What do you think is better, to grow vegetables which grow fast and start saving you money faster or grow crops which though they'll take a little longer to mature are more expensive to buy? I've experimented with both and for me I'd choose veggies which grow fast because for a few months once the vegetables are grown I don't have to spend any money on vegetables. How do you choose which vegetables or crops you'll plant?
To be fair - as there are way too many variables as to why each person chooses to grow what they do - for example - time, available space, climate - as well as - which fruits and vegetables they enjoy eating and will use the most - there really isn't any right or wrong answer here - as regardless of the speed with which a fruit or vegetable grows or what someone chooses to grow - savings are virtually guaranteed - especially when you consider that for just $40 you can provide a whole family with an abundant supply of fresh produce for a whole year. As for me - as my main priority is to have a year round supply of fresh nutritious chemical and preservative free produce - which is not only healthier but smells and tastes better than anything you can buy in the store - apart from choosing cultivars that have a good yield - there aren't any factors for me to consider when choosing what to grow - other than to have a constant supply of all the fruits, vegetables, nuts and herbs - that we enjoy, regularly eat and can make good use of. Fortunately as the majority of vegetables, fruits, nuts and herbs all fruit abundantly, are harvested at different times of the year and nothing ever goes to waste - as I generally freeze or dry any excess - so that we have a year round supply and therefore haven't bought any “ fresh “ produce from a store in over 12 years - I've probably saved thousands and thousands by now.
My husband is a backyard farmer so we usually eat the harvest. Aside from vegetables, we also have cooking ingredients like ginger and onions, lemon, pepper, etc. But our gardening is purely for fun, so to speak. We never computed for the savings that we get although I think we have saved money from the harvest of bananas, cassava crop, sweet potato, squash and some other plants that give us food.
This is how I choose which fruits or vegetables to grow. I usually save a lot of my seeds, so I actually plant many of the same crops for the following year. If I'm deciding to introduce something new to the garden, I factor in how large the plant/s could get-I'm a backyard gardener with limited space, and if I already have other crops taking up lots of space, then I can't plant anymore crops to take up more space. I also think about what my household likes to eat, is the crop hard to maintain or easy to maintain. There's so much that goes into deciding on what fruits or vegetables to grow in a garden.
As for me, I only grow crops that I have had success with in the past, namely tomatoes, leaf lettuce, basil and the like. I have also grown strawberries. I have never been able to grow anything successfully from seed. I have tried growing other things..but sometimes the cost of additives and so forth make it more cost effective to buy the items at the store. One time I grew strawberries, I got maybe a quart...and it cost me about 20 bucks for the supplies..so never again!
I only grow herbs because an herb plant is ready to eat the moment you bring it home from the store. So it immediately starts saving you money. I haven't had luck with growing vegetables because the amount of space, water and attention they take is too much for the return I get. I once wasted weeks and gallons of water to grow a few cucumbers. I could have bought cucumbers and saved myself the trouble.
I try a little of both, just to see what kind of results I get. I grow onions, carrots now, and plan to grow some potatoes and sweet peppers starting this spring. The goal is to save as much money on produce as I can.
This year, I have been starting the seeds inside in my new Aerogarden that my daughter got for me. We do not have a large garden, and actually jut plant most things in containers and grow them that way. Our dirt here is hard clay, and it will literally dry up and crack open in the summer. Even watering twice a day, the plants do not do good planted in the clay; o getting the planter pots and putting a mixture of good dirt and potting soil seems to go a long ways towards helping everything grow. Last year, my lettuce didn't do much, but the tomatoes and cucumbers did okay. My project is to plant each year, some plants, vines, or trees that will produce year after year, such as strawberries, blackberries, and grape vines. Once those are established, then we can expect to have a harvest each year, plus the veggies that we start inside and set out in the spring..
