What is a good amount of garden?

[Aya]

This is my first year gardening. I've recently become a stay at home mom and decided I'd like to get into gardening, both to have something to do in my off time as well as to try and help save money by growing my own produce rather than having to buy it. The issue I'm trying to figure out currently is how much of a garden do I need to provide produce for a family of 3 (soon to be 4)? I would like to freeze fresh fruits and vegetables to be able to have them when I need them as well as keep some fresh stuff on hand. I think I'm going to concentrate on: Tomatoes (Cherry and Regular Size), Carrots, Lettuce, Spinach, Potatoes, Peas, and Herbs. I'd love to have corn, melon etc..but I don't think I have the space for them. So what would you suggest? How many plants to make a difference in our grocery bill?

Thanks!

[SPierce]

I'm a newb, too... would always recommend starting out small- then growing from there. I have 4 4x4 garden boxes, and last year was my first year- i bit off WAY more than I could chew, trying to plant everything I could think of, and aside from a ton of tomatoes and a very small pepper, ended up with little to nothing.

The way I set up everything this year was thusly: when I go grocery shopping, I look at the cash register/receipt and see what my most expensive things are on my bill. It usually ends up being grapes (which I unfortunately don't have room for); so aside from that, I buy a lot of onions, potatoes, various squashes and peppers. So-- that's what I concentrated on this year. I also learned, last year, that I bought too much of each plant! I could have made do with half of what I bought, so I ended up overcrowding, too.

be aware: one tomato plant will produce a TON of tomatoes. it also grows up to 7 feet tall so, you don't need a ton of tomato plants- one or two will provide plenty all season It's similar with lettuce, I planted mine too late and all my lettuces bolted, but from the way things looked I could pick leaves off of it pretty much all season for salads and such!

Pretty much anything will make a difference in your grocery bill- heck, even eating at home instead of out will make a HUGE difference. Sorry I'm rambling; what I'm basically trying to say, is, supplement your meals with stuff out of your garden that seems to cost you the most at the grocery store. It makes an enormous difference!

Good luck with your garden this year

[Aya]

Thanks! I was thinking 1 or 2 of each tomato plant, and I have 5 potato plants going as well. I kinda got out of hand with my peas. I had bought a 4 pack of transplants and they're doing good, but then I planted about 6 different sets thinking they wouldn't all germinate, but they all did! So now I have about 9 healthy pea plants, which I think might be too much
I like grapes a lot too, and I've seen grape plants/vines available but I have no idea how to raise grapes..I'm a huge novice and grapes seem difficult. Well hopefully we each end up with productive, beautiful vegetable gardens this year

[BrianIllinois]

Here are the factors I consider:
• Bang for the buck
• Space required
• What I enjoy growing
• Things that taste great fresh-from-the-garden, but lousy from the store

Considering those criteria, I plant more tomatoes than I probably should. But I really enjoy growing them (especially the less common varieties), they hands-down beat the store offerings and I freeze what I don't need right away. I just blanche them to make the skin peel right off, then quarter them and throw them in freezer bags. I use them all winter in soups and chili.

I also favor eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, lettuce, arugula.

I'm reducing this year's planting of cucumber and jalapeno.

I've added asparagus this year.

[Bobberman]

I think its always better to plant more! You can freeze tomatoes for later in the year! Some crops take all summer so you want to prepare if some don't grow well! I found that its is better to take your time and plant them right rather than just plant them anyway! Sugar Peas I would put in at least 25 or more since you can eat them when they are small and fully grown! Potatoes can be kepin the ground so plant plenty and they are easy to grow even on bad ground!
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Tomatoes I would plant at least 2 of each of 6 or more varities. Lettuce plant some every other week for three weeks so you will have it most of the summer. Also with lettuce plant leaf and semi head!. Simson and butter crunch are good choices or red sailes or prize head both are similar to simson but have a red tint! One of My favorites is oak leaf! Variety is the name of the game in gardening because of taste and how well one type grows! Cabbage and broccoli are also good crops!

[Aya]

I really love tomatoes, especially cherry varieties. Since this is my first year gardening, I didn't know about catalogs so I've been looking for seeds in store. They don't have many varieties so I'm hoping to get lots of variety for next year.
I seemingly spend the most on fruit at the stores, yet I can't think of a way to grow the fruits I like best in the space I have available. I love blackberries and raspberries, but my puppy tore them up out of the containers I had them in, so they're toast. I'm wondering if I should start over or just nix the idea....they're just so expensive in the grocery store.

[Bobberman]

Wild rasberries ae everywhere. I dug about 10 plants out 5 years ago and have a nice crop every year now! Tomatoes grow a early variety like Early Girl & a small tomato like sweet 100 or sweet million!. The large tomato I would pick celeberity or better boy. Plants are the way to go this year like 4 for $2 in most places. The hybrides are usually more and I like them best! Hirlooms are fine. You can even throw early varities of tomato seeds in a small garden area in may and still have a crop in Aug growing your own.! Wal Mart has many seed packs for a $1 that are fine!

[rainbowgardener]

"Realistically, a family of four growing just their vegetables on about 1/4 acre (about a 100′x100′ plot) would be a huge amount of their food supply and quite manageable if you were willing to put in the work!"

http://thesietch.org/mysietch/greenspre ... fficiency/

[jal_ut]

rainbowgardener is spot on, however that may be a big order for a beginner.

[ruggr10]

This is year two of me having anything bigger than an 8x10 plot and I'm not worrying about what is too much. I'm growing things I like to each and also things I find fun.

Some examples:
14 types of tomatoes started (so far)
weird types of berries
glow in the dark peppers
strawberry spinach
serpent cucumbers
lemon cucumbers
4 types of japanese winter squash
and more I'm probably forgetting.

I'm making sure I have what we need to eat plus what I want to have fun with. I'm a newb but I am a teacher with summers off (other than coaching hoops) so I can experiment. I guess it's a good hobby to have.

[Aya]

Its a nice concept to have a huge plot Rainbow, but I don't have that much room
I also have broccoli growing. And I thought 9-10 pea plants would be too many - I guess that's not the case!

[Bobberman]

There is always room for a raised bed. Take a ugly part of your yard and make a raised bed right over a burn pile or grass!! Any kind of old lumber will work even brick or block!

[Aya]

That's a great idea. The hard part will be convincing hubby to let me take over the yard

[rainbowgardener]

No it's hard to have too many pea plants. They produce a few pea pods and then are done. The first time I grew peas, I planted a row on each side of an 6' long trellis. That gave me enough peas for one meal.

Now with very limited space, I don't bother with peas. I'd rather grow broccoli, which keeps on putting out side heads after you harvest the main one, for cool weather and then beans which keep on producing much longer.

No, I didn't expect that you would or could make a 100 x 100' garden. Just that if you were serious about 4 people eating no vegetables that didn't come from your garden (and you wanted to eat a reasonable quantity and variety of veggies!) that's about what it would take. Very experienced intensive gardeners in the square foot gardening and/ or permaculture style might be able to reduce that , but they would accomplish that by putting in lots more time and energy in the garden, very labor intensive and probably pretty input-intensive in terms of compost and other enrichments.

[Bobberman]

Variety of peas is very important. Most of the peas only grow 2 feet high. The alasakan peas grow 5 feet and can be eaten at all stages plus produce peas for over a month & lots of peas per stock!