Most people are trying to stretch their food dollar.

Growing a vegetable garden has been a popular way to try to save money this summer, even if it's only tomatoes and peppers in patio pots.

Almost half of American households with a garden or yard planned to add or expand a vegetable garden this summer, according to a late spring trend survey by the Garden Writers Association Foundation.

Homegrown produce is the best, but it's nice to know you can also realize savings by preserving and storing vegetables. That's one focus of vegetables being test-grown at Iowa State University's Extension Home Demonstration Garden.

Visitors can stroll through the garden Saturday, beginning at 4 p.m. at the Northeast Research Farm near Nashua. Extension horticulturists will be on hand to discuss plants.

Each year, the ISU Research Farms and ISU Extension offer field days to show off their farms and gardens. The Nashua farm is one of eight locations in the state.

In one area, the garden features new and traditional cultivars of onions, sweet potatoes, winter squash and potatoes. All of these can be stored for long periods, given the proper conditions. "Honey Bear," an acorn-type squash has a dark green rind and orange flesh. "Copra Yellow" and "Zeppelin Red" are onions being grown for storage, and "Kennebec" and "Red Pontiac" are varieties of white potatoes that are good keepers.

Canning and freezing can preserve produce from heavy producers like tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. Among varieties being tested are "Mountain Glory," a determinate tomato plant with bright red, large fruits; "Pony Express," with red plum tomatoes; and "Red October," an indeterminate plant with fruits noted for winter storage.

Cucumbers include "Little Tyke Early," a vigorous grower, and "Alibi," producing dark green cukes. "Blue Lake Bush" beans, a favorite, and "Strike Bush" are among bean varieties. Beets include "Ruby Queen," a dark red, round vegetable.

There's a pumpkin patch, too, filled with ghostly white pumpkins such as "Cotton Candy," a round bright-white pumpkin, and "Gooligan Flat," a small, ornamental cultivar.

Look for new and unusual flowers and annual grasses, including new cultivars in marigolds, zinnias, angelonia, rudbeckias and gomphrena.

"Bunny Tails," for example, is one of the silliest-looking grasses I've ever seen, and what fun to grow. In early summer, the 12- to 20-inch high plant is topped with chartreuse puffballs that turn to rich tan. The stems can be cut and the "tails" used as everlastings in wreaths and dried flower arrangements.

Directions: Go north on U.S. Highway 218, take the Nashua exit and go west (left) 1 mile on County Highway B60 , then turn south on Windfall Avenue for 1 mile; then back east on 290th Street for one-fifth of a mile.