The evening sun beats down on Julie Vernon as she examines plants Tuesday, July 22, 2008 in a north Lawrence community garden.

Black-eyed peas. Tomatoes. Potatoes. Corn. The fresh taste of these items is what keeps Beth Bloss going back to her garden plot year after year.

Bloss has been gardening for more than 15 years, and she says switching from buying to producing has saved her money.

“It takes a little bit to get it going, but once you have your land, it’s pretty economical,” Bloss says. “My biggest expense is the water bill.”

Bloss, who gardens both for the product and the process, has been able to shrink her grocery list by planting, picking and canning her favorite vegetables. And she’s not the only one.

Many people, like Lawrence resident Dave Loewenstein, have traded in shopping carts for spears, spades and garden hoes.

Loewenstein says chucking cherry tomatoes into a shopping cart at the grocery store might seem simpler than planting and picking them, but the payoff from doing it unaided is worth it. And it’s financially wise to boot.

“It’s much cheaper to garden,” Loewenstein says. “You save money gardening. The cost is really in time, but you get to convert that into something that you would normally pay for.”

Loewenstein plants acorn squash, cherry tomatoes, and green and red peppers annually. He says one way he curtails costs is to barter. Loewenstein sometimes swaps items with other gardeners, which is normal among community gardens. By networking with other gardeners, a person could even procure free packages of seeds, which are inexpensive anyway, Loewenstein says. And swapping or snatching up free packages of seeds is just a start. Gardeners will also sometimes trade vegetables, fruits and soil for items they desire.

And another way gardeners further shrink expenses is to buy necessities carefully. For instance, some beginning gardeners buy already-mixed compost, which can come with a hefty price tag. But avid gardeners recommend dodging the expense entirely.

Greg McDonald creates mulch the easy way: He rakes his backyard, collects clumps of debris and dumps it into a tin, where he leaves it for a while. He lets his collection fester through fall and winter. Then when spring launches, he spreads it over the garden and mixes it into the soil.

And to advance garden growth, some people put sugar into the soil. McDonald says a cheap way to do the trick is to empty a can of cola into the garden. The effect: The microorganisms in the soil munch on the sugar and then break down the leaves more effectively.

Other gardeners, including Bob Lominska, mix food scraps into soil. And Lominska has found other ways to reduce gardening costs: He sells what he doesn’t eat at the Lawrence Farmers’ Market.

He also cans and freezes his produce so his family can eat it during the off-season.

The biggest savings in gardening comes from canning and freezing, says Lominska. The cost deferred from that alone is huge, he says.

Bloss agrees. She freezes her vegetables, then eats them all winter. And Bloss, who’s been gardening for nearly two decades, advises gardeners not get ahead of themselves.

A small garden plot should suffice at first.

“Keep it simple,” she says.