What do you grow that really saves you $$

[Kanga]

Spin off question from an earlier thread on saving money. A poster asked if we were really saving money gardening.

 

There are some plants that I grow that save me a lot of money (tomatoes, onions, squash, cucumbers, raddishes, and lettuces), some plants I grow because they are fun (watermelon and pumpkin), and some that I don't grow because it doesn't make economical sense to do so (potatoes).

 

I am going to be expanding my garden next year and I want to know what vegetables you think save you money to grow yourself. Would it be worthwhile to grow broccoli and celery? I would love any suggestions that you might have.

[Sara R]

First of all, ask your neighbors what grows well where you are. Everything I've read says that celery is hard to grow. Swiss chard, on the other hand, is easy to grow. It has a celery-like stalk that we use to replace celery in our recipes. The leaf is like spinach. Swiss chard tolerates heat and cold well, so it's a winner at our house. Plus there are seeds that grow different colored stalks, which is cool.

 

If you can get broccoli to grow where you are, go for it! In a lot of places you can plant this in the fall (i.e. plant in about July) as well as the spring.

 

We grew potatoes for the first time this year just to see how it worked. It was pretty easy.

[Kanga]

Sara-

 

I had never thought of growing swiss chard, but I think I will add it to my garden next year. Thanks.

[gardening momma]

This year, tomatoes and pumpkins. I grew grape tomatoes and some sort of heirloom tomatoes for slicing & dicing. Both were very good, and still going strong, it seems. I picked some more today.

 

About two years ago the girls got some free mini pumpkins from somewhere they went with their grandma. The pumpkins sat on our front step until they rotted, and then I shoveled them off into the mulch. The following summer a pumpkin vine grew from that spot, and we harvested about 15 mini pumpkins. That year I vowed to dump them in a corner of the backyard so we could grow pumpkins there, but I forgot again, until company was coming over, so I hurriedly shoveled the rotten pumpkins off into the mulch and swept a handful of mulch over them. This year we had another lovely pumpkin vine! Free pumpkins! Next year I'm going to try to (purposely) plant pumpkin seeds for larger pumpkins in the backyard.

[E_Edgerton]

We don't have space for a proper garden, but I think the biggest money saver and space saver for that matter is herbs. They are easy to grow and if you use them a lot in your cooking (which we do) they save you a bundle at the grocery store. Having basil, chives, rosemary, thyme, and cilantro makes me a very happy and thrifty cook!

[Shelly in VA]

Zucchini is easy to grow and prolific, but it does spread out and cover a lot of space. We have also enjoyed growing peas and green beans. I also love to have a blueberry bush, but they do take 2-3 years before they bear fruit (it's worth the wait, though - one bush on the side of our house produced blueberries for the summer for our family and several neighbors for a few years, until we had to move and leave the blueberries behind. :sad: )

 

Shelly

[Amy in NH]

Strawberries and corn. That's what I'm expanding my garden for next year.

 

I've done herbs, but they are a pain to harvest and store. Not worth it when I can get a pound of organic herbs that will last me a couple of years from co-op for only a couple of dollars.

 

I agree with peas and green beans. They are easy and save us money.

[Cricket]

Definitely berries, if you can grow them where you are. Back in Oregon we were so spoiled. We picked wild blackberries. We would freeze piles of them to last us a year. We hit all the u-pick berry farms for raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. Berries are so expensive at the grocery store.

 

Also, fruit trees are great. We had different kinds of cherries, pears, plums and apples. We didn't have peach trees but several orchards were nearby. I almost didn't have to feed the kids all summer long. :)

[suzf242]

Garlic, which is free and easy to replant. Also rhubarb. I haven't bought either one in years, though, so I don't know if I'm really saving much.

 

We also like acorn and butternut squash. Seems a lot cheaper to buy the seeds than the produce.

 

Suzanne

[Ali in OR]

Oregon berry growers here...and that definitely saves us the most money. I used to buy them at the Farmer's Market and any type of berry is usually $3 per pint. We have enough blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries in the yard now to satisfy our summer fruit munching needs. I go to a u-pick place to pick a ton of blueberries to freeze and another place for enough raspberries to make jam to last us a year. I also think that herbs can save you a lot of money if you cook with fresh herbs. We grow basil just to go with our tomatoes--several recipes that use a lot of tomatoes also use fresh basil. Carrots and onions are convenient to have on hand but don't really save much money. Corn isn't worth the amount of space it would require--we don't have that big a yard or garden area. I'm hoping to try my hand at green beans next year--have never tried them.

[newbie]

I am not a grower, but the new house has fruit trees and olive trees. My question is what do you do w/black olives are they safe to eat.

 

It seems like a waste to let them go.

[Melissa in FL]

The vegetable I spend the most money on is cucumbers. Part of this is because my fussy husband doesn't like the seeds so I only buy the long english cucs. So the first thing in my garden is cucumbers. They are the one veggie everyone will eat and we eat several every week. I won't grow carrotts, everytime I have they are woody tasting and they are so cheap to buy (we go through a five pound bag a week). This is the first time we have gardened down here and so we planted a little of everything and we'll plan our next garden (spring) based on what grows.

Melissa

[Kanga]

I am glad to hear that you think berries are a good idea because I planted lots of strawberries, blackberries, and gooseberries this summer to get a jumpstart on next year. I am going to add raspberries next year. Now, you have me thinking about adding some blueberry bushes. I like berries because they are edible landscaping!

 

For those of you that grow peas and green beans do you have a steady supply through out the summer or do you have a large harvest all at once? If you have a large harvest, do you flash freeze them?

 

Gardening momma- have you ever seen seeds for mini pumpkins? or should I just throw the mini pumpkin that Rew received into a mulch pile?

[Kanga]

I am not a grower, but the new house has fruit trees and olive trees. My question is what do you do w/black olives are they safe to eat.

 

It seems like a waste to let them go.

 

I haven't lived in olive land for a long time, but you pickle them.

[Nicole M]

One thing that has not been mentioned is plums. I have a hybrid European / / Asian plum that bears on one single tree over 100 pounds of fruit. This type of plum usually sells for $4 / pound at the farmers' market. I make preserves that are to die for, and we have enough for a year for ourselves and as gifts.

 

I think this is the variety we have:

 

http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/productdetails.cfm?ProductID=C180A

 

Oh, and someone else mentioned herbs. I grow lots of parsley and I find this to be economical because there are many dishes I make that aren't the same without parsley (Jambalaya, for instance). When I buy a bundle, it usually ends up moldy in my fridge, so having it fresh is preferable. And I let it re-seed freely, so we have parsley available about 8 months of the year.

[Lucy in Australia]

Great thread! It's a very good idea to work out what's worth toiling over in the garden and what's not. For my part (bearing in mind that we live in Western Australia, so conditions are likely to be quite different), I've found that lettuces, beans & peas, cucumbers and tomatoes and especially herbs save us the most.

 

I use a lot of different fresh herbs in my cooking, and it saves so much money just to be able to pick exactly the amount you need for that particular meal. Not to mention that so many herbs seem to re-seed themselves (not sure if that's the correct gardening term:001_huh:), like parsley, that after a while, there's actually not much work involved at all.

 

And for what it's worth, don't even try celery. This is the third year that I stubbornly tried it - NO MORE :glare:. I know when I'm beaten...

[newbie]

I haven't lived in olive land for a long time, but you pickle them.

 

No clue about pickling.

[Paintedlady]

We grow tomatoes, hot & green peppers, green beans, strawberries, carrots, green onions, chives, probably 10 different herbs, pumpkins, and sunflowers.

 

We grow all of them to save money and b/c they're organic and fresh. Especially herbs are awesome. When I'm making dinner I can go a snip a bit of something. Herbs are very expensive!

 

The sunflowers we grow for fun and to feed the birds/squirrels. The pumpkins are our most anticipated crop and we love that we probably save about $50 every year by growing our own.

 

Some things we grow in pots and others we squeeze in between perennials or wherever I can find an empty spot in a bed. I don't do a tradtional edible garden bed.

 

ETA: I want to add garlic to my garden next year. My sister grows tons of it and I'm so jealous.

Edited October 14, 2008 by Paintedlady

[Kanga]

No clue about pickling.

 

This site has lots of recipes for pickling olives http://www.oliveaustralia.com.au/Pickling_your_Olives/pickling_your_olives.html

 

or you can google "pickling olives" to find others.

[Medieval Mom]

I agree with everyone about fruit: berries, fruit trees, etc. In our area, they are (relatively) expensive to buy, and often come from who-knows-where with who-knows-what sprayed on them! Ahhh... But to bite into your own home-grown peach, with the juice running down your elbows.... :001_rolleyes: We like to grow black currants and gooseberries, too, since they are difficult to find in the stores or farmer's markets (and we love edible landscaping).

 

As for veggies, perennial choices include rhubarb and asparagus. They extremely simple to grow and produce quite a bit in a year. I love to grow quite a selection of perennial herbs. For less than the cost of one bunch of store-bought sage, I planted a patch that has grown into a veritable bush in two years. We can stuff our roasts with it with abandon!

 

The wonderful thing about berry bushes, fruit trees, and perennial vegetables and herbs is that they come back every year (hopefully!). So, you really do save money in the long run:)

 

As for annuals, I've had good luck with beets and basil. Yumm!

[Kanga]

 

As for veggies, perennial choices include rhubarb and asparagus. They extremely simple to grow and produce quite a bit in a year. I love to grow quite a selection of perennial herbs. For less than the cost of one bunch of store-bought sage, I planted a patch that has grown into a veritable bush in two years. We can stuff our roasts with it with abandon!

 

I knew about perennial herbs, but perennial veggies? Now, I have to research growing asparagus!

 

Thanks to everyone for the ideas. I am going to have fun planning my garden.

[Punks in Ontario]

I've grown raspberries for the last several years. I make jams, and freeze enough for the whole year. Each year I sell some as well. This year, I sold over 100 pints. I find them easy to grow and the time picking is well paid.

 

I've also found that corn, and tomatoes are other money savers. I don't bother about most vegies though, because I figure the time spent isn't worth it.

 

Punks

[Tammyla]

Growing our salads saves a lot. Tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, green onions, lettuces, peppers and herbs are all easy for us. I did lots of pot gardens on my deck and have done a bigger garden in the past.

 

We joined a CSA this year and it was a good experience, but a much bigger dollar output. I think we'll go back and just do a home garden next year with some in pots and some in the ground....

 

Stinking rabbits!

[Kim in Appalachia]

I never thought of using swiss chard for celery. I'll have to try that.

[KrissiK]

In the summer tomatoes save me a lot, as well as peppers, zucchini, green beans and also raiding my parents/aunts and uncles' fruit orchards. I don't buy any produce from the grocery store in the summer. In the winter I grow lettuce for salads. This year I'm expanding my winter garden and adding carrots, leeks, fennel and onions. In the spring I harvest sugar snap and snow peas. I'd say it saves quite a big of money, especially in the summer time. I'm definitely noticing my bill is higher now since I'm buying more from the grocery store.

[JFSinIL]

Basil. Ever priced pesto in those tiny jars???? My kids could eat over a cup of pesto a week!!!!

[Robin in Tx]

This is a good question, because everytime I've done a garden, I think I've spent more ON the garden than I ever got out of it... it was not worth it at all except for the enjoyment.

[mcconnellboys]

I use a lot of herbs and find them very expensive, so I've been drying my own.

[Doran]

...some fruits and vegetables don't end up being much of a savings for a variety of reasons. Here are some considerations.

 

How much of it do you eat? For example, if you eat a salad every night, or even three nights out of seven, growing lettuce would save you money.

 

Certain products are relatively inexpensive to buy. Among them, potatoes, onions, carrots, larger greens such as kale and collards, squash.

 

Other products are notoriously expensive to buy. Among them, berries (any and all), most tree fruits, shallots, fresh peas, green beans, and colored peppers.

 

Finally, it's important to consider how easy it would be for you to grow it, how much space it consumes, and how long the harvest continues for that plant. Corn, for example, is expensive to buy, but also not that easy to grow (esp. organically), and it takes up a fair amount of room. Melons are also expensive, but they require a reasonably large growing area, and they come on all at once. Thus, it's not as useful to grow these yourself unless you stagger the plantings and/or have a fairly large amount of space.

 

I had a small garden this year. I grew lettuce, cucumbers, basil, tomatoes, radishes, and okra as well as a few herbs in other locations. I tried potatoes but was not successful with those (bad location, too little water).

 

If I had more space I'd also grow these, in order of the seasons:

 

blueberries/raspberries

arugula & other zesty salad greens

spinach

sugar snap peas (more bang for the buck compared to English peas)

scallions

peppers

squash (one each, yellow and green)

green beans

shelling beans

onions

many varieties of tomatoes

kale

garlic

carrots (fall crop to overwinter in the ground)

[Heather in the Kootenays]

I always thought celery would be hard to grow but I've grown it for the last couple of years with no problem. However, I had a complete zucchini failure if you can imagine.

 

Raspberries are brutally expensive and easy to grow.

[Aggie]

beef.

 

It's what's for dinner.

 

Next...chickens.

 

I've toyed with the idea of meat goats, but the entire family isn't on board with that, yet.

 

I would love to have an orchard and a way to store fresh fruit/vegetables long term. I would rather buy fresh all year than can or freeze fruit.

[Peela]

I am not sure that growing anything will save me money. I knew it before I started, but i just built a relatively small vegetable garden in my rented back garden- it is not quite 2metres by 2 metres- with limestone blocks as a border to make it into a raised bed. The soil here is sand and I have spent thousands of $ over the years pouring manure and compost into it, which disappears within weeks. So I am making a layered no dig garden and I have just finished it- with the blocks, which cost me $100, and the hay, manure and compost, and blood and bone and mineral fertilizer and a soil wetter because the soil doenst absorb water- its all totalled well over $300.

Oh well. I love to grow things so I am doing it for fun. I am putting in lettuce, tomatoes, kale, I cant remember what else. I already have herbs in pots on teh verandah.

I am using old fashioned non hybrid seeds to grow my own seedlings, so that I can re-use the seeds from the plants. When you buy seedlings from the shop they are hybrid and you cant re-use the seeds, which is a good lark for them as you need to buy more seedlings next year.

[mommytobees]

I'm going to be *really* really *really* bad....

 

And give you my uncle's answer....

 

Pot. I grow my own pot, that way I don't have to buy it.

 

To my uncle's defense he lives in CA and has been doing chemo for 3 months.

 

Kris, who is just a raging smart-mouth

[Melissa in Australia]

we have a really large veggie garden. a little bigger than a tennis court, and an orchard that is about twice the size of a tennis court.

we grow all of our own food, just buying a few extra potatoes.

we eat according to what is growing. if there is lots of lettuce we eat salad etc.

we try to keep most of our own seed. it can get quite scientific, making sure things don't cross pollinate.

we have straight sand, and have put tons of manure , etc. into the garden. my husband has discovered a recipe to make compost out of sawdust. he adds nitrogen and many trace elements. and a few months later he has a huge amount of beautiful compost. he makes it in huge compost bins. we have a timber mill only a few km away , that lets us have the sawdust for free.

we grow our own meet and milk as well, we have 10 acres. we buy a lot of hay in for the cow, as we only have grass in spring. but we save enough on just the milk to pay for all of the cow's hay for the year.

we live on a very small income, so we couldn't afford to eat well if we didn't grow it ourselves.

[Peela]

I'm going to be *really* really *really* bad....

 

And give you my uncle's answer....

 

Pot. I grow my own pot, that way I don't have to buy it.

 

To my uncle's defense he lives in CA and has been doing chemo for 3 months.

 

Kris, who is just a raging smart-mouth

 

:lol:

I have family members who do the same :001_smile:

[mommytobees]

:lol:

I have family members who do the same :001_smile:

 

Snicker!!

 

My uncles are, um, characters. This one specifically.

 

They were 19 and 17 when I was born and my mom was living with her mom and brothers. When I was 18 months old, my grandmother walked into the house after being at work, my uncles had been babysitting me. The uncles were oh, so proud of the new phrase they taught the baby to say.

 

Picture the tow-headed little girl saying: Gimmie pot! Gimmie pot! Hand motion included, open and close hand, palm up. :D:glare::001_huh:

 

Kris

[Saille]

I second berries, of any kind. We have wild black raspberries and blackberries, and we planted strawberries. That alone has saved us a ton of money on fruit. I use Pomona pectin to cut way down on the sugar, and I've been putting up jam all summer.

 

I also agree with beans, peas, chard, winter squash, peppers and tomatoes. I'm still trying to get my tomato production back up in this cooler, wetter part of the country (I used to live in Ohio), but we eat lots of tomatoes at our house. I've successfully made ketchup, paste, sauce, and frozen tomatoes whole. We use the green tomatoes for frying or for salsa verde. Peppers (particularly organic peppers) are expensive, so I've been freezing and drying them.

 

Chickens are great...if you could buy a few at a feed store or split a hatchery order with someone, I'd say go for it. We have about four dozen, and sell our excess eggs. We don't make a profit because feed costs have gone up so much this year, but we never have a dearth of buyers, either.

[Aggie]

we have a really large veggie garden. a little bigger than a tennis court, and an orchard that is about twice the size of a tennis court.

we grow all of our own food, just buying a few extra potatoes.

we eat according to what is growing. if there is lots of lettuce we eat salad etc.

we try to keep most of our own seed. it can get quite scientific, making sure things don't cross pollinate.

we have straight sand, and have put tons of manure , etc. into the garden. my husband has discovered a recipe to make compost out of sawdust. he adds nitrogen and many trace elements. and a few months later he has a huge amount of beautiful compost. he makes it in huge compost bins. we have a timber mill only a few km away , that lets us have the sawdust for free.

we grow our own meet and milk as well, we have 10 acres. we buy a lot of hay in for the cow, as we only have grass in spring. but we save enough on just the milk to pay for all of the cow's hay for the year.

we live on a very small income, so we couldn't afford to eat well if we didn't grow it ourselves.

 

Melissa...this is my dream, not just to save money, but for all the health benefits. God Himself only knows what's in the food we buy from the store.

 

After we moved here this summer, I tried growing a few vegetables but nothing got pollinated. Are y'all having any trouble with a lack of bees down there like we are here?

[Kanga]

Chickens are great...if you could buy a few at a feed store or split a hatchery order with someone, I'd say go for it. We have about four dozen, and sell our excess eggs. We don't make a profit because feed costs have gone up so much this year, but we never have a dearth of buyers, either.

 

I would love to have chickens (I even have an empty chicken coop), but I don't want roosters because I have several neighbors who would complain. The feed stores tell me that they cannot guarantee females. How do you deal with this?

[Kanga]

Aggie-

 

I am in the high desert in the U.S. and we are having a bee problem as well. I really wanted to raise bees, but could not sell my dh on the idea. I planted a lot of plants that attracted bees and it worked. I planted 20 Russian Sage and 12 Butterfly Bushes through out my backyard. I chose them primarily because they require very little water and do well in poor soil, both of which I could easily provide. :)

 

-Ann

[Lovedtodeath]

Great thread! Reading through all of the ideas. I love the idea of planting my vegetables along with my flowers as landscaping.

[Remudamom]

Beef cattle, although it costs so much to buthcher.............we have three steers in two big freezers in the laundry room. It's pretty durn handy.

[laughing lioness]

Basil (make pesto) and parsley (dry). We also grow tomatoes and can salsa and dry them (they are delicious this way!- I don't have a dehydrator, just microwave them on med until done). Cucumbers, green peppers, lettuce, spinach, zuchhini, pumpkins, gourds, strawberries, mulberries, raspberries, grapes, swiss chard, rhubarb, green beans, apples,asperagus, flowers :001_smile:

[sleepy]

I did lots of pot gardens on my deck

 

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

Tammy, don'tcha think this belongs in the New Game: Tell something about your self that you have never told on the board before thread? ;)

[Michelle My Bell]

Growing peppers has been a blessing. My freezer is full!

 

Michelle

[Lovedtodeath]

After reading this I plan to grow sweet peppers, asparagus, strawberries, parsely, basil, and maybe plums. We eat a lot of Green beans and lettuce but they are so convenient to buy, I would not want to go to the extra trouble of growing and preparing them.

[PariSarah]

Lettuce (we eat LOTS of salad), peppers (I don't even buy these any more, they've gotten so expensive), snow peas, tomatoes, fresh herbs (ditto what I said on the peppers), leeks (more ditto). The leeks, herbs, and lettuce are especially easy to grow, since you don't have to harvest them right when they're ready.

 

Greens, broccoli, potatoes, green beans, and butternut squash don't save much money, but they are so very tasty when they're home-grown, and the green beans and squash are so darn easy. I usually plant a little section of beans at a time--once every two or three weeks--so that I have a nice long harvest of them.

 

I've had zucchini failures several years in a row now, so I've decided to forget about them. They don't cost much at all in the summer. Onions turned out to be another not-worth-it-to-me crop. But garlic was my first huge success, so I grow that every year, even though it's pretty cheap at the store. (Plus, 'cause it chases away the buggies, or so they say.)

 

MIL has several mature blueberry bushes at her place--they are wonderful. We eat a couple hundred dollars worth of berries a summer! I tried strawberries last year, but what the deer and birds left, the neighborhood kids ate. (They were in my front yard. My fault.)