Gone to seed

Growing your own veg has become a popular pastime. Some people think it is no cheaper than buying vegetables once you take into account the cost of seeds, fertiliser, and all the other accoutrements that go with working the land. However, there are lots of ways to make the process cheaper and fresh, organic veg is undoubtedly good for you, as is the exercise of digging and weeding. St Darby has already lost his tiny paunch since Spring arrived and digging has begun in earnest. I can't say that it has had such a good effect on me but my legs are stronger so the arthritic knees hurt less!
The first big saving is fertiliser. You do not need commercially produced fertiliser, if you compost household veg waste but you may not produce enough. A friend suggested we put our perenniel weeds that we dug up, last year, in a bin with water for at least three months.They stank to high heaven when you lifted the lid but after a year, we have a marvellous brown liquid to be used, well-diluted, to fertilise the crops. Our manure  for the allotment comes free from a racehorse training stables and is well rotted. This year I am going to try to make comfrey fertiliser, too for our kitchen garden.
Given St Darby's abilities with the circular saw and timber scavanging, most of our  vegetable beds are now in wooden frames. We have not discovered a free alternative to timber preservative, although I would not be surprised if there is one.
Save old lolly sticks, washed, for plant labels. Use plastic bottles for cloches and sleeves to protect young plants from slugs and plastic supermarket trays for seed boxes and the clear ones for lids.
We are fortunate to have access to spare soil which is very fertile to fill pots. I discovered some time ago that morrisons sell the black pots they use to hold flowers very cheaply. These can be made into flower pots for tomato plants if you drill holes in the bottom. St Darby gladly obliged!
Despite the year being at the low point for fresh veg, we are still picking purple sprouting broccoli, leeks, Swiss chard and rainbow chard that we planted, last year. All in all, a good crop!
Last but not least. Lots of seed can be saved from the harvest of one year. I have kept some very fruitful "polish" climbing green beans going for five years now from a handful I received from a seed swap and given seeds to others. Oh, yes, seeds swops are marvellous! As are ,Lidl's seeds which are amazingly cheap and very productive.
You won't go to seed if you get growing and planting and it's so good for lifting depression, too!