Growing your own veg can save you money!

Home grown vegetables can save you money as well as being extremely satisfying.


If you are growing vegetables in the hope of saving money here are some suggestions for crops which can deliver real cost savings. When buying seeds, be sure to choose varieties which do well in your region. Even within regions there are ‘micro-climates’ which affect growing conditions, so check locally for advice about recommended varieties for your locale. The prices shown are all estimates at the time of composing this article. Prices may of gone down but more than likely gone up!

1. Broccoli
Broccoli costs about £1.50 a pound, which is pretty cheap. The Central head weighs from 0.3 to 1 pound, so you get a fair amount of broccoli for the price. After cutting off the central head, many side shoots will grow below, and will equal two to three times the original crown. If you grow ten broccoli plants you would produced about 2 pounds each, so you would grow about £30 worth of broccoli for a cost of about £10. The amount of money saved is not enough to get excited about, but the convenience of having fresh-picked broccoli available for 6 – 8 months is a real bonus.
Broccoli is a cool-season crop, and can be grown both as a spring and a fall crop. Broccoli is a heavy feeder and requires soil rich with organic matter. Before planting, compost and peat are worked into the soil, and lime and rock phosphate if needed. Broccoli is highly nutritious and has been deemed an anti-cancerous food. This vegetable is a good source of Vitamin A, calcium, and riboflavin (or vitamin B2).

2. Tomatoes
If we assume that tomatoes cost £2 to £4 a pound for this comparison.
If you planted four plants of a large variety of tomatoes for example (Big Beef), two cherry tomato plants (Sun Gold), and maybe two standard tomato plants. Each of the larger plants would produced at least 15 large beefsteak tomatoes weighing 1 pound or more. An estimate would be a total of 80 pounds of tomatoes (worth £100 - £130 ) for a cost of about £40.
All plants can be planted in the same 6’ x 12’ plot. The cherry tomatoes provide an early harvest, the large tomatoes are used for summer and fall eating, and the meaty paste tomatoes are good for freezing. Standard tomatoes also make excellent fresh or cooked salsa and sauces. Having a ready supply of tomatoes for cooking during the winter months adds value, since the price of tomatoes goes up in winter.


3. Bell peppers
Green bell peppers cost about £1.50 at a supermarket, and yellow and red peppers are even more expensive due to their extended ripening times. Pepper starter plants, however, cost about £1 each at a local nursery. If you planted ten pepper plants and each plant produced at least six peppers and let most of the pepper crop mature until they turn red , they taste sweeter than green peppers a rough estimate is that a £10 investment would yield about £100 in peppers. Easy to grow, peppers are commonly started early in small pots and transplanted when it’s warm enough outside. Pick off any small peppers that may form on transplants or the plant growth will be stunted. Pick the green peppers as soon as they reach size; this will stimulate new fruiting and increase the yield per plant. You can leave some plants unpicked if you want the peppers to sweeten and turn yellow or red; however, these plants will produce fewer peppers.


4. Winter Squash
Winter squash varieties cost between £1.29 and £1.99 a pound. (This is mid-winter pricing, which is more costly.) Squash plants yield about 40 squash, weighing 4 lbs each on average, which adds up to about 160 pounds. This is worth between £200-£300. Squash starter plants are available for about £2 each.
Winter squash are a favorite among gardeners because they’re easy to grow, don’t require weeding once established, and most importantly, they keep through the winter to provide a valued vegetable for eating all winter and spring. The squash bed does need to be richly prepared before planting. If you have space to spare, then growing winter squash makes sense.

5. Lettuce
You may have noticed the price of lettuce has risen considerably in the past two years. A red leaf lettuce could cost £1.79 for a small bunch. (And the Spring Mix, a ready to serve assorted lettuce mix can cost £4 per 300 grams!) If you grow your own lettuce, from a £2 package of seeds you’ll recoup the cost within a few weeks and enjoy your own fresh lettuce for months. Be sure to plant only a small amount of seed, or the unharvested mature lettuce will bolt. Save the remaining seed for replanting every two to three weeks throughout the growing season. This will ensure a steady supply of fresh greens for the table.
Iceberg takes longer to mature and when ready it gives too much lettuce at one time also the head of the lettuce harbors more slugs. The leafy varieties are easy to harvest by picking the outer leaves, and this lets the plant continue to grow and produce.

6. Garlic
The price of a garlic bulb ranges from £1 to £5 a pound, homegrown garlic, grown from cloves saved from a previous crop, cost less than £0.50 a pound to grow.
Garlic is one of the easier crops to grow, but over-watering when the plants were mature can lose your crop. Garlic is often grown over winter which makes good use of garden space. Weeding is important as garlic does not like competition. Harvesting on time and curing properly are important for producing bulbs with good keeping qualities.

The figures used in this article are approximate. We did not weigh every tomato or leaf of lettuce. And the list is by no means exclusive. There are other crops which are cost-effective to grow, and some of the crops listed on this page may be difficult to grow in some regions.
As any gardener knows, growing vegetables is more than about saving money. Growing your own vegetables is healthier for the family because the produce is fresh and (hopefully) grown without chemicals. It is better for the environment by reducing the cost of food transport, there are educational benefits for the children, and oh yes, the vegetables will taste so much better!

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