Sick of paying $7 for a cabbage, $5 for a capsicum or $8.50 for a kilogram of tomatoes? Well, you could always join the growing army of people who have decided to grow their own.
Photo: 123RF
Sales of vegetable seeds are going through a mini-boom.
Kings Seeds sell a huge variety of vegetable seeds from broccoli, pumpkin and corn to microgreens and herbs.
General manager Charlotte Connoley said they saw a lift in sales during Covid-19 lockdowns as people were concerned about accessing food - but strong sales were continuing.
"Now I think what we're seeing is, obviously, with the inflationary pressures, people are a lot more conscious around the cost of their food and how they might be able to obtain it at a lower cost.
"In the last six weeks in particular orders have increased and the amount of seeds people are buying has gone up. In the past people might buy five different packets but now they're getting 10 or 20."
Connoley said more people were taking note of vegetable prices and realising the value they could get from growing there own.
"If a cabbage is $6 in the supermarket, you can buy a packet of seeds for $3.95 and that would have between 100 and 300 seeds per packet so that could work out as 3 cents per cabbage.
"It's great to see more people getting into gardening and growing their own food. It provides more resilience for our communities if people are learning to grow food."
Kale growing in a small garden. Photo: 123RF
She said people did not need a large space to grow produce and more people should try it.
"People that might be in apartments could grow celery, kale or Asian greens in pots on their patio and just harvest them as needed."
Egmont Seed Company - which has contracts to pack seeds for other companies - has also had an increase in orders this year.
General manager John McCulloch said sales for April were up nearly three-fold compared to April last year.
"It's just insane, I think what has driven the growth is the cost of living but we also had a really nice warm autumn which meant more people were out in the garden."
Photo: 123RF
McCulloch said growing vegetables and gardening was very rewarding.
"It would be naive to think that you could grow all the veggies you eat. Even my wife and I, who are keen gardeners, can't grow all of our own but it's great to grow the staples and complement what you buy from the supermarket.
"It's not actually that hard to turn over some of the back lawn and turn it into a garden. It would only take an afternoon to do that and plant the seeds.
"All vegetables are pretty easy to grow and it's a great thing to do as a household, to get the kids involved."
McCulloch said it was too late to plant seeds now - but people should do research and plant some of their own vegetables this spring.