8 grocery bill slashing fruits and veggies you can grow in a "jar" (guest post)

When one talks of bill slashing through gardening, there are a million ways to you can do this. One of the most expensive grocery items in the average household are for fruits and vegetables because they are regularly consumed on a daily basis. Growing your own fruits and vegetables, whether indoors or out, can help you significantly slash a nice percentage of your monthly grocery bill.

photo courtesy of: Wikimedia Commons

Tomatoes

Since they grow best vertically, tomatoes are the perfect fruit for any container or raised bed garden. Buying tomatoes can easily run up your monthly bill they are so widely used to enrich main meals with flavors and appetizing concepts. They are also a vital source of vitamins.

Lettuce

Lettuce is a common vegetable consumed by most people and produces seeds that can be harvested. It is also a major source of vitamins and also acts as a flavor adding product. Growing lettuce in containers is an interesting practice since Lettuce, like other varieties of small greens, can produce quite a lot of leaves in shallow containers (6-8 inches deep).

Carrots

Carrots are a vital vegetable in flavoring and coloring food. They also don’t require a lot of room to grow. A long, narrow windowsill box stuffed full of seeds can net you handfuls of this produce.

Peacock kale

Peacock Kale is a leafy vegetable that falls under the same category as spinach and other greens. It is an essential source of vitamins and iron. Peacock Kale can be grown in a container since it does not grow tall or require fertile top soil.

Strawberries

Strawberries have significant nutritional value and are another flavor adding product. These plants come in three types: Ever-bearers, June-bearers and Day-Neutrals. For home gardening, June-bearer plants are recommended even though you’ll have an entire year to wait before you can harvest the fruit.

Apple trees

Apple trees can be grown in large containers on a balcony since they do not have tap roots that go deep underground. In addition, there are also dwarf varieties that are well-suited to being grown in containers. Unlike citrus trees, apple trees actually require chilly weather to thrive, so you can leave them outdoors all year. Also, having two trees that bloom around the same time each year will help with cross-pollination.

Snap peas

Snap peas do not require a large surface area to grow. The only requirement is to hoist the plant upwards with a string so that it can climb and produce.

Cucumber

Cucumbers are another fruit that is an essential flavor adding component that can grow in a container since it does not require a lot of space. However, it does need to be strung upwards like snap peas in order to increase each plants production.

Conclusion

From hanging baskets to chimney pots to half barrels and the basic clay and plastic variety pots, a wide assortment of pot types are available for use with container gardening. Plastics are light-weight and allow you to easily determine the water content of the pot just by lifting it. Clay pots needs to be watered more frequently but they also allow excess water to evaporate through them.

About the author: Alex is a writer, husband, father and aspiring urban fantasy novelist. When he isn't writing for HomeDaddys or completing chores from his “honey- do” list, he’s most likely spending quality time with his wife and kids or working on his novel.

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