If you’ve been inspired to build your own garden, we’re with you! We’ve talked about how great gardens are to help you de-stress, but there are tons of other benefits including:
- a fresher tasting harvest when you pluck things ripe from your garden
- sense of security knowing exactly where your food comes from and how it was grown
- overall, less expensive than buying from grocery stores
- sharing all your extra zucchini with your neighbors 😉
We saw a discussion in the Glover Nursery Facebook Group about the cost effectiveness of a vegetable garden so we did the research and found out which veggies, herbs, and fruits are easy to grow and are also cost effective. Here’s our top five:
Tomatoes
Tomato plants are easy to grow and typically have a high yield when given plenty of sunlight and water. They’re a versatile food that can be used in a variety of dishes from all around the world. There’s nothing like picking a firm yet juicy, red, and round tomato from your very own garden. If you compare the cost of growing tomatoes to the cost of buying tomatoes from the grocery store, you’ll find they are saving money in the long run.
Lettuce
Growing lettuce in your garden is handy because lettuce is so, well, handy! You can use it in a dish or as a side salad to add some greens to your meal. Heck, you can even roast it! It’s easy to grow so long as you are picking the outer leaves so the plant can thrive. The cost of lettuce and lettuce mixes at the grocery store has increased significantly in recent years making growing lettuce in your garden super cost effective.
Bell Peppers
Bell Peppers are a wonderful investment with your garden. As tasty raw as they are cooked, bell peppers packed with vitamins. They’re an excellent source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Potassium. Seed starters typically cost less than one pepper in a supermarket but will yield way more than one pepper. You can pick them green or leave them on the vine and let them mature into sweeter red peppers.
Garlic
Garlic has so many different uses and therefore is a great choice for your garden. It is cheap, easy to grow and can even be grown over the winter which helps with maximizing the efficiency of your gardening space. And, it is well known for it’s anti-viral properties (not to mention anti-vampire properties). Just another reason or two to grow some garlic in your garden!
Broccoli
A super nutritious and a great addition for your garden is broccoli. Broccoli plants are cheap to buy and their maintenance is easy. The key with broccoli is to plant them in nutrient rich soil. It can also grow for the majority of the year so you’ll almost always have easy access to delicious, fresh broccoli. That’s a win!
This isn’t where the list ends though! There are plenty of cost effective and easy to grow vegetables, herbs, and fruits that you should consider adding to your garden. For any questions on how to get started, check out our Victory Garden blog or talk to one of the experts here at our garden nursery.
Other useful links and resources:
Set Your Veggie Beds Up For Success Garden
5 Things To Do In Your Summer Garden