PITTSBURGH -- Gas and food prices are sky-high and according to the USDA, food prices are expected to go up 6 percent this year.

Those high prices may be creating thousands of new gardeners.

The Burpee seed company has sold twice as many seeds this year than last. The company said half of the increase is from new customers.

Joan Brenckle, owner of Brenckle's Farm and Greenhouse, said she's seeing more first-time gardeners this year than ever before. Brenckle said, "They want to grow it instead of paying the high prices at the grocery store."

Pat Beall was shopping for vegetable plants at Brenckle's. She's grown vegetables for years, mostly because she believes home grown tastes better and it's a fun hobby, but this year she's growing vegetables for another reason.

Beall said, "You save a lot of money. I think it's ridiculous. The prices are very high."

She had just been at the supermarket and couldn't believe what some produce cost. "Today, for a very small packet of little green onions it was 50 cents. I don't think there were more than five little green onions in there."

So just how much money can a consumer save by growing their own produce? According to the USDA, for about $3 you can get $60 worth of tomatoes.

Brenckle says pepper plants are another good deal. "A bell pepper will give you a good dozen peppers off it throughout the summer. It costs 79 cents."

Doug Oster is host of the Organic Gardner radio show and a gardening columnist for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. He says don't worry if you've never grown anything before. "As long as you can find a spot that has sun that you can dig up, you're going to be OK ," Oster said.

Besides sun, soil is important.

Oster says, "Remember to feed the soil instead of feeding the plant. If you get organic matter into the soil, which means compost, mushroom manure, dehydrated manure, you get that into the soil and work that in, that's what gives you the automatic green thumb."

If you don't have a spot in the yard to plant a garden, don't worry. You don't need a lot of room to grow enough vegetables for your family.

"A lot of people will grow six tomatoes right along the garage. You can grow just about anything that you would grow in a vegetable garden in a container. The real trick is picking the right container for the right plant," Oster said.

For tomatoes you need at least a 5-gallon container, but bigger is better for tomatoes.

The bigger the container, the less watering you'll need to do.

Tomatoes are heavy feeders, so they can sap the nutrients out of a small container quickly. That means you will have to keep watering and fertilizing the plant.

Anything can be a container for a plant as long as it has holes in the bottom. Water needs to be able to drain out of the pot.

Growing organic can also save money because chemical fertilizers and herbicides are petroleum-based and the price of those has also increased dramatically.

While saving money is one reason to grow your own vegetables, it's not the only one.

Oster says, "It's a great hobby because it's so therapeutic. My kids are 19, 21, and 23, so I know the therapeutic nature of gardening."