The Food Club

Setting a Budget for Your Project

Posted on 28. May, 2009 by Justin.

I've been asked by quite a few people what I've paid for the work I've done in my garden. I had a budget of £1000 in my head before I started this year but thought you might all be interested in seeing how it all worked out. 

Greehouse Purchase - £550 
Removal of my old Shed, Flattening the ground and install of the greenhouse  - £200
Raised Beds - £153
Greenhouse Staging - £94 
Soil and Compost - £60
Plants, Fruit Bushes, Seeds and Pots - £100
Weed Membrain and slate chippings - £32 

 Total cost - £1189

I'm a total of £189 over my budget with very little left to spend this year. By my calculations it should take me about 3 years for all this to pay for itself  and to get a return on investment. I'm expecting my greenhouse to last for 15 years and the raised beds for 5 years. 

I'm going to write a post towards the end of the season to calculate the total amount of money I think I've saved by growing my own.

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Raised Beds are Filled with Soil

Posted on 21. May, 2009 by Justin.

As you can see from my previous post I've recently installed raised beds. Building the beds has been the easy part, the hard part has been moving soil in my garden to fill the beds. I've had to buy 8 bags of top soil and 3 bags of compost extra to fill the beds. Each bed is 6 x 4 ft in size with a depth of 1 ft, this means I've had to move half a ton of soil for each bed. 

If you are thinking about installing raised beds don't just buy top soil from the garden centre. I've found the bought soil I used is extremely sandy and doesn't hold the moisture very well. I've used a mix of soil from the garden, bought top soil, compost from the garden centre and compost from my bin. Even with this mix of organic matter, the added layer of top soil from the garden centre has meant the beds are extremely free draning and as a result bone dry in no time. 

My top tip for filling the beds is to incorporate a mix of well rotted organic matter (compost and manure) to keep the moisture in. 

Here are the photos of getting the beds filled, I've even put some paths into between the beds. 

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Building Raised Beds

Posted on 25. Apr, 2009 by Justin.

I've been battling for the last few years to improve the quality of my soil with little success. As a result I realised it was time to experiment with some raised beds. This will quickly solve all my heavy soil issues and provide a fantastic growing medium. 

I have two major problems ahead:

1. I already have veg growing in my plot which I'm going to attempt to transplant so I can put the beds in place. 
2. As the beds are quite large I'm going to have to bring in new soil which is a major undertaking, due to the volume required. 

I'll be keeping you upto date on this project as it develops. You can see how I got on building the beds from the photos below: 

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Greenhouse Staging

Posted on 23. Apr, 2009 by Justin.

As you will see from my other blog posts, I've recently had a greenhouse built. The main difficulty is that I didn't have a suitable work top so I decided to order some aluminium staging. I had put some temporary shelves up but these just weren't cutting the mustard. 

With great excitement I took delivery of the staging and you can see how this has fitted into the greenhouse. I'm over the moon with the finished result.

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The Saga of a Greenhouse

Posted on 01. Apr, 2009 by Justin.

As you will see from my last blog post I had my greenhouse arrive last month with great excitement. Unfortunately I had to wait between the delivery and the workmen arriving to put it up but at long last the work started! They were tasked with removing one of my sheds, putting in a base for the greenhouse and then assembling the greenhouse. The pictures show you how things turned out: 

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Arrival of a Greenhouse

Posted on 15. Mar, 2009 by Justin.

I ordered a greenhouse last month from my friends at Poplar Tree Garden Centre and it arrived this week with much excitement. I'll be writing a post later about getting it assembled, so watch this space! 

I'm going to be removing one of my sheds, putting in a concrete plinth and then assembling the greenhouse. My handyman is coming to help on the 23rd of March so hopefully I'll be able to update you then.

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