Best Vegetables to Grow to Save Money. With food store costs higher than ever, you may be considering planting a vegetable garden for the first time. Or perhaps you’re ready to grow and plant more. Planting your own vegetables, regardless of your skill level, may be worth the work just for the money you can save. Not only will your homegrown vegetables save you money, but they will also taste better fresh from the garden. Here is a list of ten tasty garden vegetables that you may cultivate yourself to save money.
Best Vegetables to Grow to Save Money
1. Lettuce
Lettuce is the unsung vegetable hero. And Lettuce is what distinguishes a salad from others. You don’t need a slice of it on your burger, but you’ll miss it when it’s gone — and who wants a taco without that extra crunch? The nicest part about lettuce is that it is simple to cultivate and one of the few veggies that can be grown from scraps.
When you’re done with a head of romaine lettuce, place the leftover stem in a shallow dish of water, place it near a window or under grow lights, replace the water in the dish every couple of days, and watch your lettuce sprout. However, lettuce is also simple to cultivate from seed and, due to its shallow roots, makes an excellent window box plant. Remember that lettuce grows best in the early spring and late fall because it enjoys cooler temperatures.
2. Tomatoes Vegetables to Grow to Save Money
Another excellent option to save money is to grow your own tomatoes. Tomatoes at the store are often more than $1 per, and they don’t taste nearly as nice as tomatoes fresh from the garden. A packet of tomato seeds may be purchased for less than $2, and tomato plants often yield 10-30 pounds of tomatoes. You read that correctly. You’ll almost certainly be giving tomatoes away. Tomatoes require full sun, regular watering, and a trellis, stake, or tomato cage to help the plant stand up to the weight.
3. Jalapenos
Adding a little spice to your salsa this summer might be a breeze if you have decent soil, plenty of water, and enough sun. Jalapenos require warm temperatures and will die if planted until the weather is typically in the upper 60s and higher. Plant your jalapenos a few weeks after your tomatoes and you should be OK. Given that the average jalapeno plant produces 25-30 peppers, you can freeze what you don’t use for future Taco Tuesdays.
4. Bell peppers
Bell peppers require a lot of suns and frequent watering, and if you’re going to start your pepper plant from seed, you should start it indoors and move it outside once the temperature is typically in the 60s. And Bell pepper plants are not low maintenance, but once you get the hang of them, they may be a fantastic technique for saving money on groceries. The average plant will yield five to ten peppers, whereas a single bell pepper costs about $1 at the shop and a packet of 30 green bell pepper seeds may cost less than $3.
5. Carrots Vegetables to Grow to Save Money
Carrots, like sweet peas, should be planted in the cooler months of spring and fall. And Carrots are often frost-resistant and easy to grow as long as you have sandy, loose soil (and if you don’t, you can make some yourself). The trick to growing carrots is to trim them out if they become too close together. You can freeze or store them and use them in your stew during winter.
6. Zucchini
If you have any gardener pals, chances are you’ve struggled to find a polite way to tell them you don’t need any more zucchini. This is because zucchini is a vegetable gardener’s best friend and produces a lot of it. Plant your zucchini when temps are consistently in the 60s and frost is no longer a threat. Sow the seeds about an inch deep in a small mound of fertilised soil in full light, and then find a pal to help you eat the 10 pounds you’ll most likely harvest — per plant. Keep in mind that a packet of 25 seeds costs less than $2, therefore the value is exponential.
7. Cucumbers
Growing cucumbers from seed in the garden may be a fantastic venture if you wait until temps are typically in the 70s. Water your cucumber plant on a regular basis, and utilise a garden trellis for easy harvesting, and you’ll have more cucumbers than you know what to do with.
The trick to growing cucumbers is to cultivate them in rich, wet soil. Cucumbers grown on enriched and well-watered soil will be sweet and mild, regardless of whether you use compost or fertiliser. However, if you plant cucumbers before the weather has been consistently warm, don’t water them sufficiently, and don’t fertilise your soil appropriately, you may end up with a bitter harvest.
8. Green Beans
Fresh green beans, whether tossed with garlic and olive oil or sautéed with mushrooms, can be one of the best ways to elevate a mundane supper into something memorable. The only problem is that, at roughly $5 per bag, fresh green beans aren’t the cheapest option in the produce aisle if you’re on a tight budget. That is why cultivating your own is such a good idea.
A bag of 100 seeds costs less than $3, and one plant can provide up to a pound of fruit. Green beans can be grown in two varieties: pole beans and bush beans. Bush beans produce earlier and are ready to harvest all at once, but pole beans produce more slowly and over time. Green bean plants perform best when planted directly in the soil when the weather is continuously warm. Green bean plants demand consistent watering as well as full sun.
9. Swiss Chard Vegetables to Grow to Save Money
This vibrant superfood has a little bitter flavour that some people enjoy. Add it to salads or smoothies, or sauté it with additional flavours. Garden-grown chard is an inexpensive method to get enough vitamins K, A, and C, as well as magnesium, potassium, iron and dietary fibre in your diet. It also helps that growing this green vegetable is a pretty simple undertaking. Plant them a few weeks before the final frost in fertilised soil, water them frequently, and enjoy.
10. Sweet Peas
You might be able to spend your spring collecting your own sweet peas for less than $2 in seeds. This tasty vegetable can be added to salads, and pasta, or served as a side dish on its own. The good news is that they are often simple to cultivate. Plant sweet peas before the last frost; they require sun (but not too much) and frequent harvesting.
Conclusion
Growing your own vegetables is a unique hobby that might save you money. If you get really into it, you could even want to grow enough vegetables to sell locally. Consider growing a herb garden to save even more money and enjoy a very delightful summer. Gardening might be intimidating for novices, yet many people find it calming. Aside from the incentive of saving money at the grocery store, you also get to enjoy your prize, which may be the most satisfying aspect of all.
