Consumers looking to save money and eat healthier can grow some of their own vegetables in their yard or in pots. Those who'd like some help can get advice from master gardeners and buy some locally grown seeds or starters Saturday at the University of Hawai'i Urban Garden Center in Pearl City.

Jayme Grzebik, an urban horticulturist with the UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Cooperative Extension Service, said the center is fielding at least twice as many calls from consumers this year wanting to talk about growing vegetables.

Blame the economy, credit people's increasing environmental awareness, or chalk it up to a greater emphasis on eating fresh and healthy. Whatever the reason, interest is up.

Grzebik didn't have the exact number for the increase in calls but sees a definite upswing. "More and more people are asking, 'How do I grow eggplant? What kind of fertilizer do I need for tomatoes?' " she said.

And those are the calls that keep the center's volunteers busy and happy, she said.

"Eggplant is easy to start," she said. "The best place to start is to get vegetable starters from a local garden center instead of growing them from seed."

The UH garden — something of a hidden-in-plain-sight treasure in Pearl City — offers special free public events every second Saturday of the month.

On O'ahu, Bob Speer is president of the master gardener association, which takes him to the garden a couple of times a week. He and other volunteers also answer telephone questions from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays at 453-6055.

With the warm summer sun upon us, would-be gardeners still have time to plant some items such as string beans, eggplants, onions, leeks, lettuce and a host of herbs, Speer said.

"It's late but not too late," he said. If you plant a green bean starter now, in a few weeks, it could be producing about a meal's worth of beans, once a week for five to six weeks, he said.

Makai of the Pearl City Home Depot, the UH Urban Garden Center offers a one-stop educational center for tropical gardening. There are displays of vegetables growing in traditional rows as well as smaller containers, beds and even a square-foot garden that shows how much can be grown in one-foot squares.

The volunteers provide examples of how to plant, care and maintain for vegetables. And being able to see the various plants growing and talk with the folks who garden there provides a low-stress introduction for those wannabe gardeners who haven't done much planting.

Speer, who grew up near fruit farms in Michigan, came to the Islands during a 30-year career in the Navy. Now retired, he's happy to be back "digging in the dirt" and talking with others about gardening.

A lot of other resources are available on the Web including very specific information about soil, planting advice, watering and fertilizer for each plant.

By providing specialized information for gardening in Hawai'i, the local experts can take the guesswork out of what these plants need. Here the scientist and plant-lover merge. "Use the publications as a checklist," Grzebik suggested. "You'll have a perfectly happy plant."

Grzebik offers some other tips: