If you're gardening on a small city lot or an apartment balcony you really want to plant vegetables that will give you the most profitable yield for your space and your effort. Check out this index of vegetables in price-per-square-foot format.


Photo by BeverlyLR.

Over at the gardening blog Cheap Vegetable Gardner they put together a list of how profitable plants are based on how much space they take up and what it costs to purchase them—organically grown—at the local grocer. The most profitable plants are:

Cilantro - $21.20 Arugula-Roquette - $20.92 Green Salad Mix - $17.55 Chives - $16.40 Dill - $16.40 Lettuce - $16.20 Tomato, Cherry, small & medium - $15.57 Turnip - $9.90 Tomato, large - $9.50 Squash, Winter - $8.40

Plants you'll want to avoid include cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and mustard greens—all yield less than a dollar worth of produce per square foot. Check out the full list at the link below to see how your garden planning stacks up against a trip to the grocery store. For another look at gardening, this time from the perspective of investment versus yield, check out how to plant a high-return vegetable garden.


The Most Profitable Plants in Your Garden [Cheap Vegetable Gardener via Re-Nest]