What Size Garden to Feed Family of 4
I should know better, just information technology happens every year: I start likewise many seeds, feel uncertain virtually whether or not I sowed plenty, so realize I'chiliad growing more food than my family tin can possibly eat.
And I don't retrieve I'grand alone in this!
My eyes are much bigger than my stomach—and my garden—at the kickoff of every season, and I inevitably end up with hundreds of seedlings that I scramble to observe room for in any patch of bare soil.
Or sometimes, on the flip side, I don't plant nearly enough of my favorite fruits and vegetables. (Especially the ones I similar to snack in the field before bringing them in.)
For a while, I struggled with knowing exactly how much to found in a vegetable garden to feed my family unit.
Finding that residuum between having enough food to eat and preserve, while wasting as piffling as possible to overripeness, frost, and the compost pile, tin can be tricky.
(I know that returning plants to the life bike by way of composting isn't really waste, merely those unused vegetables withal took time, water, and other resources to grow.)
Related: 11 Vegetables Yous Grow That You Didn't Know You Could Eat
I had questions that every edible gardener has wondered at some signal: How do I know if I'yard growing enough food? What size garden does it take to feed a family of four?
Over the years, I've tracked how much we grow versus how much we consume, and I thought it was worth sharing these numbers with y'all to ease some of the pre-planting anxiety we all feel when mapping out our garden beds.
The simply downside to having hard numbers to reference is that they're highly variable when it comes to a topic like this.
Factors similar the size of your garden, your growing conditions, and fifty-fifty the appetites of your family unit members all influence how many plants are considered "enough."
And then, use this data every bit a starting point for planning your new garden, and tailor it accordingly based on your ain family's needs, preferences, and resources.
5 things to consider before deciding how much food yous need to grow
1. How big is your garden?
This is the most limiting gene when deciding how many plants to grow per person. Even if you lot want to grow enough tomatoes to feed your family for an entire season, those plants accept up a lot of space.
You may discover yourself needing to scale back in order to provide some variety for your meals, or you may determine that you'd rather grow every bit many tomatoes as y'all tin and merely buy other vegetables yous like to eat.
(A tip from my own experience: I tend to focus on growing vegetables that are expensive to buy organic, like tomatoes and bell peppers, over less expensive produce like potatoes and onions.)
Remember that garden space doesn't take to be within the confines of a "proper" edible garden either.
Y'all may be able to get away with growing salad greens in a window box, letting beans and cucumbers climb a back fence, or adding artichoke plants to your ornamental landscaping in the front yard.
Past being creative with constitute placements and repurposing household items (like a vintage clawfoot bathtub!) into anarchistic planters, you tin can maximize a small infinite and produce more nutrient than you lot thought was possible.
2. What does your family like to consume?
It goes without proverb that you lot should grow the fruits and vegetables that your family likes to consume, and plant only one or 2 of each variety that you want to try.
Be honest and realistic about what your typical meals look like, and how much time yous actually take to use or cook what you grow. It's all as well easy to get dazzled by the incredible pick of seeds you find in seed catalogs. (Yep, been there.)
If rhubarb is something you only use for the occasional pie or cobbler, you might be better off simply buying it.
If light-green smoothies are a regular part of your morn routine, you lot might want to grow more spinach and carrots than suggested.
And if you absolutely love beets, you lot could succession plant 5 to ten plants per person every couple of weeks, instead of a single ingather all at in one case.
3. How one-time is each person in your family? What is that person'due south lifestyle like?
A toddler will obviously eat less than a teenager, and family members who stay habitation all 24-hour interval will likely eat more than those who commute to work and consume out often.
Keep the ages and lifestyles of each member in listen as you program your garden, and suit the number of plantings to suit anybody's needs and likes.
If you raise chickens or brand your ain canis familiaris nutrient at abode, y'all might want to add a few more plants for them, also.
4. Do y'all like to eat in season or preserve backlog harvests for after apply?
The chart below (I call information technology my Grow Enough Food! chart) lists the number of plants needed for fresh consumption.
Merely what if canning is a hobby y'all enjoy? What if you love to brand several batches of homemade tomato sauce every summer?
If you plan to preserve any of your fruits and vegetables, you'll probably desire to abound more than what is suggested.
A general dominion of thumb—depending on the type of vegetable preserved, how it's preserved (drying? fermenting?), and how much you actually desire to store—is to quadruple the number of plants suggested in the chart.
five. What can you grow successfully in your climate?
Unlike soil and weather conditions, even year to year, can affect the yields from your vegetable crops.
Related: Know When to Grow: A Planting Calendar for Your Garden
Some plants are more prolific in warmer climates than they are in cooler climates, or they may have a shorter life cycle dictated past summer heat or fall frost.
Ultimately, the number of plants you lot grow may vary based on how productive your garden and growing climate are.
How much to plant in a vegetable garden to feed a family unit
These amounts are taken from my own personal experience and the average yields of common vegetables in a home garden.
They don't take succession planting into account. So for example, if you need to plant 20 carrots per person, you could plant 10 at the outset of the season and ten in the middle of the season for a continuous harvest.
All amounts are based on fresh eating, so accommodate accordingly if yous desire to preserve any of your harvests or yous accept an extra long growing season.
Garden Betty's "Grow Plenty Nutrient" Chart
| Crop | Number of Plants to Abound |
|---|---|
| Artichoke | 1 to 2 per person |
| Arugula | 5 per person |
| Asparagus | 5 to 10 per person |
| Bean (bush-league) | 5 to 10 per person |
| Bean (fava) | iv to 8 per person |
| Edible bean (pole) | 3 to 5 per person |
| Beet | five to 10 per person |
| Bok choy | i to 3 per person |
| Broccoli | 2 to 4 per person |
| Brussels sprout | 1 to ii per person |
| Cabbage | 2 to 4 per person |
| Carrot | 10 to twenty per person |
| Cauliflower | 2 to iv per person |
| Celery | ii to six per person |
| Chard | two to three per person |
| Collard | 2 to 3 per person |
| Corn (sweet) | 6 to 12 per person |
| Cucumber | 2 to 4 per person |
| Daikon | three to 6 per person |
| Eggplant | 1 to 2 per person |
| Garlic | 10 to 15 per person |
| Kale | 3 to 5 per person |
| Kohlrabi | 4 to eight per person |
| Leek | 10 per person |
| Lettuce | v per person |
| Melon | 2 to 3 per person |
| Mustard green | five to ten per person |
| Okra | 2 to 3 per person |
| Onion (bulb) | 10 to 20 per person |
| Onion (scallion) | 15 to 25 per person |
| Onion (shallot) | ten to 20 per person |
| Parsnip | v to 10 per person |
| Pea (shelling) | 15 to 30 per person |
| Pea (snap or snow) | iii to 5 per person |
| Pepper (sweet) | iii to 5 per person |
| Pepper (hot) | 1 to 2 per person |
| Potato | 5 to ten per person |
| Radish (jump) | fifteen to 25 per person |
| Radish (wintertime) | 5 to x per person |
| Rhubarb | 1 to 2 per person |
| Spinach | 5 to 10 per person |
| Squash (summertime) | 1 to 2 per person |
| Squash (winter) | one to 2 per person |
| Sweet potato | v per person |
| Tomatillo | ane to 2 per person |
| Love apple (cherry) | 1 per person |
| Tomato (slicing) | 2 to 4 per person |
| Turnip | 5 to 10 per person |
Continue track of how much y'all grow with the Ultimate Garden Diary. This printable PDF includes loads of charts and logs to aid you stay organized!
Common questions almost planting plenty food
Have yous started your seeds or transplanted your seedlings? Here are a few links to assistance you get started
- How Long Do Seeds Last? (Plus a Crook Sheet on Seed Life)
- The Beginner's No-Neglect Guide to Starting Seeds Indoors
- Soaking Seeds to Speed Germination
- Leggy Seedlings: What Causes Them and How to Correct Them
- How to Harden Off Your Seedlings
- Gardening Quick Tip: Eat Those Thinnings
This post updated from an commodity that originally appeared on April 24, 2018.
Source: https://www.gardenbetty.com/how-much-to-plant-in-a-vegetable-garden-to-feed-a-family/
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