15/04/2022
~ How to save money growing veg at home & our big greenhouse spring-clean! ~
Spring in your step this Easter?
Whether you’re a seasoned gardening, long-term foodie, or a complete novice - there’s never been a better time to grow-your-own. It’s been a difficult start to the year for everyone, so we want to focus on positive, individual change; the kind of change that can make a real impact.
We’re all used to the go-to reasons for growing-your-own, whether it’s to eat straight from plot-to-plate, find some head-space, or just enjoy your own green space outdoors - but right now, it’s never made more financial sense, too… In our first broadcast of the year - we want to introduce ourselves, and explain how growing-your-own can be a great choice for your bank account as well. If you’re after a healthy investment - read on!
Kick-start your growing-year with Ergrownomics. The container revolution starts here.
Save money, live better.
ONLINE ONLY - There’s a long-standing myth that by home-growing, you’re automatically set to save money. Sadly, that’s not entirely true - and for lots of crops the bottom-line often works out cheaper to buy direct from your local market, instead. Nevertheless, there’s definitely a wide selection of money-saving crops you can grow at home… you’ve just got to think smart about it.
For example, take your ordinary line lettuce. We’ve worked out that by purchasing an Ergrownomics Two Planter, you can earn £37 back within your first year alone, simply by growing line-lettuces! What’s more, you’ll save hundreds of pounds every year thereafter, thanks to our planters’ award-winning and patented functionality, producing up to 100% more yield from the same space than traditional methods! Even better, all of this is underpinned by our passion for sustainable construction and focus on durability - manufacturing entirely in the UK, with a ten year warranty and a forty year design-life!
First thing’s first, let’s establish what not to do. Take carrots, for example. There are certainly plenty of reasons to grow carrots at home - they taste better, contain more nutrients, are satisfying to grow, and can also come in a wide variety of shapes and colours! That being said, if a pack of carrots cost 50p at the market, then growing your own might not be the best use of time (from a purely financial stand-point), but high-value or high-yield crops are a different matter entirely. To save money, you’ve got to think about what you buy most regularly - and for most people, that means leaf crops.
Bagged leaf-lettuces, spinach and rocket may seem inexpensive - but the frequency of the purchase can quite easily mount into surprising figures! For argument’s sake, let’s agree a 100 gram bag of organic mixed-lettuces costs £2. This being the case, and knowing that two Ergrownomics containers can yield 300 grams of organic line-lettuces a week, that’s a saving of £6. While that might not sound like a game-changer on it’s own, multiplied over 52 weeks that’s a total cost of £312!
The argument to this might be that you can’t grow lettuces all year long, or harvest that intensely, but happily that’s not true! Using the Ergrownomics training system, you’re able to pick from the base of the lettuce, which encourages re-growth at rapid speeds; using this method, you’ll avoid just harvesting the entire plant at once and having to resow/regrow from scratch (cut-and-come), meaning you can get months of harvest from a single plant, and watch the savings mount!
Secondly, it’s indeed possible to grow leaf crops all year long. There’s a wide range of winter lettuces available, perpetual spinach (so named for it’s resilience), or fun alternatives like Purslane (miners’ lettuce), which can make a great substitute. Yes, you’ll need a greenhouse or polytunnel to get the most from the experience, but as an alternative we do offer a range of affordable cloches which can achieve similar results at a fraction of the cost!
Finally, you might argue that no one can eat 300 grams of lettuce in a week, and though it is a personal choice, we think it’s very easy to achieve! Home-grown lettuce tastes entirely different to store-bought, with different varieties taking on different taste and texture characteristics; we think it’s great fun experimenting with a huge range - from hot and peppery, to sweeter and more mild. Moreover, when you’ve grown-your-own, the lettuce is only metres away - fresh as possible and packed with nutrients. Whether it makes a salad on it’s own, fills out a sandwich, or as a garnish to a larger meal, we think it’s an easy, cheap, tasty and - best of all - healthy addition to any diet!
In summary then, if a Two Planter (with all accessories, a choice of colours and range of three heights to choose from) cost £275, then that’s a saving of £37 within your first year, just growing lettuces! Composts, topsoil and seeds can all be fairly inexpensive, and there’s plenty of money-saving hacks available for them as well! Factoring those in you can still certainly break even within year one, with nine years of warranty left to go! So then, if you want to invest in your health this year, try an Ergrownomics raised planter; good for you, the planet, and for your bank-balance.
Sound like a deal? Shop now
Your special Easter offer…
Times are tough at the moment, and with that in mind, we want to help how we can. We manufacture all our planters within the UK, from the highest quality components, to ensure they can last upwards of forty years constant use. As for everyone, our costs have skyrocketed, but we’re working tirelessly to try and keep things as affordable as possible. For the Easter weekend, we’re offering a choice of two special promotions; choose between a free planting-tool and perlite (worth up to £63) or a 5% discount off your planter (worth up to £24.25); just choose the offer that’s right for you!
Free planting-tool & perlite offer
Enter the code ‘EasterSpecial’ at checkout, and we’ll include our brand-new planting-tool with your order (£15), PLUS enough perlite per container to produce our optimum recommended growing-media mix (£12 per container). You’ll also automatically receive lifetime access to our Owners’ Area, where instructions for this (and much more) can be found!
5% discount offer!
Keeping it simple, this is a straightforward 5% discount on any of our standard planters, with your choice of colour and height. Use code ‘NewSubs’ at checkout, as a little thank you from us!
Spring clean your greenhouse!
In other news, it’s been a busy week at Ergrownomics HQ. When we’re not rushing around mixing soils, topping up planters with compost, or sowing seeds for container-growing R&D (1000 varieties tested and counting…) — there’s still plenty of odd gardening jobs to go round! Spring cleaning isn’t the most luxurious job in the world, but it’s the right time of year, and there’s definitely a sense of satisfaction that comes from getting in done! To help out, we’ve made a handy little video on how we spring clean our own greenhouse, working step-by-step through what we do to keep the space (inside and out) looking good as new, and kick-start the growing season! A greenhouse is arguably the most valuable asset a gardener can own, so it’s good to give it a little TLC every now and then… At the absolute least, it’s a satisfying watch for cleaning-enthusiasts. Check it out here.
A note from the Editor
Hi everyone, I’m Jamie, Managing Director of Ergrownomics. It’s great to have you with us – and thanks for reading to the bottom – we hope you’ve found it interesting! If you’re wondering why you’ve received this email, it’ll most likely be from our partnership last year with Yeo Valley, where you said you’d like to hear from us again. As a quick ‘get-to-know-us’, we’re an up and coming start-up launched at the end of 2020, and since then racking up a number of awards, most recently in partnership with Dobbies Garden Centres at RHS Chelsea! We’re passionate about what we do, and determined to offer the absolute best growing system on the market - with uncompromising support, made entirely in the UK. For more info on our range of premium raised planting systems, head over to our website, and if you have any questions or queries then please don’t hesitate to fire them over. We’d love to hear from you.