Top 19 'Grocery-Bill-Busting' Vegetables to Grow to try for Beginners Planting Their First Backyard Patch - Goh Ling Yong
Walking through the produce aisle can feel like a high-stakes gamble these days. That small clamshell of organic herbs? The price of a fancy coffee. A bag of pre-washed salad greens? It costs a fortune and seems to wilt the second you get it home. If you’ve ever looked at your grocery receipt and felt a pang of despair, you are not alone. It’s this exact feeling that turns many of us into gardeners, dreaming of a little patch of land that can provide fresh, healthy food without the shocking price tag.
The good news is, you don’t need a sprawling farm or a lifetime of experience to make a serious dent in your grocery bill. A few well-chosen pots on a balcony or a small, sunny corner of your backyard can become a goldmine of fresh produce. This isn't just about saving money; it’s about the incredible flavor of a sun-warmed tomato picked straight from the vine, the crispness of lettuce harvested minutes before dinner, and the satisfaction of knowing exactly where your food came from.
This guide is for you—the aspiring beginner gardener ready to turn that sunny spot into a source of savings and satisfaction. We've compiled a list of 19 "grocery-bill-busting" vegetables that are not only easy for beginners to grow but are also some of the most expensive to buy at the store. Let’s get our hands dirty and start growing!
1. Leaf Lettuce (Cut-and-Come-Again Varieties)
Bold Heading: Leaf Lettuce (Cut-and-Come-Again Varieties)
Forget those sad, bagged salads. Growing your own loose-leaf lettuce is one of the easiest and most rewarding things you can do in a garden. Varieties like 'Black Seed Simpson', 'Oakleaf', or 'Salad Bowl Red' are known as "cut-and-come-again" because you can harvest the outer leaves, and the plant will continue to produce new ones from the center for weeks, if not months. This provides a continuous supply for daily salads and sandwiches.
The cost savings are immense. A single packet of seeds, often costing less than a single bag of pre-washed lettuce, can produce dozens of salads. Lettuce grows quickly, thrives in cooler weather, and does exceptionally well in containers, making it perfect for small spaces. For a steady harvest, sow a new small batch of seeds every two weeks—a technique called succession planting.
- Pro Tip: Harvest in the cool of the morning for the best flavor and crispness. Use a pair of scissors to snip the outer leaves about an inch above the soil, leaving the central crown intact to sprout new growth.
2. Spinach
Bold Heading: Spinach
Like lettuce, spinach is a cool-weather green that offers incredible value. It’s packed with nutrients and can be used in countless ways—fresh in salads, wilted into pastas, or blended into smoothies. Store-bought organic spinach can be pricey, and a bag never seems to last long enough. Growing your own ensures a fresh, tender supply right outside your door.
Spinach grows relatively quickly from seed and can be harvested in two ways. You can pick individual outer leaves as needed (cut-and-come-again) or harvest the whole plant at once. It’s another fantastic option for container gardening, provided the pot is at least 6-8 inches deep to accommodate its taproot.
- Pro Tip: Spinach tends to "bolt" (go to seed and become bitter) in hot weather. Plant it in early spring and again in late summer for a fall harvest to avoid the summer heat.
3. Kale
Bold Heading: Kale
Kale is the superhero of the garden. It’s incredibly hardy, disease-resistant, and so productive that one or two plants can supply a family with nutritious greens for an entire season. It even tastes sweeter after a light frost! A bunch of organic kale can be expensive, but a packet of seeds is a tiny investment for a massive return.
Like its leafy green cousins, kale is a cut-and-come-again crop. Harvesting the lower, outer leaves encourages the plant to grow taller and produce even more. Whether you prefer the crinkly 'Lacinato' (Dinosaur) kale or the frilly 'Red Russian', it's a forgiving and generous plant for any beginner.
- Pro Tip: Watch out for cabbage worms! They love kale. A simple, lightweight row cover can protect your young plants without the need for chemicals.
4. Swiss Chard
Bold Heading: Swiss Chard
If you want a green that looks as good as it tastes, plant Swiss chard. With its vibrant, rainbow-colored stems, it's a beautiful addition to any garden bed or container. More importantly, it's a workhorse. It’s more heat-tolerant than spinach, so it will keep producing delicious, nutrient-dense leaves right through the summer.
A single planting of Swiss chard can provide a harvest from late spring until the first hard frost. You can use the leaves just like spinach and sauté the crunchy, colorful stems like celery. It's two vegetables in one!
- Pro Tip: Harvest the outer leaves with a gentle twist-and-pull motion at the base. This keeps the plant looking tidy and encourages new growth from the center.
5. Arugula
Bold Heading: Arugula
For those who love a bit of peppery spice, arugula is a must-grow. It’s incredibly fast, often ready to harvest in as little as 30 days from seeding. A small bag of arugula at the store can be shockingly expensive for just a few handfuls, making it a prime candidate for your money-saving garden.
Arugula is another cut-and-come-again green. Snip the leaves and they’ll regrow several times before the plant bolts in the heat. Its spicy flavor is perfect for topping pizzas, mixing into salads, or making a zesty pesto.
- Pro Tip: Harvest arugula leaves when they are young and tender (about 2-3 inches long) for the best flavor. They become much spicier as they mature.
6. Green Onions (Scallions)
Bold Heading: Green Onions (Scallions)
This might be the ultimate grocery-bill-busting hack. You can grow an endless supply of green onions without ever buying seeds. Simply take the white root ends from a bunch you bought at the store, place them in a jar of water on your windowsill, and they will regrow new green tops in days.
For a more robust supply, plant those same root ends in a pot of soil. You can snip the green tops with scissors whenever you need them, and they will continuously regrow. It’s an almost-free, perpetual harvest of a garnish that adds fresh flavor to everything.
- Pro Tip: Plant a small patch in your garden or a dedicated pot. Every time you harvest, leave about an inch of the white part in the soil, and it will regrow for you.
7. Fresh Herbs (Basil, Mint, Rosemary)
Bold Heading: Fresh Herbs (Basil, Mint, Rosemary)
This is where the savings really skyrocket. A tiny plastic clamshell of fresh basil can cost $4-$5, yet a single basil plant can produce that much every week all summer long! Herbs are the secret weapon of any budget-savvy gardener. Start with the "big three": basil, mint, and rosemary.
Basil loves sun and heat and is perfect for pots. Mint is incredibly vigorous—so much so that you should always plant it in a container to prevent it from taking over your garden. Rosemary is a woody perennial that, once established, will provide you with fragrant sprigs for years with minimal care.
- Pro Tip: The more you harvest your herbs (especially basil), the more they will produce. Pinching back the tops encourages the plants to become bushier and more productive.
8. Cherry Tomatoes
Bold Heading: Cherry Tomatoes
There is nothing in the world that tastes like a sun-ripened tomato picked fresh from the garden. For beginners, cherry or grape tomatoes are the way to go. They are far more prolific and less prone to the diseases and problems that can plague larger heirloom varieties. A single, healthy plant can produce hundreds of sweet, juicy tomatoes.
A pint of organic cherry tomatoes can be expensive, but one plant will give you pint after pint for free. Look for "indeterminate" varieties like 'Sungold' or 'Super Sweet 100', as they will continue to grow and produce fruit all season long until the first frost. They will need a tall stake or cage for support.
- Pro Tip: Plant your tomato deep, burying the bottom two-thirds of the stem. It will grow roots all along the buried stem, creating a stronger, more resilient plant.
9. Zucchini (Summer Squash)
Bold Heading: Zucchini (Summer Squash)
There's a running joke among gardeners about leaving bags of zucchini on their neighbors' doorsteps, and it's 100% true. Zucchini plants are astonishingly productive. For most families, one or two plants are more than enough to provide a summer-long supply for grilling, baking, and making "zoodles."
Compared to the price per pound at the market, the return on investment for a single zucchini plant is massive. They are easy to grow from seed directly in the garden once the soil has warmed up. Just give them plenty of sun and space to sprawl.
- Pro Tip: Harvest zucchini when they are small to medium-sized (6-8 inches long) for the best flavor and texture. If you let them grow into giant baseball bats, they become watery and seedy.
10. Cucumbers
Bold Heading: Cucumbers
Crisp, homegrown cucumbers are a summer treat and a world away from the waxy versions at the supermarket. Whether you prefer them for slicing in salads or pickling for later, they are an easy and high-yield crop.
There are two main types: bush varieties, which are compact and great for containers, and vining varieties, which are more productive but require a trellis to climb. Growing them vertically not only saves space but also improves air circulation and produces straighter, healthier fruit.
- Pro Tip: Cucumbers are thirsty plants. Consistent watering is key to preventing bitter-tasting fruit. A layer of mulch around the base of the plant will help retain soil moisture.
11. Bush Beans
Bold Heading: Bush Beans
If you want a fast and easy crop, look no further than bush beans. They grow quickly, don't require any trellising, and produce a heavy crop all at once, making them great for preserving. A long row of bush beans can yield pounds of tender, delicious pods—far more than you could buy for the same price.
As I was discussing with Goh Ling Yong the other day, bush beans are a fantastic confidence-builder for new gardeners. They germinate easily and you can often start harvesting in just 50-60 days. Plant a new batch every few weeks for a continuous supply throughout the summer.
- Pro Tip: Pick the beans frequently! The more you pick, the more the plant will produce. If you leave pods on the plant to mature, it will signal the plant to stop making new ones.
12. Bell Peppers
Bold Heading: Bell Peppers
Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers are notoriously expensive at the grocery store, often sold individually for several dollars each. Yet, they are surprisingly easy to grow at home! One healthy plant can produce 5-10 large, sweet peppers over the course of a season.
Peppers love heat and sunshine, so give them the sunniest spot in your garden. They also do very well in large pots, making them a great choice for patio or balcony gardening. While they take a bit longer to mature than some other veggies, the payoff is sweet, crunchy, and colorful.
- Pro Tip: Bell peppers start green and change color as they ripen. The longer you leave them on the plant, the sweeter (and more nutritious) they will become. Patience pays off!
13. Radishes
Bold Heading: Radishes
Need a quick gardening win? Plant radishes. These spicy little roots are one of the fastest-growing vegetables, going from seed to harvest in as little as three to four weeks. They are perfect for tucking into small, empty spaces in the garden while you wait for other crops to grow.
Because they grow so quickly, they are an excellent crop for succession planting. Sow a short row every week or two for a continuous harvest of crisp radishes for your salads. Varieties like 'Cherry Belle' or 'French Breakfast' are classic, reliable choices for beginners.
- Pro Tip: Don’t throw away the tops! Radish greens are edible and delicious, with a peppery flavor similar to the root. Sauté them with a little garlic and olive oil.
14. Carrots
Bold Heading: Carrots
Pulling a perfectly formed carrot from the soil is one of gardening's simple joys. Homegrown carrots are sweeter and more flavorful than any you can buy. While they require loose, rock-free soil to grow straight, they are otherwise very low-maintenance.
For beginners or those with heavy clay soil, choose shorter, stumpier varieties like 'Paris Market' or 'Danvers'. These are less likely to get deformed and are perfect for growing in containers at least 12 inches deep.
- Pro Tip: Thin your carrot seedlings! This is the most crucial step. You need to pull out extra seedlings so the remaining ones are spaced about 2-3 inches apart. If they are too crowded, you’ll end up with tiny, tangled roots.
15. Potatoes
Bold Heading: Potatoes
Growing your own potatoes is incredibly fun, especially the harvesting part, which feels like digging for buried treasure. It's also very cost-effective. A single "seed potato" can yield 5-10 potatoes, and a small bag of seed potatoes can produce a massive harvest.
You don't need a huge plot of land. Potatoes can be grown easily in "grow bags," large containers, or even old trash cans. As the plant grows, you continuously add more soil or straw around the stem (a process called "hilling up"), which encourages more potatoes to form.
- Pro Tip: Use certified seed potatoes from a nursery rather than store-bought potatoes, which may be treated with sprout inhibitors and carry diseases.
16. Garlic
Bold Heading: Garlic
Garlic is one of the easiest and most trouble-free crops you can grow. It’s the ultimate "plant it and forget it" vegetable. You plant individual cloves in the fall, cover them with mulch, and then do pretty much nothing until you harvest beautiful, full heads of garlic the following summer.
Growing your own allows you to try interesting varieties like hardneck garlic, which has more complex flavors than the standard softneck type found in most stores. You can also harvest the green shoots, called "garlic scapes," in the spring for a delicious, mild garlic flavor.
- Pro Tip: Save a few of your biggest, best heads from your harvest to plant again the next fall. You may never need to buy garlic again!
17. Sugar Snap Peas
Bold Heading: Sugar Snap Peas
Sweet, crunchy sugar snap peas are a springtime delicacy that can be expensive and hard to find fresh. They are a cool-weather crop that is best planted as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring.
Most varieties are vines that will need a trellis to climb. Setting up a simple support system is well worth the effort. The harvest is a pure delight—plucking sweet pods right off the vine and eating them on the spot is a gardener's rite of passage.
- Pro Tip: Like beans, peas are most productive when picked frequently. Harvest the pods when they are plump and crisp to encourage the plant to produce more flowers and pods.
18. Hot Peppers
Bold Heading: Hot Peppers
If you enjoy a bit of spice, growing your own hot peppers like jalapeños, serranos, or cayennes is a huge money-saver. A single plant can produce dozens of peppers, providing more than enough for fresh salsas, hot sauces, or drying for winter use.
Hot peppers thrive in the same conditions as bell peppers: lots of sun and heat. They are generally less fussy and more productive than their larger, sweeter cousins, making them an excellent and reliable choice for beginners.
- Pro Tip: The "heat" of a pepper can be influenced by growing conditions. Restricting water slightly as the peppers are maturing can often lead to spicier fruit.
19. Onions
Bold Heading: Onions
While green onions offer a quick win, growing full-sized bulb onions for storage is a fantastic long-term investment. They are one of the most-used ingredients in any kitchen, and growing a year's supply is surprisingly manageable.
For beginners, growing onions from "sets" (small, immature bulbs) is the easiest method. You simply press them into the soil in the spring. They take up little space and require minimal care until they are ready to be harvested in late summer, cured, and stored for the winter.
- Pro Tip: When the green tops of the onions start to turn yellow and fall over, it's your signal to stop watering. This tells the bulb to start forming a dry, protective skin for storage.
Your Grocery Bill's Worst Nightmare
Starting a garden can feel daunting, but it doesn't have to be. As we believe here on the Goh Ling Yong blog, the key is to start small and choose plants that give you the biggest bang for your buck and your effort. Don't feel pressured to grow all 19 of these at once! Pick two or three that you love to eat and buy often, and just start there.
The journey of growing your own food is an investment—in your health, your peace of mind, and your wallet. There is immense power in walking out your back door to harvest part of your dinner. You'll not only cut down your grocery bill but also rediscover the incredible taste of truly fresh food.
Now it's your turn. Which of these vegetables are you most excited to try? Do you have another favorite money-saving plant that you'd recommend to fellow beginners? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below! We'd love to hear from you.
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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