Top 10 Vegetables for Your Frugal Garden

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Growing your own vegetables, even organically, allows you to save a great deal of money at the grocery store each year.

There are many choices available when deciding to plant a vegetable garden. You will want to obtain seeds for the vegetables that you use most often as sides, in soups and stews, and in roasts and casseroles. The most important rules of thumb are:

• That you choose vegetables you and your family normally eat, at least to start. Experimentation with new foods is fine later on. Don’t forget to acquire seeds for vegetables that you will eat both fresh and cooked.
• That you purchase organic seeds, whenever possible, from a place such as HeirloomSeeds.com to be sure that you know what you are getting.
• That you compare prices from a variety of places selling such seeds.
• That you plant in organic soil.
• Remember that extra seeds can be saved if stored properly, so they should not go to waste.

My choice vegetables are able to be eaten either fresh or cooked. They can be stored for later use, if desired, and are versatile in nature. Here are my top 10 vegetable choices for the garden:

1. Carrots: Excellent eaten fresh, I prefer to grow short varieties of carrots. Try Thumbelina and Short n’ Sweet. Carrots may be frozen, or canned for use during the winter months. Great in fresh salads, these carrots are also tasty when added to stew or a roast. Carrots are great in muffins and cakes. Plant these in spring and at mid-summer for a double crop.
2. Romaine Lettuce: This type of lettuce is great for using in fresh salads. It may also be used in wraps and sandwiches. Romaine prefers cool weather, be sure to keep the soil where it is planted moist.
3. Cabbage: Also good in salads, you can eat chunks off the heads for snacks and use cabbage in boiled dinners. The heads will last quite some time out of the refrigerator. Be sure to grow cabbage in fertile soil.
4. Tomatoes: It is recommended that tomatoes be stored outside of the refrigerator. Sauces for rice, pasta and pizza may be made fresh from this vegetable, and may be canned for future use. Great in salads, many people enjoy eating tomatoes as they would a fresh apple. Tomatoes grow well with carrots or parsley.
5. Zucchini: Given the right conditions, such as plenty of sun and water, these will grow huge. They are easily frozen by shredding and placing into freezer containers. No other preparation is necessary. You don’t even have to peel, simply cut off the ends.  One of the best chocolate cakes ever has zucchini as an ingredient, and it also makes wonderful chocolate chip zucchini muffins and breads. This vegetable has a high water content.
6. Celery: Celery is great fresh, in salads and in roasts and stews. Peanut butter stuffed celery is a healthy snack. It grows especially well and zones 5 and lower.
7. Cucumber: The vines of this vegetable will take up little garden space when trellised, though there also bush varieties. Eaten fresh or on salads, wraps and sandwiches, this vegetable does not need to be peeled. Just cut the ends off and you are good to go. Cucumber loves water.
8. Peas: Another space saver, this vining vegetable can be planted along a fence for ultimate space savings. Simply train them along the fence. Sugar snap peas are great placed, as is, into a salad or stew. Peas will grow well in cool weather.
9. Beans: This is another vegetable that you can train along a fence or up a trellis, or you can train them up bean poles. Use these in stews and stir fries. They will grow in a variety of climates.
10. Rhubarb: Eat fresh with sugar. Make a rhubarb pie. Make rhubarb strawberry jam… need I say more? This is a perennial. My grandparents had a bed of rhubarb on their property when I was growing up. It was a treat to go out back and pick the rhubarb, and to bring it in and be given a small bowl of sugar to dip the rhubarb into as my siblings, cousins and I were eating.

Shannon

Related Articles

• Know Your Vegetable Seeds: The Lowdown on Heirloom, Hybrid, and Organic Seeds (sustainablog.org)
• Quick-Growing Vegetables for the Impatient Gardener (treehugger.com)

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