The previous post I covered my favorite money savers.  This one, I’ll cover those things that grow really well, but only sometimes save you money.  I’ll also cover a few things that didn’t work out so well, at least in Texas.

Onions:  Onions aren’t that expensive in the store, but they are so easy to grow that you can plant a row or two and easily break even on the investment.  For about 2 dollars you can grow thirty onion starters if you have the space.  If you grow green onions, you’ll save some money–they run about 50 cents a bundle in the grocery.  I always spare a corner for green onions and I get three or four bundles, more in a good year.  One or two rows of regular onions keeps me in onions for about 2 months.  Any more than that, and I don’t think I’d eat them fast enough.  Onions in Texas are the short day variety–which means they have a lot more “juice” so they will decay faster, even after being properly dried.

Fruit Trees - Most fruit trees have good years and bad years.  A lot of time the fruit freezes.  If you have a good year, you’ll probably more than make up for your investment…if you didn’t pay too much for the tree and you’ve already waited for it to get to the four-years-old mark.  Four years old is when most trees actually begin producing fruit.  My favorites are peaches and cherries.  Pretty easy to make back your money if you get a good year or two out of them.  Of course, you do have to spray them for bugs and to get the cherries, you will have to fight off the birds.  Those activities will add to the effort!   You also get most of your crop within about a two-three week period, which means you have to can them, give them away or eat them all! 

Apple Trees — probably easier to grow. Generally require pesticides once a year.  While apples are relatively cheap, there’s something to be said for picking your own fresh.  My favorite are golden delicious and black beauties…although I like red delicious and Gala too!

I think if you can grow citris of any kind, it might be worth it.  Personally, I’d like to grow lemon or limes, but I don’t think Texas has the right climate.  That, and I’m not sure where I’d put another tree.  We already have many an oak, two pecans that I planted (which don’t produce for 10 years) some Junipers and a couple of Asian fruit-producing trees.  I don’t know what the fruit is on those trees.  It is edible because I’ve tried it and I didn’t die (an Asian friend told me the Asian name and assured me the fruit was edible).  

If you can grow avocado, I can’t help but think they would be a good investment.  At 50 cents a piece in the store, it wouldn’t take long to make back your investment.  Of course the problem here is that avocado doesn’t grow anywhere that has freezing.

Things I wouldn’t bother to grow:

Celery:  It’s too hot here anyway.  All I got was leaves, and the thing seemed to need water twice a day.

Carrots:  Never tried them.  They aren’t that expensive in the store and they taste the same whether I grow them or the store sells them to me.

Asparagus: Too much water and who wants to wait 2 years?

Radishes:  Only if you really have a lot of space and love the things.  They are inexpensive, but they take up a lot of room and once you pick one, that’s it, it’s done.  You need several rows in order to get enough ready at the same time.

Strawberries:  I went back and forth on where to include this fruit. There is nothing yummier than fresh strawberries–but they take up a lot of room and you must have several plants.  Consider that about one or two fruits ripen at a time on a given plant, you multiply that out by how many you might want each day (or every few days.)  Ten plants was not enough.  I got about two berries every couple of days from 10 plants.   They are pretty hardy plants though, and their only real enemy is slugs.   I would think you could do pretty well with thirty to forty plants.  The season in Texas ranges from a few short weeks to probably twelve weeks when it stays cooler well into May.  (They can be covered during light freezes.)   You do use up the room permanently with strawberries; the best berries happen after the second year.  This means you get to water them all through the summer even when they aren’t producing.