Square Foot Gardening for a Family of 4
So, y'all want to start a garden, but non sure how big the garden should be to exist able to fully back up your family. This is a mutual question for beginner gardeners or someone who are looking to expand their garden.
The truth is, there is no single right answer when it comes to deciding vegetable garden size. Some sources say 100 square feet per person is the magic number, but that can't be right because every family unit has different needs and preferences when it comes to food. Also, plants vary in size, so it depends on what vegetables you abound.
That is why we created this highly-customizable garden size calculator to aid you find the right number. Merely input how many members in your family and choose which plants you want to grow and the figurer will tell you how many plants you demand to grow and how large your garden should be.
How Many Vegetables to Plant?
| Crops | Harvest Needed/Person (lbs) | Harvest Needed (lbs) | Avg. Yield per 100 feet (lb) | Plants Spacing (in) | Row Length (ft) | Plants Needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| three | 3 | 50 | 48 | 6 | ii | |
| 2 | 2 | 30 | xviii | 7 | v | |
| 0.5 | 0.5 | 45 | 14 | 2 | two | |
| 3 | 3 | 25 | 4 | 12 | 36 | |
| three | iii | 50 | 16 | vi | 5 | |
| 15 | 15 | 120 | four | thirteen | 39 | |
| 15 | 15 | 150 | 6 | ten | 20 | |
| xv | fifteen | l | x | 30 | 36 | |
| 3.5 | 3.5 | 150 | ii | 3 | 18 | |
| three | 3 | 130 | 8 | 3 | 5 | |
| eight | 8 | 100 | 18 | eight | 6 | |
| vi | 6 | 75 | 18 | eight | 6 | |
| xv | xv | 150 | 18 | 10 | vii | |
| ten | x | 100 | 10 | 10 | 12 | |
| ix | 9 | 100 | 18 | 9 | 6 | |
| 4 | four | 60 | viii | 7 | 11 | |
| 0.25 | 0.25 | 50 | eight | 1 | 2 | |
| ii | ii | 100 | 12 | 2 | ii | |
| 25 | 25 | 80 | 16 | 32 | 24 | |
| viii | 8 | 120 | 24 | 7 | 4 | |
| 0.25 | 0.25 | 60 | 14 | ane | i | |
| 4 | 4 | 100 | twenty | 4 | iii | |
| 1 | i | 90 | 12 | two | 2 | |
| ane | 1 | 25 | vi | four | 8 | |
| one.5 | i.five | 150 | 16 | 1 | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | 100 | 12 | 1 | 1 | |
| 1.v | 1.5 | 75 | half-dozen | 2 | four | |
| 1 | 1 | 45 | four | 3 | ix | |
| 6 | 6 | 50 | 14 | 12 | 11 | |
| six | half dozen | 110 | 42 | six | 2 | |
| i | i | l | half-dozen | 2 | 4 | |
| ane | 1 | 100 | xvi | 1 | ane | |
| viii | eight | 100 | 4 | eight | 24 | |
| 0.25 | 0.25 | 30 | 8 | i | 2 | |
| 3 | three | 100 | 4 | 3 | nine | |
| iii | 3 | forty | four | 8 | 24 | |
| iii | 3 | threescore | 16 | 5 | iv | |
| 25 | 25 | 100 | 12 | 25 | 25 | |
| ten | ten | 100 | 42 | x | three | |
| 2 | ii | 40 | 4 | five | 15 | |
| iv | 4 | 100 | 4 | 4 | 12 | |
| one.5 | ane.5 | 120 | 6 | 2 | 4 | |
| three | 3 | 40 | 12 | eight | eight | |
| x | 10 | 150 | 24 | 7 | 4 | |
| 6 | 6 | 100 | 32 | 6 | 3 | |
| thirteen | 13 | 140 | 20 | 10 | half dozen | |
| 3 | 3 | 100 | fourteen | 3 | 3 | |
| 3 | 3 | 85 | 10 | 4 | 5 | |
| 24 | 24 | 100 | 30 | 24 | 10 | |
| 17 | 17 | 150 | 16 | 12 | ix | |
| 5 | 5 | 75 | 6 | 7 | 14 | |
| 12 | 12 | 200 | threescore | vi | two |
How Much Garden Space Practise You Need?
To find the platonic size of your vegetable garden, delight check the box on plants you want to abound from the list above. We'll then calculate the required size automatically.
Select at least 1 plant to get the number.
Now, if you want to accept a more accurate estimation, here are the viii considerations for deciding your vegetable garden size:
ane. Small kitchen garden or a fully cocky-reliant garden?
What's the purpose of your garden?
Is it just a small kitchen garden to grow fresh food and reduce your shopping upkeep, or do you want to exist fully self-reliant from your garden?
Our figurer assumes the average numbers. Information technology won't be way off if you're slightly beneath or above the average, but if y'all're on the extreme sides, you will demand to adjust the number accordingly.
If you haven't started your commencement garden all the same, our best advice is to just employ the result from the computer, information technology's usually good plenty. So, increase or decrease the number of plants you grow in the next twelvemonth depending on the result from your previous twelvemonth.
2. How many people are you trying to feed?
Manifestly, if yous are a single person, you won't need the same size garden equally a family of four. And if you are a family of four, yous'll demand a smaller garden than a family of six. Which is why nosotros allow you to modify the family size in our calculator.
Simply what might non be obvious is the number of people outside your immediate family unit that you might demand to feed throughout the year.
In our beginning years of gardening, I didn't retrieve this role through. I would only consider the people under my roof and failed to realize how frequently my mother in law had dinner with us throughout the week and didn't include her in my calculations. Yous can gauge the residual of the story.
Right now, I support my parents as well as my immediate family. I've learned from my previous calculation failures to include them when planning my gardening space.
Other than feeding an extended family, if yous entertain or participate in potlucks regularly, you should also have this into consideration when planning your garden. Similarly, if yous want to sell some fresh produce for actress income.
3. Are you eating fresh or preserving your harvest?
If you are planning on eating fresh produce straight out of your garden, you won't demand as large of a garden as someone who is planning on preserving the harvest.
Our calculator assumes that you will preserve your harvest and use it throughout the year. And by the way, you should consider preserving your harvest if you're not yet. Y'all volition need more than produce, but this allows you to cut groceries budget throughout the year or even eliminate it completely.
Okay, simply what if you're certain not going to preserve some nutrient, and merely want some fresh tomatoes for the sandwich every now and then? Well, in that case you don't demand a calculator, just plant one tomato plant establish.
4. Will y'all exist succession planting?
If you plan on using the same garden space to constitute multiple vegetables, yous may not demand as much space if the growth times are different.
For instance, if y'all want to grow peas and greenish beans in the same yr, yous could practise this in the same garden bed. Peas tin can exist planted in Feb (depending on your planting zone), and green beans are planted later and love the nitrogen peas add together to the soil. Basically, it'due south a good idea to plant green beans after peas in the aforementioned space.
When the peas are finished, use the same infinite to plant dark-green beans. This means you wouldn't need equally big of a garden space because they are grown in succession instead of simultaneously.
If you are working with express gardening space, consider succession planting to be able to grow more in the space you take.
5. Do you plan on having multiple garden beds?
We grow multiple gardens on our property per season. Instead of using 1 large garden plot, we break downward our needs into multiple gardens.
This doesn't really have anything to practice directly with the total size (or does it?), but it's something you lot need to take into consideration when planning your garden.
If you desire to separate the bed for each plant, y'all should go the size needed for each plant on its own past check-marking just one plant from the table above and have a notation of the garden size for that one plant. Then repeat the aforementioned footstep for different plants.
There are also other reasons to split up garden beds. For example, I take one garden bed for my family, one for my extended family, and 1 to sell produce.
You lot can also have one garden area for plants that are good companions, like the 3 sisters garden.
All in all, having multiple beds makes organization much easier if you're planning a large garden, and information technology's beneficial in general. Simply ane downside is that you'll need bigger total surface area for your garden because of the space between beds.
At the very to the lowest degree, you demand ii anxiety of space between garden beds, and you lot'll likely need more than that just to make it easier for you to manage the plants especially if y'all have tools or handbasket with you.
half dozen. How many times in the year will you be planting?
Technically, you tin outset three different gardens per year.
You lot might want to grow a bound garden filled with lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and peas. Then a summer garden filled with tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and peppers. Finally, finish out the twelvemonth by growing a autumn garden with cabbage, squash, and root vegetables.
This is more tiring than having one garden per year or 2, which almost gardeners practice. Just if yous do information technology right, you tin can save a lot of garden surface area, even if you program on preserving the harvest.
To calculate the total garden size, yous'll need to practise iii unlike calculations, each calculation for plants that you volition grow on different planting season and utilise the largest number of all iii. That's your garden size.
seven. Which vegetable do you like the about?
This may seem obvious, but if you like a certain nutrient, you'll exist more likely to consume information technology more the boilerplate person.
Our calculators utilize the average amount of vegetables that a person eat. Then if yous like to eat tomatoes, for example, you lot might desire to plant more tomatoes.
However, one thing to remember is that different establish needs different total area to grow properly.
It could brand more sense (financially, at least) to plant smaller plants with loftier yield even if they're not your favorite vegetables if you have a express space and purchase your favorite vegetable from the grocery store instead.
Write down all the vegetables you'd like to abound and compare their spacing needs and how well they do in your zone to narrow down what you will abound in your garden.
8. Different gardening methods require different garden size
You may have heard of many different gardening methods. From the traditional garden bed with rows of crops, raised beds, container gardening, keyhole garden, square-foot gardening, to the more advanced methods like hydroponics, aquaponics, or the space-efficient vertical gardening.
These methods have their own ready of pros and cons, so go ahead and read the link higher up to compare each method and find which ane is best for you.
As for the calculator in this page, it can be used for the traditional in-footing garden and raised beds, but you'll have to make adjustments for other gardening methods.
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Source: https://morningchores.com/vegetable-garden-size/
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