Two-year-old's hack to save her parents $200 on groceries

Grocery shopping is a costly expense for every family, so when one savvy two-year-old’s obsession with her veggie patch began saving her parents hundreds off their food bill, they certainly couldn’t complain.

Sydney mum Jacqueline Peck had attempted to grow her own vegetables for years but never had much luck until her daughter Harper took it on as a little passion project and quickly became the primary caretaker.

Harper now refers to the plants as her ‘babies’ and devotes hours of love and attention to help them grow ready for harvesting.

“Every morning she takes her little cup of tea up there and she sits with the plants having a little chat to her ‘babies’ which she watched grow from feed,” Jacqueline said.

“We have an automatic watering system… but she will walk around doing the fertilising with the watering can, she’ll go pull out the weeds and if she sees any bugs out there, she’ll pull the bugs off too.”

And now thanks to her daughter’s efforts the mum of four has been able to save about $200 a month by growing things they would normally buy including, snow peas, sugar peas, celery, radish and various types of lettuce.

“We’re probably getting about three-quarters of our vegetables fulfilled with what’s growing in the garden,” she said.

“I would normally spend an easy $100 a week at the fruit and veg shop, but now I’m pretty much only spending around $50 a week… because all I’m needing to buy is fruit, so that’s actually a lot of money we’re saving.”

And the benefits don’t stop there – Harper is not only eating more vegetables because of it, but she is also choosing to spend more time outside which nowadays, with all the technology around, is a parent’s dream.

“She’ll just randomly grab a piece of kale and start gnawing away at it…it’s quite bizarre because it’s really self-driven as, being a parent of four, I don’t really have time to encourage something like this,” Jacqueline admits.

The budding young grower is now in the running to be Australia’s Next Top Gardener, and the new face of Yates.

“We are searching for a little legend who loves to get their hands dirty, grow exciting plants and be creative in their backyard,” said Angie Thomas, Horticulture Consultant to Yates.

She hopes the competition will encourage more kids to get involved in the hobby.

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