Interested in growing your own vegetables and fruits? These 5 plants are certain to save you money and are well worth trying to grow at home!
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Guest post from Courtney of The Kitchen Garten:
I absolutely love gardening, and while many people envision this hobby as a way to save lots of money at the grocery store, that isn’t always the case.
Large slicing tomatoes, which we can eat by the pound in the summer, are notoriously difficult to grow to maturity with birds, disease, or neglect getting them first.
Then there’s the actual cost of soil, trellises, and maybe even a raised bed that cuts into any savings a gardener might expect.
Thankfully there really are some herbs, fruits, and vegetables that can be grown at home that add up to savings each week at the grocery store! These easy-to-grow and harvest varieties taste better than their store-bought counterparts, and you get the added bonus of exercise and outside time that comes with gardening.
Vegetables & Fruits You Can Grow to Save Money
Grape Tomatoes
Notice I didn’t say all tomatoes. Grape tomatoes, and other small varieties, are heavy growers in the summer season. They can bear for months from a single plant that could easily cost only $2.
One pint of grape tomatoes at the grocery store can run between $2 and $5 dollars depending on if you choose organic. If your family purchases a pint each week during the summer, you could see a savings of at least $36 — even if you’re only opting for the cheaper pint at the store.
Raspberries
One small half-pint of raspberries can cost up to $4 at the grocery store, and you have to be really careful there are no rotting berries under that label.
Two years ago, my family and I planted two raspberry canes in a flower bed at the side of our house. They now produce abundantly in the summer and into the fall.
We are easily saving $50-$60 each summer in not buying raspberries. And if the plants produce more than we can eat, my kids have had the entrepreneurial idea to begin selling them to friends and neighbors.
We don’t spray our raspberries with pesticides, so our berries are high quality and delicious — a win for everyone!
Blueberries
Blueberries are one of the easiest berries to grow, and they are easy to freeze for use all winter long.
Blueberry half-pints from the grocery store range in price from $3 in-season to $5 out of season. Our single bush produces more than a gallon each summer, and everyone loves going out to pick them.
We’ve now added three more bushes in our side yard. They blend in easily with the landscape and save us lots of money in the process!
Herbs
This past summer, our daughter planted four different types of herbs to use as a summer business. Herbs grow prolifically if they’re tended and pruned. Bunches of cilantro and parsley can cost between $1 and $2 at the store, though the distance they’ve traveled to get to your store can be hundreds, or thousands, of miles.
Fresh herbs like cilantro, basil, dill, and stevia can be grown easily each year. While hardier herbs like parsley, sage, thyme, rosemary, and oregano can be perennials in certain areas, so they’ll come back year after year.
These herbs can easily be dried at home, cutting down on those pricey bottles of dried herbs ($2-$4 each), not to mention the fresh herbs in the plastic packaging in the refrigerator section of the store. (And don’t forget that you can also freeze extra herbs!)
Also, have you ever bought one of those plastic herb packages in the cooler section only to use half and the rest dies a miserable death in the back of your fridge? Guilty as charged.
Lettuce
Many lettuces are a “cut and come again” crop. This simply means you can harvest as many leaves as you need for your family’s meal, and the vegetable plant will continue to grow!
Many lettuce plants, such as romaine, can be grown in a container on a porch or patio and save you dollars each week at the grocery store.
Spinach, arugula, and spring mix are the same way. Harvest what you need, and they keep growing. (Bonus: You’ll also be able to skip the recalls on e-coil tainted lettuce!)
Most romaine packs and clamshell containers of salad greens are $3 to $5, so that $2 package of seeds or container of plants will go a long way to saving money in your weekly grocery budget.
Even for those of you who don’t consider yourselves gardeners, planting a few of these items can really help save you money! And I think you’ll learn that growing your own vegetables and fruits isn’t as hard as you think. Gardening isn’t a natural gift for most people. It’s a practiced skill, and you can be a gardener, too!
Courtney is a master gardener and owner of The Kitchen Garten — a site committed to helping people learn to garden with tips, tutorials, and fresh recipes using garden goodness. Grab her free email series: How to Start a Garden to start your own green thumb adventure!
Psst! Crystal here! Want more help saving money on groceries? Go here and sign up (it’s free!) I’ll send you my 10 Easy Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill By $50.
