Does Growing Your Own Save Money?

The honest answer (yes, if you are sensible)

Growing your own can save real money in the UK — but it is not automatic. Spend £200 on a fancy raised bed, peat-free compost by the trolley-load and a polytunnel, and you'll be eating very expensive courgettes for years.

Keep costs low and grow the right things, though, and the sums tip firmly in your favour. The trick is simple: grow what is pricey to buy and easy to grow, skip what is cheap in every shop, and waste as little as possible.

The crops that really pay

These are the ones where a packet of seeds replaces a small fortune at the till.

Salad leaves. A bag of supermarket salad costs around £1 and is slimy in three days. One £2 packet of cut-and-come-again lettuce gives months of picking from a single sowing — sow a short row every few weeks and you need never buy a bag again. Pound for pound, it's the best return in the garden.

Herbs. A supermarket pot of basil costs a couple of pounds and sulks within a week. A windowsill of home-grown basil keeps coming all summer for the price of one packet. The same goes for parsley, coriander and mint — all expensive to buy, all easy and generous to grow.

Soft fruit. Punnets of raspberries and strawberries are some of the dearest things in the shop, often £3 or more for a handful. The plants are a one-off cost, then crop for years — raspberry canes and strawberry runners practically multiply themselves for free.

Tomatoes. Decent tomatoes are expensive and the shop ones rarely taste of much. A few plants from a 99p seed packet will hand you kilos of fruit through summer. Grow a cherry variety and you're replacing the priciest tomatoes on the shelf.

The crops that rarely pay

Some crops are barely worth growing for money alone — they're cheap in every shop and take up space for months.

• Maincrop potatoes. A 2.5kg bag costs little, and yours need a big patch all season. Grow earlies for the taste of a fresh new potato instead — that's the real reason, not the savings. (More in our potatoes guide.)
• Maincrop onions. Cheap year-round and slow to grow. Onions earn their keep on flavour, not finances.
• Main-season carrots. Pennies a bag in shops; yours are tastier but no cheaper. Carrots are still lovely to pull fresh — just don't expect a saving.

None of these are bad to grow. Just grow them for flavour, freshness or fun — not to balance the books.

Keeping costs down

This is where the savings are really won or lost. Grow cheaply and almost anything pays.

• Make your own compost. Bought compost is a steady drain; home-made compost and leaf mould cost nothing but patience.
• Save your own seed. Let a few beans, peas or tomatoes go to seed and you'll never buy those packets again. See saving your own seed.
• Reuse and scavenge. Yoghurt pots as seed pots, old guttering for pea sowing, a neighbour's spare plants. Our guide to reusing and recycling in the garden is full of free fixes.
• Multiply free plants. Strawberry runners and rhubarb divisions turn one plant into many for nothing.
• Feed for free. Skip shop-bought feeds and make homemade plant feeds from comfrey or nettles.

The non-money benefits

Even when the pounds barely add up, growing your own pays in other coin. The flavour of a sun-warm tomato or a just-pulled carrot is something no shop sells. You'll cut food miles and plastic packaging, dodge the worst of the supermarket price swings, and always have something fresh to pick.

There's the quieter value too — time outdoors, the satisfaction of a meal you grew, and a steady supply that doesn't care about empty shelves. For most of us that's worth as much as the savings.

To get the most from your plot without overspending, plan the year so you grow the right amounts at the right times — our grow-your-own year plan walks you through exactly that, and the easiest crops for beginners are a sensible, low-cost place to start.