Grow Your Own Vegetables and Herbs and Save Money

Want freshness and frugality in your life? Then grow your own. Herbs and vegetables, that is.

There's a sense of accomplishment that comes from pulling potatoes out of your garden, perhaps snipping some fresh rosemary to season them with.

Most plants are relatively easy to grow, including potatoes. If you have an old batch in the spring that's starting to sprout, don't toss them out (at least compost them!), but instead stick them in the ground, sprouts pointing up. The first time I did that, I came back from a vacation to find potato plants in the garden. A couple months later, the six I had planted ended up yielding close to 40 medium-sized red spuds. Talk about nothing going to waste!

You can buy a rosemary, sage, thyme or basil plant at the garden center, nursery or grocery store near you for the same price as a packet of overpriced (and who knows how old?) sprigs.

Perennials are compound interest for gardeners. For $15 I've gotten five different kinds of thyme growing in my back yard, and they're hearty, thriving in bad soil (in this case, Michigan's clay-laden soil), and I can snip sprigs fresh each time I make a stew, cook a roast or experiment, making results the dog might not even be keen to sample.

If you want crazy interest on your investment, think mint. If you want to avert a bit of the craziness, plant mint in clay pots in the ground, to thwart the threat of the runner roots taking over the garden. Otherwise you'll be knee-deep in mintyness - spearmint, peppermint, orange mint, chocolate mint - you name it. But you'll save big on mint juleps and herbal teas. Just get a tea baller or those empty tea bags you can fill on your own and you'll have it fresh and without pesticides. The biggest problem you'll have is where to store it. Seriously. If mint were a celebrity, it would be the Hannah Montana folders and pencil cases you see in every store.

Green beans are another easy thing to grow and they're unbeatable fresh. A 99-cent packet of seeds will keep you getting your veggies for some time. If you don't can or don't have a large family to feed, you might be overwhelmed by the yield you'll get. Then once they start to fade out, you can let some overgrow and collect the beans for next year. Let them dry a bit after shelling the white beans out the middles and store for upcoming seasons. I haven't bought bean seeds in years. And they're so easy to grow they're great confidence builders for new gardeners.

Once you get into a good gardening groove you'll have favorites. I've come to love growing tomatoes (so fabulous to use fresh in a salad - and they sometimes reseed themselves if a few tomatoes fall to the ground and are allowed to decompose). I love the ease and freshness of my own green beans. I've got plenty of herbs: Sage for poultry, rosemary for potatoes, basil for salads, oregano for Italian dishes. Once you have your favorites that succeed for you, then feel free to experiment.

Last year I tried planting kale for the first time and made a few good stews. A couple years back a drought did a number on the peppers I planted, but maybe I'll try again.

This year I'm thinking eggplant. I've never cooked much with it and there's no better way to experiment on a dime with what's growing in your own yard.