For something that cost me less than R7,000, you need to sit up and listen when you hear it can pay for itself between one and three months. If you eat salad or vegetables or drink green juice or smoothies, I highly recommend you read this.

So we’ve had our Urban Freedom greenhouse for a few months now and besides the fact that we don’t buy any salad ingredients anymore (besides feta and avo) you just can’t beat tinkering away in the greenhouse on the weekend. I personally prefer to do it with Italian opera playing on the battery-powered wireless in the background – a cold Grolsch and some cheese on the side completes the picture.

Can you spot it?

I chatted to Luana from Urban Freedom, who specialises in greenhouses for people who don’t have space and those that do. Her family lives and breathes organic. Just listen to this:

If I have to use my brother and his wife with 3 kids as an example – with regards to their juice in the morning – I would estimate he saves a minimum of R100 on greens a day. And that’s just for the product. This excludes the travel, the carbon footprint you are boycotting as well as GMO Monopoly farms. The list goes on.

But for an innocent little smoothie in the morning he saves a minimum of a R3,000 a month and its guaranteed organic! They get all their salad ingredients from there, tomatoes (all heirloom varieties), the beans they eat often and berries for the kids.

For a healthy family of 5 like his – the greenhouse pays itself off in under a month. Easily.

Check out urbanfreedom.co.za and give yourself something cool and meaningful and money-saving to do in your spare time. It’s exactly what you need to spice up your unhealthy, dull, repetitive existence.

Here are some more pics of my greenhouse and greens. Even works at night time!