Save Money by Growing Your Own Produce

Grow your own

The huge rise in the cost of living is encouraging many of people to start growing their own produce. Gardeners are ignoring the supermarkets in order to grow their own at the very least to supplement the food they buy.

Seed purchases on the rise

Figures from the Horticultural trades association show a 31% increase in the sales of vegetable seed to householders, and a corresponding 32% decline in the sale of flower seeds. Sales of young edible plants like tomatoes and marrows have also doubled and far more herbs are being grown.

The Royal Horticultural Society and seed companies have confirmed this by saying that vegetable seeds sales are now outstripping flower seeds for the first time since the second world war!

Suttons, which sells nearly a third of all household vegetable seeds in the UK, said this week that there had been a massive increase in vegetable growing in Britain. “We are seeing a big move away from flower seeds to vegetables. There has been a dramatic rise in things like sales of onions and potatoes. Spuds in particular are nearly 60% up on last year, which was 20%-30% up on the year before,” a spokesman said. This year the company expects a 30% increase in its sales of UK vegetable seeds.

Brits are also increasingly keeping chickens in their gardens in order to avoid the rocketing price of eggs, as a number of DIY chains reported a steep rise in the sales of chicken coops.

Carrie Pailthorpe, from Garden Organic, also encourages “growing your own” as the cheaper alternative to paying supermarket’s ever-rising prices for staple products such as fruit and vegetables.

“Whether it’s in an allotment, a small vegetable patch or just a few window boxes, the produce grown will certainly save pounds rather than pence,” she added.

Demand for organic food rose sharply in 2006 to an estimated £1.937 billion, according to the Organic Centre for Wales.

It added that over the last ten years the area of land under organic management in the UK has increased ten-fold from 60,000 hectares in April 1997 to 619,783 hectares in 2007.

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A Guide to Green Cleaning Products

What’s in the products you use to clean your home? The warning signs on the labels may read: avoid contact with skin, do not inhale or causes severe burns, yet we still use them every day.

The residue in cleaning products that goes down the plughole can pollute our water systems and harm aquatic life. All in all, these chemical-based products aren’t always good for our wellbeing or the environment – even if they do make our bathtubs sparkle a treat. There are also ethical issues, such as animal testing, so if this concerns you read the companies’ policies carefully and make up your own mind.

What to avoid

When opting for cleaning chemicals, take a moment to read the label and look out for harsh chemicals, such as:
chlorine bleach (to clean stains)
ammonia (used in products such as window cleaners to make them sparkle)
phosphates and phosphoric acid (often used in toilet cleaners and limescale removers)

Homemade alternatives

There are natural remedies that can be used as an alternative and many people swear by the following:
white vinegar - gently cuts through grease
lemon - act as a natural anti-bacterial
bicarbonate of soda – works as a deodoriser
But if you’re not ready to go for old-fashioned alternatives you could try ‘eco-friendly’ products instead. New, all-purpose cleaning ranges are bursting onto the market by the dozen, claiming to reduce their impact on the environment. Products like this often brand themselves with terms like ‘gentle’, mild’, ‘plant-based’ and ‘non-toxic’.

But just how eco-friendly are these products really and do they actually work? Here’s a rundown of just a few of the options available.

The eco-friendly cleaning guide

Method

Range: Includes ‘non-toxic’ all-purpose sprays and biodegradable or flushable wipes. Specialist cleaners available for surfaces such as granite, wood, stainless steel and leather.
Eco credentials: Free from harmful solvents, ammonia and bleach, this non-toxic and biodegradable range uses natural plant and mineral derived ingredients. The bottles are reuseable. Not tested on animals.
Price: £3 for an 828ml all-purpose spray.
Efficiency: Prettily packaged and nicely fragranced with scents such as lavender, pink grapefruit and cucumber. The products work well on grease and grime, and produce a ‘satisfying’ foam - especially the washing up liquid.

Ecover

Range: Ample selection of laundry, household cleaners and washing up products made from plant-based ingredients.
Eco credentials: A pioneer in ‘green cleaning products’, Ecover produced phosphate-free washing powder long before it was seen as a harmful ingredient. Perfumed with plant-based ingredients, it’s biodegradable and the packaging is recyclable and made from recycled materials. Refill bottles available. Not tested on animals and suitable for septic tanks.
Price: £1.29 for 750ml toilet cleaner, from Sainsbury’s.
Efficiency: Pleasant smelling but these solutions seem rather mild. The ‘decalcifying and freshening’ toilet cleaner is surprisingly effective, but you may have to use a bit of elbow grease to get rid of any limescale marks around your bathroom. The washing up liquid is a little on the thin side, too, but is effective enough.

Sainsbury’s

Range: The Cleanhome range features a washing up liquid, fabric conditioner, toilet cleaner, liquid wash, washing powder and dishwasher tablets that ‘avoid unnecessary chemicals’.
Eco credentials: Uses plant-based biodegradable ingredients, but contains chemicals – 5 per cent to 15 per cent oxygen based bleaching agents and 5 per cent non-ionic surfactants, phosphonates and polycarboxylates in its dishwasher tablets, for example, and under 5 per cent anionic surfactants in its toilet cleaner. Packaging is recyclable or made from recyclable materials. Not tested on animals. Price: From 85p for washing up liquid.
Efficiency: Works well and smells pleasant. The dishwasher tablets are particularly effective, leaving your load sparkling.

Natural and clean

Range: Selection of stain removers specifically for upholstery and carpet.
Eco credentials: The range contains no toxic chemicals or volatile organic compounds, which are harmful to you and the environment. It uses a dry, highly absorbent natural biodegradable cleaning compound. Packaging is kept to a minimum, but not all of it is recyclable. Not tested on animals.
Price: £14.95 for a Try Me box.
Efficiency: Microsponges, - ‘sponge-like granules that absorb dirt when agitated into the carpet fibre’ - play a large role in cleaning the carpet fibre. Although you might not get the carpet looking as good as new, you’ll get very close.

Tesco

Range: The ‘Naturally’ range includes an ample range of cleaners, including a washing up liquid, multi-surface spray, bathroom cleaner and various laundry products.
Eco credentials: Ingredients from plant extracts such as coconut, maize and sugar, and does not use synthetic colour. It’s free from phosphates, chlorine bleaches, enzymes or animal derived products. Recyclable packaging. Not tested on animals.
Price: 98p for 750ml toilet cleaner.
Efficiency: Competitively priced products that work just as well as your ordinary cleaners. An added bonus is that the multi-surface spray doesn’t leave a heavy residue like some sprays. However, the range could probably do without an unnecessary ironing water solution.

Natural House

Range: Bestsellers in the range include the Surface Spa, Dish Spa and Bathroom Spa cleaners.
Eco credentials: Claims to trade ethically and is registered with the Vegan Society, and carries the Soil Association Organic Standard stamp. As many ingredients as possible come from organic plants and no GM materials are included. Recyclable packaging and not tested on animals.
Price: £5.35 for the Salad Spa spray.
Efficiency: Effective range – the Salad spa, which helps remove dirt from organic products and surface chemicals from non-organics is a particularly interesting product.

Kilrock Products

Range: aquo refillable trigger head cleaning spray.
Eco credentials: With the view that 98 per cent of cleaning products are made up of water, this product works well at reducing water consumption and packaging. You fill the bottles with water and they can be used up to 20 times and then recycled. The solution is chemical based, but the formulation uses EU approved biodegradable surfactants and is phosphate free.
Price: £3.29 for a bottle pack, £2.29 for a refill.
Efficiency: Reusing the bottle is definitely a good idea, but the product isn’t the greenest on the market.

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