Growing Salad Vegetables:
Greenhouses used to be very expensive and probably still are but the cheaper alternative being the polytunnel allows us to grow our salad vegetables for an extended period of the year. Also in recent years salad vegetables have been bred to be available for longer periods.
Most people have been accustomed to having their vegetables cleaned and washed when they have been purchased from the supermarkets. Most salad vegetables are washed in chlorine based water treatments to remove not just the dirt but any bacteria and organisms which may be present, which is the worst ? the bacteria or chlorine which is a toxic poison, The answer is grow your own.
Polytunnels have come way down in price in recent years and are now available for just a few hundred euro upwards. Is it worth spending this money to grow your own vegetables ? Well that is down to you but if you know what you are putting on and into the vegetables then you will be in control of what you are putting into you.
If you are just growing salad vegetables for yourself then these will most likely be consumed as fresh so you will need to plant in a staggered way so you have a few vegetables available to you each week to consume throughout the growing season. If you are growing salad vegetables to sell then you will have to time their harvest and stagger their planting for the time that your customers require these salad vegetables. You will also have to grow what they require and not what you want. Growing for yourself is growing for what you want..... Growing to sell is growing for what they require and when they want it because salad vegetables are consumed fresh only.
Taking this into account your polytunnel has to be planned around what you intend to grow in it for yourself and what can be grown elsewhere in your vegetable garden. If you are growing to sell then your polytunnel has to be suitable as regards size for the crops that your customers require. It is no good turning around to a customer and saying I cannot supply you any more because I have sold out or they are not ready . Your customers will just go elsewhere if you let them down.
Very Important:
If you are growing your own food for yourself or to sell what is the point if you are causing more food to be thrown away than what you would normally be doing if buying from a supermarket, or causing more energy to be used in your little venture than what would be used in a more efficient operation?
Your food growing venture has to be efficient, cost effective and have zero waste, this can only be done by making a plan and sticking to it but also allowing for mishaps and disasters. It is better to produce far too much food than you need as long as that excess food is put back into other food production like animals so reducing the amount of bought in animal food, it is pointless to dump or compost excess food. So the keeping of animals is important for ensuring that your vegetable growing plan is efficient and has zero waste, or the trading of this excess food which can be used as animal feed to someone who can provide you with meat.
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