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I’m determined to reduce my food costs this summer.

In addition to the established asparagus I’m already cutting, I’ll be planting corn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, turnips, beets, onions, zucchini, and melons. I’m even going to attempt starting a trellis of grape vines.

For those of you with even a small patch of property that gets 6 hours of sunlight, you might consider planting a garden of your own. My own garden is approximately 14’x24′, but with as little as 10’x10′, you can grow a fair amount of vegetables in that space by using trellises and growing upward, rather than letting vine type plants run along the ground.

One tomato plant will, when it starts producing fruit, have you eventually giving tomatoes to neighbors, because you can’t eat them fast enough. The same can be said for a cucumber plant.

Plant a row of open leaf lettuce (like, Romaine), rather than head-type, and you can pick the outer leaves until it eventually bolts during the hottest days of summer.

A couple of pepper plants, such as Bells, will provide you plenty for your salads, or cooking needs.

Just one Zucchini plant is enough, as it will produce more than you’ll need, until the first frost.

Also consider items like onions, turnips, and beets around the border of your garden.

Why should you think about a small vegetable garden?

Expect vegetables to be another food that will see a large increase in prices this year. Trucks of produce ended up rotting at the border between Mexico and Texas, because Texas Gov. Gregg Abbot decided to play a political nonsense card of double inspections of trucks entering the U.S.

He has reversed that redundant inspection policy after it resulted in a shortage of vegetables and higher prices, but the damage to our wallets is likely to continue.

Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, stated that fruit and vegetable losses added up to over $240 million and that buyers across the country can expect rising prices as producers try to regain some of those losses.

Since I always seem to go overboard every year on the amount of plants I put in the ground, I expect my neighbors will be seeing some gifts left on their doorstep this summer.

I also have another cost saving project started. So far, I’ve been able to keep my neighbors unaware of the small calf I bought. I named him, “Sir Loin.” I only hope he continues to stay quiet in my shed and gains 500 pounds. I’ll be enjoying my vegetables with a thick juicy steak.

If you think a small garden is something you want to try, CLICK HERE for square foot gardening information.