.

Three old packs also, total cost about £3.00.

Total cost of leek seeds therefore £4.20.

A pack of leek seeds lasts me about 3 years.

So... £4.20/3 = £1.40 per year for the five varieties of leek seeds.

5 pots (used over and over, and originally scavenged for free), 5 lots of compost (a very small amount indeed, lets say 20p), soil conditioner was a mix of manure (£20 per load, so say about 30p worth!) and a wheelbarrow load of compost or two from my own heaps to condition the soil. Liquid fertiliser for leeks is from my very own portable biological trouser-housed dispenser.

I planted leeks out yesterday. Had many, many seedlings to spare. Planted 75 leeks. Previous experience tells me that they nearly all survive; lets be a pessimist and say 70 leeks will make it.

So the total financial cost would be £1.90 (lets round it up to £2). For 70 leeks. I'm trading the spare leeklings, I think I'm likely to get eggs in return, but we won't count that.

I make that less than thruppence a leek.

Edit: Of course if I just wanted one variety of leek, I could do that with one pack of seeds, but it wouldn't last three years. Lets say its mussleburgh, lets say it costs 60p in the allotment society catalogue, that comes to about a penny and a half per leek.

Last edited by cab on Tue Jun 01, 10 12:56 pm; edited 1 time in total

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 12:55 pm Post subject:

The original plotholders did it to save money, a true allotment person will never miss an opportunity to either save money or get something for free.

A well run site will organise the bulk purchase of fertilisers and seeds, especially seed potatoes (very cheap by the sack - I've spent a Sunday morning weighing out spuds, my contribution to cost cutting). Manures are often free or only delivery costs. Seeds are cheap, the packet can last for two or more years, some can be grown, for example this year I have given away several packets of climbing bean seeds and received seeds for parsnips and barlotti beans.

My costings indicate that the rental cost of the land required to grow one red cabbage is 7.35p, seed (based on actual plants grown from a packet): 5p, lime works out at about 4p per plant (the soil is very acidic), plus marginal costs = 20 to 25p per cabbage. The average weight of my cabbages last year was 6lb each, the cost in the supermarket (IIRC) was about 47p/lb. Basically, the "profit" from a 14' x 4' bed of cabbages covered the rent for the whole of the plot.

Has any Downsizer ever gone out an bought 4 kilos of raspberries? (Plants = free - from the nextdoor plot, fertiliser = none, rental = 90p)

I'm sure I could do better, which is one of the reasons I while away the time chatting to old gardeners (some on my site are almost 80) and lurking round this forum

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 1:05 pm Post subject:

Gosh... Space! Hadn't costed that.

Lets assume an average size of 250 square metres.

Lets assume also an average cost of £25

10 m2 is therefore £1, per year. About 40 inches by 40 inches is 1m2.

Assuming planting the leeks six inches apart (mine are, a little less many of them, but its about that) thats 36 leeks per m2.

Two and a half pennies per leek. Thats assuming doing nowt else in that space in a year.

So thats taken the cost per leek to about fivepence.

Edit: I am, of course, an idiot. 10m2 is indeed a quid, so the 1m2 for 36 leeks is therefore ten pence. Or in other words the increased cost per leek isn't about tuppence, its about 0.2p, an irrelevance.

Last edited by cab on Tue Jun 01, 10 1:36 pm; edited 1 time in total

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 10 1:05 pm Post subject:

oldish chris wrote:

The average weight of my cabbages last year was 6lb each,

Blinking heck... Thats impressive.

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