We've got a tiny back garden, so all we can really grow in it is some herbs (a bay tree, rosemary, sage, thyme and in the summer basil, parsley and oregano). We've got a friend with a similarly tiny back garden who has planted fruit bushes around the sides (blackberries, red currants, gooseberries.)

We have also got an allotment, but it took us over three years to get it. For the first year or two the council seemed to keep losing our application. Eventually we started sharing a patch with a friend who already had one, and other allotment holders told us that the waiting list didn't really work in a linear fashion, and that it would be a lot quicker if we pestered the lady in charge regularly to show that we were genuinely keen - which worked.

Our only tip after the first year would be don't plant too many courgettes - they're like triffids - they take over and end up as ginormous marrows if you're not careful. (We're having another courgette glut again this year. It turns out there's even a book called "What Will I Do with All Those Courgettes?", ISBN 0952488159).

I'm a bit sceptical as to whether you really save all that much money by growing your own vegetables, given that you can buy them so cheaply in the greengrocers or supermarket, although it is true that on the allotment you do also tend to get given a lot of stuff by other people who have grown more than they need.

Where you do make a big saving though is that time on the allotment (and you do need a lot of it just to keep the weeds under control) keeps you well away from any shops, thus keeping your Saturday expenditure to zero...

The allotment is good fun (apart possibly from the endless weeding). There is a great sense of community. On ours there are lots of other families with kids who can all run around together without the chance of getting run over. We've even got a swing at one end of the allotment that wouldn't have fitted in our back garden.

If you can't get hold of an allotment you might be able to find a local garden share scheme, where people exchange garden space in return for produce. They are springing up all round the country. Here's the Brighton one:

http://grow.transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk/

Just google for one near you.

The Royal Horticultural Society has a good website with lots of advice on growing your own fruit and vegetables:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/growyourown/

Wilkinsons do very good value garden tools. Typically less than half the price you'd pay in a garden centre for a similar item:

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com