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Within two weeks of moving into their new home in North Attleboro, one of the first things Bill and Michele Clark did was scope out the sunniest patch in their back yard and plant a vegetable garden.

Other than taking pride in home ownership, the primary reason the Clarks have dug into vegetable gardening is the growing price of produce.

"Go into the supermarket and look what it costs for one tomato," said Bill Clark, who noted this is his first vegetable garden.

He's banking the $3.99 he spent for a six-plat of tomato plants will pay off in a homegrown crop that will help save green spent at the grocery store. He's planted a variety of tomatoes, from early bloomers to those meant for stewing, in addition to green beans and squash.

"All of the vegetables we eat," he said. The Clarks represent a growing movement of people planting vegetable gardens for the first time in light of high food costs.

Others are planting because of a sprouting interest in the environment and healthier food.

Kathi Gariepy, a master gardener in Attleboro and member of the city's garden club who helps tend the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's gardener help line, said the number of callers seeking advice on planting a vegetable garden is up significantly.

And it's not just flower gardeners deciding to branch into vegetables, Gariepy said. Many of the callers are making a first-time foray into their yards.

They don't just want to know how to grow basic tomatoes, either, she said. They want a variety of vegetables that can feed the family and prune their grocery bills.

The phenomenon appears to have mushroomed nationally.

According to a 2008 trend report published by the Garden Writers of America, 39 percent of homeowners surveyed planned to spend money this year on vegetable and fruit gardening - up from 32 percent last year - placing it second only to spending on lawn care.

Vegetable gardening might not grow to the level of the Victory Gardens of World War II, when home and community gardens were estimated to have generated up to 40 percent of the produce consumed in the United States, but people starting vegetable gardens are bean counting.

Gariepy said that rising food costs was the primary reason cited by callers wanting to plant vegetable gardens.

Tough economic conditions are also behind a budding plan in Rehoboth for a community garden to help those in need. Town administrator David Marciello said the harvest from an 80- by 80-square-foot plot on the Council on Aging property on State Road will go to the town's Helping Hands food pantry, a non-profit charitable corporation that helps with food and heating assistance for residents.

It is an outgrowth of the troubled economy.

"A lot of people cannot afford to buy fresh produce," he said. "If you can spend $5 on broccoli or 89 cents on Ramen noodles, you're going to spend 89 cents on Ramen noodles."

He said many of those in need also don't have the ability to grow their own gardens, either because of physical limits or they are already holding down a couple of jobs.

Some in the global and local gardening community say the blossoming of vegetable gardening because of high food costs is just one aspect feeding into a larger movement of returning to roots in home and locally grown produce.

David Hill, coordinator of Attleboro's Community Garden which just celebrated its 10th anniversary, said this is the second year in a row all of the garden's 41 plots have been spoken for. And there have been more inquiries about gardening a plot.

He said demand has exceeded supply, and hopes that another area can be found in the city to put down roots for a second community garden.

Hill speculated there are a combination of forces behind the growing interest, including people who don't have space in their own backyards, a desire by some to grow their own food, as well as the comradery that comes with community gardening.

As they have done in past years, the community gardeners and other growers will hold a Harvest Day where fresh produce will be distributed to food kitchens and group homes.

Sister Carole Rossi, a Kentucky Dominion Nun at Crystal Spring Earth Learning Center in Plainville, said that while the economic downturn is certainly a force, she believes more people are also turning to self-grown or community vegetable gardening and community-supported gardens because of an increasing awareness of the benefits to health and the environment with produce grown in sustainable way.

And while the costs of shares in a community-supported garden, like Heirloom Harvest Farm in Westford, have risen, all of those plots were taken as of a couple of weeks ago and there's a waiting list, she said.

The center's own large garden in Plainville, where potatoes, leeks and onions, among other vegetables, are grown, supported them throughout the year and they still have a bucket of onions left over, Rossi said.

They also freeze and can a lot, something else that more people are doing, she said.

Rossi sees it as a return to people's roots, where previous generations grew up with experience with vegetable gardens.

"The past several generations did not grow up with that experience, but I do think they are returning," she said.