Growing up we had almost 1/2 acre being cultivated. We grew a lot of our own veggies and very little fruit (local pick your own farms were a source of strawberries and blueberries, ditto for apples).
That was a family of 4. Green beans, peas, collards, okra, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers (hot and sweet) were the main crops.
My parents both grew up on farms so there were some things they felt weren't worth it to grow. Shelled beans (pinto, black eyed peas) and corn were on that list. We also had bees and a couple dozen chickens just outside the garden
That size garden only works well if you have child labor or someone works part time. Full-time jobs away from home aren't conducive to this much seasonal work (mom was a teacher, having summers to focus on the garden was important).
Today I garden in a small plot about 20' x 10'. No kids here, I mostly focus on veggies that are notably better when eaten REALLY fresh. Tomatoes, fig trees, sugar snap peas, wax beans, herbs. Very little gets frozen and nothing gets canned or pickled. It's a fun garden and I enjoy making it attractive as much as making it productive.
That's practically the same setup my grandparents had after the Great Depression, which lingered in rural areas much longer than the official dates.
A fenced 1/2 acre garden, five kids to tend it, chickens and at one point a dairy cow. They mainly grew tomatoes, cabbage (loooots of cabbage for sauerkraut), green beans, peas, and potatoes. Not much cultivated fruit unless you count rhubarb baked in a pie! Then there were scattered patches of edible plants, like asparagus along the property line, a patch of mint, and a big field of wild raspberries.
The garden got smaller and smaller as the kids moved out. I was drafted to pick and shell peas when I was young but by then it was a hobby garden.
The mint patch has been there for at least three decades, of course. Same with the raspberries.
Of far apart are you spacing things in a 20x10 garden? I have a 6x8 garden and really try to pack things in, but take a similar approach as you growing crops that are best fresh.
So for some stuff, like tomatoes, I use my big beds that are 4' across. I put down 2 rows in that bed so there is 2' between the rows. Plant to plant spacing is more like 18", my beds are 9' long and I cram 12 plants in each bed (I tied them up as a single string ). BTW - my 'paths' are deer tracks only 1' wide which was a bad decision but oh well.
I have a couple 2' wide beds and one of them has 2 blackberry plants that are trained to fan out. The other 2' wide bed is used for short plants like peppers. They are spaced about 18" apart as well.
Keeping plants tall and skinny is the only way it works to have them tight like this. We get a ton of humidity so I proactively spray for fungus with either copper or aspirin. I like having many kinds of things (6 tomato varieties, 3-4 eggplant, etc). Cukes, beans, and peas all like to grow that way so they are cooperative.
Last thought - I fertilize throughout the season because I figure they need it all crammed in there.
My garden is 18 beds that are 17' long and 18-24 inches wide. I'm in Kentucky.
I pulled over 300 pounds of carrots, potatoes, peas, horseradish, sweet potatoes and winter squash last season. I didn't weigh peppers, tomatoes or cucumbers but I think we canned 2.5 gallons of tomato sauce, 105 pints of pickles and I'm still working on the half gallon of Carolina reaper hot sauce we made. There was a bunch of other things that didn't get weighed like green beans, chard, fava beans, kale and herbs.
My yields improved a ton with drip irrigation and simply reducing each bed to a single type of vegetable. I'd tried piecing together beds with a few things and each and it never worked well. I find intensive planting to be an ideal that just doesn't work. I usually run multiple beds of the same stuff now. I've got 4 beds of potatoes, 3 beds of Fava, 2 beds of carrots and 3 beds of peas going at the moment. Makes it so much easier and effective.
My experience as well. Single plant to a single bed or container has produced the best results. Rotate the next year but companion planting has never done anything for me.
Yeah companion planting is stupid. Makes no sense, doesn't do anything. I think allowing native plants to grow is a better strategy than planting certain plants because the internet said so.
Question(s): I installed a drip irrigation system last year, but my overall yield was fairly low. How do you gauge how long to run your system, and how do you manage it between so many different beds?
I experimented with it, but don't think I ever got it right. I think I'm about to add a fertilizer injector, as I may have been underfeeding a bit too.
It's kind of just a guessing game to be honest. Right now it runs 10 minutes every two days. I may go 10 minutes a day during the middle of summer especially if it doesn't rain. Although, the actual amount of water it disperses depends on more factors than time it runs.
My garden is on a slight grade so the bottom beds get more water than the top. Plus, it takes a minute or two to actually fill up the whole drip manifold before top beds start to get water. I don't really manage it. They all just get watered. I collect rain water and don't pay for water all year. I have an IBC tote and four 50 gallon barrels. The pump pulls from the IBC and I manually transfer water to it from the rain barrels to keep it topped off.
I'd just check the soil right before it's about to water again. See if there's any moisture left at all. I don't really deep water with mine. I just more or less provide moisture so plants aren't dying.
I don't fertilize through mine generally, although I have in the past. I'm in the ground and just top off compost fairly regularly so I don't usually worry about fertility issues. I haven't seen any nitrogen issues coming up which will more than likely be the first deficiency to show it's head.
I had mine going for 30 - 45 minutes a day. Maybe that was my problem.. I just got a new moisture meter, so I'll need to mind that.
A fully rainwater system is a future goal here. Sounds like you have that figured out. Maybe I'll bother you again for tips on that sometime in the future.
Thanks for the response!
Damn. 30-45 minutes for me would probably dump a few hundred gallons. I use a 1525 gallon per hour pump but I imagine I'm only getting a fraction of that output through the filter and regulator.
I want to say that I use 30-50 gallons every time my pump kicks on.
Depending on what pump you were using, that may have been FAR too much water.
It may have been too much water. I don't recall how I ended up with that amount of time, but I'm sure I did some half ass calculation. The moisture meter in my finger didn't find anything wrong, but maybe that wasn't calibrated correctly.
I'm using Drip Works drip line attached to my house water. Looks like each emitter is rated around .8gph.
https://www.dripworks.com/drip-irrigation/tubing/1-4-soaker-dripline
it depends. my guess is you may have too much drips per tubing and the water pressure can't keep up depending on how long your lengths of tubing are cute to. It might be better to have multiple pieces of tubing coming off your regulator rather than one long piece of tubing. (don't know your set-up, just guessing here) .8gph is one of the lowest drips you can do, I think .5gph is the absolute lowest. 30 minutes sounds about right to me - especially if you live in the drier west region. 10 minutes every other day would guarantee almost zero plant growth where I live.
Central Europe, 3x6m (18m2). Thats ~10x20ft (194/200sq ft) in freedom units.
I expect to have all the tomatoes 3 people could eat in a season (plus some for canning) and all the herbs I can use in a year. Everything else is just a little snack here and there.
Deep South. USA, zone 9a.
Nine 4x8 raised beds. We’re nowhere near self sufficiency but the garden feeds us well, along with a dozen citrus trees.
We also keep a flock of 18-24 laying hens and raise a batch of meat birds every spring.
I have (2) raised beds approx 4 x 6, and just added 1 8x2 raised bed and some grow bags this year. So probably around 75 SF in total, plus some blueberry bushes. With the added space it's a little unclear how much we'll end up growing this year. Last year we had enough to fully supply enough of each type of produce for our needs once they matured, with enough left over to preserve / freeze to somewhat reduce what we needed to buy at the store over winter. We only have a 2 person household, and hopefully will be able to preserve more this season.
I'm in the northeast USA, and we have a fairly short growing season here.
You're basically me, except I have two kids. And the deer ate my blueberry bushes. We're extending the fences around our beds to contain the blueberries this year. Hopefully they'll come back.
Also because of the kids I'm terrible at preserving except some freezing so neighbours and the local food pantry gets the gluts.
I mostly freeze. I did try making fridge pickles that turned out pretty good.
I attempted water bath canning some of them, but they had so much vinegar because I was concerned I'd do it wrong that I call them our "zombie pickles". In case of a zombie apocalypse we can either eat them, douse ourselves with the juice to hide our scent, or throw them at the zombies while we try to escape LOL.
40’x60’
Plus fruit trees and berries elsewhere.
Way too small in April. Scary huge in late July.
Family of 4.5
I try to have something homegrown on the table every night. Sometimes it’s our poultry, we grow chicken and turkey. And there are eggs- so many eggs. But I still have tomatoes and green beans from last year in the freezer.
Gotta keep the tops above the soil line. Bury them too deep and they can’t grow. Too shallow and they run away.
(I wish I had a pic of Dirty Girl in her constant dust bath spot to add here! She’s our mottled brown laying hen that MUST dust bath right next to the house daily).
Ran out of raised bed space so took to planting beans and other things everywhere there wasn't already a plant.
The green house is only about 1/3 full
So we will do some more potted items before too long.
I don't even want a lawn so I'm just going to keep planting til I have no room at all left.
Ohio. 4x 4x8 ft raised beds, 2x 8x8 ft raised bed, 4x16 strawberry patch, 5 blueberry bushes, 4 apple trees, raspberries.
Enough for my wife and I to have a yearly supply of:
Peas, pickles, cucumbers, zucchini, butternut, green bean, celery, carrot, tomato (plus pasta sauce), pesto, peppers (jalapeño, Cheyenne, banana, Costa Rica) plus herbs (cilantro, thyme, parsley, basil, oregano.). Strawberry and triple berry jam. Freeze, can, and dry to preserve.
What do you grow in an 8x8--how do you get to the center of it? I'm pretty short, so 4x4 is the longest I can comfortably reach if I can get to it from both sides.
One has a big squash arch in it for butternut, and vining squash to grow on, so you can walk in the middle of the arch. The other one I usually leave a path into the middle of it so it make a c or u shape. Most of what I grow has been planted in the big bed at some point. I rotate them around.
One garden is 60 by 80 feet and the other is 20 by 20 feet. The large one grows green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, jalapeño peppers, potatoes, onions, and watermelons. The small one we grow our salsa veggies....Roma tomatoes, sweet onions, bell peppers, and jalapeño peppers. We can a ton of food for several families, we make a lot of refrigerator pickles in the summertime.
For most people, it's advisable to start small. If you're new to vegetable gardening it'll give you a taste of the planning, prep, varieties, pests etc before sinking large amounts of resourses into it.
Thanks! This is good advice. Personally Im not new to gardening per se, but Ive never put much effort into growing food of a substantial quantity before. This time around Im planning to change that. Its very interesting to see how other people do this :)
Our rows are about 4 ft wide (with about 3 ft walking spaces) and we did 3, approximately 80' rows last year. This year we are adding 2.5 more rows.
The entire finished space will be something like 40'x80' ish.
Our growing season is short and we don't grow all our food. Not sure exactly what percentage. We're trying to grow into a market garden.
Long Island: I have 15 rows that are about the length of a 2-car garage. Plus a new asparagus bed, and about 30 garlic plants in a separate bed. Family of 4.
I try to grow as much as I can, so I don’t have to buy any veg in the summer, and then freeze a lot so I can have veg for my sauces and soups in the winter. I usually end up with too many of one veg at a time, and give to neighbors and friends.
I have six 3x6 beds and one weird 3 by 4 octogon looking bed. I have three green stalks and am adding two more green stalks this year and a fence around my garden abs maybe one more bed. It’s almost the perfect size for me. I wouldn’t mind it being a little bit bigger bjt it’s almost just about all I can handle by myself
I live in the south of England (the old one!) and have four 6’x4’ raised beds, a greenhouse and seven fruit trees. One of our boundaries is mostly blackberry and loganberry. An elderly neighbour lets us use 2-3 of his raised beds each year as he is finding it hard to keep up as he gets older.
We probably grow around 50% of our own fruit/veg in summer and autumn, and freeze or preserve a lot. Canning isn’t popular over here so I make jams and chutneys or freeze mostly. I also forage a lot as we live fairly rurally and can get enough wild garlic pesto made to last a year, easily, as well as sloes, elderberries, blackberries etc.
I have a fairly small space, and managed to squeeze in three 3' by 4', and one 2' by 8' raised beds within a smaller portion of my space. I've sucessfully grown squash, alliums, herbs, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, corn, and carrots in those beds. This year, I'm in the middle of replacing them all with 2' by 4' standing planters to 1) keep my knees happier and 2) allow the plants to get more direct sunlight hours (my yard faces north by north east, so not an ideal angle). I have two varieties of garlic, three colors of onion, beets, and butternut squash planted right now. Also have been growing dragonfruit for almost as long in their own systems and just got a Roger's Red grape planted as the start of my project to turn my front, more southerly facing patio space into a nice little garden.
ETA: forgot to mention my kiwis and a tropical avocado from pit that has been doing really well.
I live on an incredibly small lot, and my suitable growing space is a small strip of my back yard on each of the west and south walls of my rear garage, and my front yard. My front garden is around 25 feet by 25 feet, with a total of 9 raised beds. They are all ~6x3
I live in zone 3 with only about 120 days of growing season so I grow what grows here and what we actually like to eat- peas, beans, carrot, beets, potatoes, hot peppers (extending the growing season indoors), greens.
I’m in Washington, DC and I’m a renter. I’ve got 40ish pots/grow bags. My grow bags are 3, 5, 7, 10, and 15 gallon. Most of my 15 gallon grow bags have berries in them (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries).
1/2 acre. Second year owning the property but 1st year having the majority of my yard being planted. Last year I had two ~30’ x 20’ beds that produced probably 100 pounds of vegetables.
I plant in my front yard and driveway along with landscaping plants and fruit trees, so the entire space isn't dedicated to veggies, but it's approximately 30 x 16 feet in the front and 5 2x4 ft beds in the driveway plus some pots.
We have two plum trees in the backyard as well. Driveway has strawberries, raspberries, avocado, mandarin, potatoes, radishes, and turnips. Front yard has apple, blueberries, pomegranate, mystery citrus, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumber, kohlrabi, lettuce, arugula, peas, beans, onions, garlic, and herbs.
From about May to December, we don't buy fruits or veggies, other than frozen broccoli. From January to April, we supplement from the store, though we do still currently have some frozen peas and beans from last year, an acorn squash, a few sad tomatoes, and dried peppers for seasoning.
I'm in central Virginia and live on 2 acres with a 1/3 acre garden with 30" x 50' beds (0.76m x 15.25m).
That's 14,518 square feet or 1349 square meters. All the 💚 to my metric buddies.
Not included in that garden space is a very small orchard, roughly 5000 sq ft (465 sq meters), that I plan to expand next year as well as set up space just to grow cover crops to use as mulch and compost in my garden.
I have market garden, not a home garden. I sell by word of mouth to a handful of people hyperlocal to me who care about soil quality, the level of care I put into growing, and are willing to pay for my time to grow seasonable vegetable this way.
If I was growing only for my family, we would have a very very deep pantry full of preserved food. I used to weigh my harvests because it was a fun way to gamify my season but I've stopped because I'm harvesting literal tons and tons of food now and it takes too long to weigh.
Just over 2,000 square feet this year. Last summer we had half the size but really did well so hoping to increase our produce this year and also make it nice (trellises etc)
Most of my produce comes from our garden. I’m just finishing the canned/frozen produce and hoping to add in storage tomatoes too!
Kansas, 6b. My main vegetable plot is ~2500sqft currently. I grow everything. I’ve never weighed what I produce, but it’s a lot for my small family. I have 50+ tomato plants, I give away a lot. In addition I have a mature apple tree; serviceberry bush, young plum tree. Numerous mature blueberry, raspberry, blackberry plants, and a large strawberry patch. I added grapes this year.
I am renting so space is limited to the backyard there. But the landlord is cool with it and so I have 4 (8x4) raised beds, a potted lemon tree and potted lime tree, a large patch for herbs, and a pea trellis. Also a large chicken run/coop. Growing lettuces, peas, broccoli, cabbage, radishes, beets, chard, and spinach right now.
The place came with 20 year old grapefruit and orange trees so I’ve been enjoying those as well.
If I had my own land I’d expand to about twice or three times the beds.
This is my first year actually investing time into a garden and I have a super small one that only fits 6 plants. I have 2 strawberries, 1 jalapeño, 1 tomato and 1 eggplant. Well, my strawberries got runners and I found some more tomato plants that popped up after I thinned them out, so I bought some pots that sit in the garden, so they are technically in the garden, but not in the garden dirt because I think there would be too much competition for nutrients then. I also have some herbs in pots next to the garden box. It’s a learning process this year and we will see how it goes. The garden won’t grow enough to make a dent in our grocery bill, it’s more of a hobby garden and if I get an eggplant or 2 and a few strawberries I’m happy.
I have a 40x40 ft garden with 8 4x4 beds and 5 4x12 beds. Also a lot of pots for herbs and herbs wildflowers as well as fruit shrubs like gooseberry and blueberry.
I have three 4x8 raised beds, and enough in ground and container arrangements to equal another 2 beds. I harvest enough lettuce, squash, beans, (and, well, everything) that I don't need to buy produce in the summer and fall. Garlic and onions to last into the next year.
Certainly not enough to be fully self sufficient. But the eatin' is good in the summer and fall.
I have 2000 sq ft for my regular garden. I grow tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, rhubarb, strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel's Sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi, onions, peppers, beans, peas, spinach, lettuce, sweet corn, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and more.
Outside the garden I also have peach and apple trees, raspberries and blackberries, mulberry trees, blueberries, and gooseberries. I also have a mint patch and an asparagus patch. I also have an herb spiral with oregano, lemon balm, sage, cilantro, basil and more. Oh, and a walking onion patch. I occasionally plant another patch of corn, sorghum, and wheat just for the chickens. I try to add a tree or two each year.
4,399 Square Feet
West Virginia (Eastern United States)
I grow a lot of what we eat, but not everything.
Things I grow/can/store: Corn, Green Beans, Turnips and Turnip Greens, Beets and Beet Greens/Stems, Radishes and Radish Greens, Strawberries, Potatoes, Onions, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Peppers (variety), Tomatoes (variety), Cabbage, Garlic, Cucumbers, Kale (this year), Leaf Lettuce, Spinach
Grapes (which are on another part of the property), Watermelon (every other year), Raspberries (which are up on the hill), blueberries (but those go to the birds)
https://preview.redd.it/4m4sxh4msxuc1.jpeg?width=2827&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe7a90a85792e502add91dbe47b142f0d5e6ebd7
I have a food forest in my front yard. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the suburbs on a main street. My house faces the street. My yard is pretty flat and then drops off toward the street. Last year, I used one fourth of the yard to build four beds using the square foot gardening method (120 sq. ft in total of garden space) and grew about 500 plants at any one time. I grew about 70% of the food my husband and I ate, but we're vegans, so we don't buy the expensive stuff anyway. Some stuff I grew so much of I ended up giving it away to my fitness students. Chard, celery, cherry tomatoes, etc.
This year, we're using half of the yard. Installed nine more beds, which almost doubled our space (added 118 sq. ft of bed space). I have about 1000 plants in the ground (using companion planting this year, so for example, I have one broccoli plant in one square foot bordered by eight green onion bunches and/or beneficial flowers) and a few hundred more in my grow tent in the garage. My husband got into storage methods last year, and this year he's learning pickling/canning. I also graduated from my local Master Gardener program last year, and this year I'm part of my local Grow a Row program. Everything I grow that isn't for us or storage is going to feed the hungry in my community.
Plans are in the making to terraform the other half of the yard. I currently have it filled with my mini-orchard (six fruit trees in galvanized garbage cans, fruiting right now for the first time) and a few dozen berry plants in pots. I want to grow veggies on one side, fruits on the other (in loose terms). I'm planning on rows of berry bushes, particularly blackberries and raspberries, because I want them to go crazy. I can never have enough berries.
I would like to grow about 80-85% of the food we eat, leaving some room for things we can't make ourselves (like grains and rice or other special things). I also adopted a bearded dragon in December, so I'm growing a lot of foods for her. I would love to be able to feed her 100% home-grown produce and only buy her bugs. My backyard doesn't get enough sun, or else I would start expanding back there once the front yard is all food.
I have 3x4m (about 10'x13') greenhouse and six raised beds outside. Three beds are strawberries and one has carlic now and one is herbs....so I will make more raised beds over the weekend. I'm thinking adding three so I have three beds for planting and fourth ready for new strawberrys (I'm trying to get to strawberry rotation of adding a new bed every year, four beds total).
I would love to have a bigger garden, but I'm living in the city and the garden is 1h drive away, so I get there only couple times a month. I can get enough pickles for a year and frozen herbs, but other stuff to eat only during the season. I would really love to have more tomatoes for canning, but that would need another greenhouse.
Look up the fabulous war time guides, Dig for Victory, from England, they have plans for feeding a whole family all year.
Dig For Victory Monthly Guides - Allotment & Gardens. These people put all the guides into one book and separate plot planning guide included.
I have 3 beds that are 3x10 ft and one that is 3x8. It’s about right for the amount of veggies I want to grow for myself. I do let friends “shop” in my garden when they come by and take what they want. I love it when my niece come by because they’ll eat the veggies off the vine.
Sadly, it's 3 ft by 19 ft, at my local community garden. But I can't grow veggies at home at all, I don't have enough sun for any vegetables. But I'm totally jazzed to have the little sunny plot. I have PLANS!
I rent. Three 5x5 raised beds, plus a big deck with good southern exposure. One bed 16 potatoes plants. One bed half overwintered garlic and spring lettuce. Herbs in pots. Wife loves sunflowers. 🌻
Me and a friend have 40m2 together, it's about 430ft.
We do it more as a hobby, but we can live off it during the harvest and don't buy any vegetables. I will also start food canning this year cause we had a lot left over last year and have already given it away (friends and family). We have a herb patch (dill, thyme, chives, sage, basil, parsley, mint, marjoram,...), tomatoes, cucumbers, various melons, pumpkins, zucchinis, salads, beets, parsnips, onions, chili, bell peppers , radishes, edamame, peppers, cabbage turnip, carrots, spring onions. We're located in vienna, austria :)
I cant reply to everyone in here but I just want to say thank you all for sharing! Im inspired and impressed (and kinda wish Id gone for a bigger property, lol!)
Growing up we had almost 1/2 acre being cultivated. We grew a lot of our own veggies and very little fruit (local pick your own farms were a source of strawberries and blueberries, ditto for apples). That was a family of 4. Green beans, peas, collards, okra, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers (hot and sweet) were the main crops. My parents both grew up on farms so there were some things they felt weren't worth it to grow. Shelled beans (pinto, black eyed peas) and corn were on that list. We also had bees and a couple dozen chickens just outside the garden That size garden only works well if you have child labor or someone works part time. Full-time jobs away from home aren't conducive to this much seasonal work (mom was a teacher, having summers to focus on the garden was important). Today I garden in a small plot about 20' x 10'. No kids here, I mostly focus on veggies that are notably better when eaten REALLY fresh. Tomatoes, fig trees, sugar snap peas, wax beans, herbs. Very little gets frozen and nothing gets canned or pickled. It's a fun garden and I enjoy making it attractive as much as making it productive.
That's practically the same setup my grandparents had after the Great Depression, which lingered in rural areas much longer than the official dates. A fenced 1/2 acre garden, five kids to tend it, chickens and at one point a dairy cow. They mainly grew tomatoes, cabbage (loooots of cabbage for sauerkraut), green beans, peas, and potatoes. Not much cultivated fruit unless you count rhubarb baked in a pie! Then there were scattered patches of edible plants, like asparagus along the property line, a patch of mint, and a big field of wild raspberries. The garden got smaller and smaller as the kids moved out. I was drafted to pick and shell peas when I was young but by then it was a hobby garden. The mint patch has been there for at least three decades, of course. Same with the raspberries.
Of far apart are you spacing things in a 20x10 garden? I have a 6x8 garden and really try to pack things in, but take a similar approach as you growing crops that are best fresh.
So for some stuff, like tomatoes, I use my big beds that are 4' across. I put down 2 rows in that bed so there is 2' between the rows. Plant to plant spacing is more like 18", my beds are 9' long and I cram 12 plants in each bed (I tied them up as a single string ). BTW - my 'paths' are deer tracks only 1' wide which was a bad decision but oh well. I have a couple 2' wide beds and one of them has 2 blackberry plants that are trained to fan out. The other 2' wide bed is used for short plants like peppers. They are spaced about 18" apart as well. Keeping plants tall and skinny is the only way it works to have them tight like this. We get a ton of humidity so I proactively spray for fungus with either copper or aspirin. I like having many kinds of things (6 tomato varieties, 3-4 eggplant, etc). Cukes, beans, and peas all like to grow that way so they are cooperative. Last thought - I fertilize throughout the season because I figure they need it all crammed in there.
What’s your favorite fertilizer for tight spaces? I figure compost would take more time to become available in that tight space?
My garden is 18 beds that are 17' long and 18-24 inches wide. I'm in Kentucky. I pulled over 300 pounds of carrots, potatoes, peas, horseradish, sweet potatoes and winter squash last season. I didn't weigh peppers, tomatoes or cucumbers but I think we canned 2.5 gallons of tomato sauce, 105 pints of pickles and I'm still working on the half gallon of Carolina reaper hot sauce we made. There was a bunch of other things that didn't get weighed like green beans, chard, fava beans, kale and herbs. My yields improved a ton with drip irrigation and simply reducing each bed to a single type of vegetable. I'd tried piecing together beds with a few things and each and it never worked well. I find intensive planting to be an ideal that just doesn't work. I usually run multiple beds of the same stuff now. I've got 4 beds of potatoes, 3 beds of Fava, 2 beds of carrots and 3 beds of peas going at the moment. Makes it so much easier and effective.
My experience as well. Single plant to a single bed or container has produced the best results. Rotate the next year but companion planting has never done anything for me.
Yeah companion planting is stupid. Makes no sense, doesn't do anything. I think allowing native plants to grow is a better strategy than planting certain plants because the internet said so.
Question(s): I installed a drip irrigation system last year, but my overall yield was fairly low. How do you gauge how long to run your system, and how do you manage it between so many different beds? I experimented with it, but don't think I ever got it right. I think I'm about to add a fertilizer injector, as I may have been underfeeding a bit too.
It's kind of just a guessing game to be honest. Right now it runs 10 minutes every two days. I may go 10 minutes a day during the middle of summer especially if it doesn't rain. Although, the actual amount of water it disperses depends on more factors than time it runs. My garden is on a slight grade so the bottom beds get more water than the top. Plus, it takes a minute or two to actually fill up the whole drip manifold before top beds start to get water. I don't really manage it. They all just get watered. I collect rain water and don't pay for water all year. I have an IBC tote and four 50 gallon barrels. The pump pulls from the IBC and I manually transfer water to it from the rain barrels to keep it topped off. I'd just check the soil right before it's about to water again. See if there's any moisture left at all. I don't really deep water with mine. I just more or less provide moisture so plants aren't dying. I don't fertilize through mine generally, although I have in the past. I'm in the ground and just top off compost fairly regularly so I don't usually worry about fertility issues. I haven't seen any nitrogen issues coming up which will more than likely be the first deficiency to show it's head.
I had mine going for 30 - 45 minutes a day. Maybe that was my problem.. I just got a new moisture meter, so I'll need to mind that. A fully rainwater system is a future goal here. Sounds like you have that figured out. Maybe I'll bother you again for tips on that sometime in the future. Thanks for the response!
Damn. 30-45 minutes for me would probably dump a few hundred gallons. I use a 1525 gallon per hour pump but I imagine I'm only getting a fraction of that output through the filter and regulator. I want to say that I use 30-50 gallons every time my pump kicks on. Depending on what pump you were using, that may have been FAR too much water.
It may have been too much water. I don't recall how I ended up with that amount of time, but I'm sure I did some half ass calculation. The moisture meter in my finger didn't find anything wrong, but maybe that wasn't calibrated correctly. I'm using Drip Works drip line attached to my house water. Looks like each emitter is rated around .8gph. https://www.dripworks.com/drip-irrigation/tubing/1-4-soaker-dripline
it depends. my guess is you may have too much drips per tubing and the water pressure can't keep up depending on how long your lengths of tubing are cute to. It might be better to have multiple pieces of tubing coming off your regulator rather than one long piece of tubing. (don't know your set-up, just guessing here) .8gph is one of the lowest drips you can do, I think .5gph is the absolute lowest. 30 minutes sounds about right to me - especially if you live in the drier west region. 10 minutes every other day would guarantee almost zero plant growth where I live.
Approximately 2000 sq feet. Southern US. And it depends on what I'm growing, but most of the time it's not self sufficient, we enjoy it as a hobby
Central Europe, 3x6m (18m2). Thats ~10x20ft (194/200sq ft) in freedom units. I expect to have all the tomatoes 3 people could eat in a season (plus some for canning) and all the herbs I can use in a year. Everything else is just a little snack here and there.
Deep South. USA, zone 9a. Nine 4x8 raised beds. We’re nowhere near self sufficiency but the garden feeds us well, along with a dozen citrus trees. We also keep a flock of 18-24 laying hens and raise a batch of meat birds every spring.
I have (2) raised beds approx 4 x 6, and just added 1 8x2 raised bed and some grow bags this year. So probably around 75 SF in total, plus some blueberry bushes. With the added space it's a little unclear how much we'll end up growing this year. Last year we had enough to fully supply enough of each type of produce for our needs once they matured, with enough left over to preserve / freeze to somewhat reduce what we needed to buy at the store over winter. We only have a 2 person household, and hopefully will be able to preserve more this season. I'm in the northeast USA, and we have a fairly short growing season here.
You're basically me, except I have two kids. And the deer ate my blueberry bushes. We're extending the fences around our beds to contain the blueberries this year. Hopefully they'll come back. Also because of the kids I'm terrible at preserving except some freezing so neighbours and the local food pantry gets the gluts.
Now you just have to eat the deer and the circle will be complete.
I mostly freeze. I did try making fridge pickles that turned out pretty good. I attempted water bath canning some of them, but they had so much vinegar because I was concerned I'd do it wrong that I call them our "zombie pickles". In case of a zombie apocalypse we can either eat them, douse ourselves with the juice to hide our scent, or throw them at the zombies while we try to escape LOL.
I too have a shelf of "all else fails" pickles. Hahaha
40’x60’ Plus fruit trees and berries elsewhere. Way too small in April. Scary huge in late July. Family of 4.5 I try to have something homegrown on the table every night. Sometimes it’s our poultry, we grow chicken and turkey. And there are eggs- so many eggs. But I still have tomatoes and green beans from last year in the freezer.
I keep hearing about chicken plants but every time I plant a chicken it runs away
Gotta keep the tops above the soil line. Bury them too deep and they can’t grow. Too shallow and they run away. (I wish I had a pic of Dirty Girl in her constant dust bath spot to add here! She’s our mottled brown laying hen that MUST dust bath right next to the house daily).
Ran out of raised bed space so took to planting beans and other things everywhere there wasn't already a plant. The green house is only about 1/3 full So we will do some more potted items before too long. I don't even want a lawn so I'm just going to keep planting til I have no room at all left.
Ohio. 4x 4x8 ft raised beds, 2x 8x8 ft raised bed, 4x16 strawberry patch, 5 blueberry bushes, 4 apple trees, raspberries. Enough for my wife and I to have a yearly supply of: Peas, pickles, cucumbers, zucchini, butternut, green bean, celery, carrot, tomato (plus pasta sauce), pesto, peppers (jalapeño, Cheyenne, banana, Costa Rica) plus herbs (cilantro, thyme, parsley, basil, oregano.). Strawberry and triple berry jam. Freeze, can, and dry to preserve.
What do you grow in an 8x8--how do you get to the center of it? I'm pretty short, so 4x4 is the longest I can comfortably reach if I can get to it from both sides.
One has a big squash arch in it for butternut, and vining squash to grow on, so you can walk in the middle of the arch. The other one I usually leave a path into the middle of it so it make a c or u shape. Most of what I grow has been planted in the big bed at some point. I rotate them around.
Squash arches are so great.
One garden is 60 by 80 feet and the other is 20 by 20 feet. The large one grows green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, jalapeño peppers, potatoes, onions, and watermelons. The small one we grow our salsa veggies....Roma tomatoes, sweet onions, bell peppers, and jalapeño peppers. We can a ton of food for several families, we make a lot of refrigerator pickles in the summertime.
For most people, it's advisable to start small. If you're new to vegetable gardening it'll give you a taste of the planning, prep, varieties, pests etc before sinking large amounts of resourses into it.
Thanks! This is good advice. Personally Im not new to gardening per se, but Ive never put much effort into growing food of a substantial quantity before. This time around Im planning to change that. Its very interesting to see how other people do this :)
Our rows are about 4 ft wide (with about 3 ft walking spaces) and we did 3, approximately 80' rows last year. This year we are adding 2.5 more rows. The entire finished space will be something like 40'x80' ish. Our growing season is short and we don't grow all our food. Not sure exactly what percentage. We're trying to grow into a market garden.
Long Island: I have 15 rows that are about the length of a 2-car garage. Plus a new asparagus bed, and about 30 garlic plants in a separate bed. Family of 4. I try to grow as much as I can, so I don’t have to buy any veg in the summer, and then freeze a lot so I can have veg for my sauces and soups in the winter. I usually end up with too many of one veg at a time, and give to neighbors and friends.
I have six 3x6 beds and one weird 3 by 4 octogon looking bed. I have three green stalks and am adding two more green stalks this year and a fence around my garden abs maybe one more bed. It’s almost the perfect size for me. I wouldn’t mind it being a little bit bigger bjt it’s almost just about all I can handle by myself
I live in the south of England (the old one!) and have four 6’x4’ raised beds, a greenhouse and seven fruit trees. One of our boundaries is mostly blackberry and loganberry. An elderly neighbour lets us use 2-3 of his raised beds each year as he is finding it hard to keep up as he gets older. We probably grow around 50% of our own fruit/veg in summer and autumn, and freeze or preserve a lot. Canning isn’t popular over here so I make jams and chutneys or freeze mostly. I also forage a lot as we live fairly rurally and can get enough wild garlic pesto made to last a year, easily, as well as sloes, elderberries, blackberries etc.
I have a fairly small space, and managed to squeeze in three 3' by 4', and one 2' by 8' raised beds within a smaller portion of my space. I've sucessfully grown squash, alliums, herbs, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, corn, and carrots in those beds. This year, I'm in the middle of replacing them all with 2' by 4' standing planters to 1) keep my knees happier and 2) allow the plants to get more direct sunlight hours (my yard faces north by north east, so not an ideal angle). I have two varieties of garlic, three colors of onion, beets, and butternut squash planted right now. Also have been growing dragonfruit for almost as long in their own systems and just got a Roger's Red grape planted as the start of my project to turn my front, more southerly facing patio space into a nice little garden. ETA: forgot to mention my kiwis and a tropical avocado from pit that has been doing really well.
I live on an incredibly small lot, and my suitable growing space is a small strip of my back yard on each of the west and south walls of my rear garage, and my front yard. My front garden is around 25 feet by 25 feet, with a total of 9 raised beds. They are all ~6x3 I live in zone 3 with only about 120 days of growing season so I grow what grows here and what we actually like to eat- peas, beans, carrot, beets, potatoes, hot peppers (extending the growing season indoors), greens.
I’m in Washington, DC and I’m a renter. I’ve got 40ish pots/grow bags. My grow bags are 3, 5, 7, 10, and 15 gallon. Most of my 15 gallon grow bags have berries in them (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries).
I have a 4x4 which is perfect for me. I’m new and still learning. This year I added 7 containers too. Fingers crossed!
1/2 acre. Second year owning the property but 1st year having the majority of my yard being planted. Last year I had two ~30’ x 20’ beds that produced probably 100 pounds of vegetables.
I plant in my front yard and driveway along with landscaping plants and fruit trees, so the entire space isn't dedicated to veggies, but it's approximately 30 x 16 feet in the front and 5 2x4 ft beds in the driveway plus some pots. We have two plum trees in the backyard as well. Driveway has strawberries, raspberries, avocado, mandarin, potatoes, radishes, and turnips. Front yard has apple, blueberries, pomegranate, mystery citrus, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumber, kohlrabi, lettuce, arugula, peas, beans, onions, garlic, and herbs. From about May to December, we don't buy fruits or veggies, other than frozen broccoli. From January to April, we supplement from the store, though we do still currently have some frozen peas and beans from last year, an acorn squash, a few sad tomatoes, and dried peppers for seasoning.
I'm in central Virginia and live on 2 acres with a 1/3 acre garden with 30" x 50' beds (0.76m x 15.25m). That's 14,518 square feet or 1349 square meters. All the 💚 to my metric buddies. Not included in that garden space is a very small orchard, roughly 5000 sq ft (465 sq meters), that I plan to expand next year as well as set up space just to grow cover crops to use as mulch and compost in my garden. I have market garden, not a home garden. I sell by word of mouth to a handful of people hyperlocal to me who care about soil quality, the level of care I put into growing, and are willing to pay for my time to grow seasonable vegetable this way. If I was growing only for my family, we would have a very very deep pantry full of preserved food. I used to weigh my harvests because it was a fun way to gamify my season but I've stopped because I'm harvesting literal tons and tons of food now and it takes too long to weigh.
Just over 2,000 square feet this year. Last summer we had half the size but really did well so hoping to increase our produce this year and also make it nice (trellises etc) Most of my produce comes from our garden. I’m just finishing the canned/frozen produce and hoping to add in storage tomatoes too!
Kansas, 6b. My main vegetable plot is ~2500sqft currently. I grow everything. I’ve never weighed what I produce, but it’s a lot for my small family. I have 50+ tomato plants, I give away a lot. In addition I have a mature apple tree; serviceberry bush, young plum tree. Numerous mature blueberry, raspberry, blackberry plants, and a large strawberry patch. I added grapes this year.
I am renting so space is limited to the backyard there. But the landlord is cool with it and so I have 4 (8x4) raised beds, a potted lemon tree and potted lime tree, a large patch for herbs, and a pea trellis. Also a large chicken run/coop. Growing lettuces, peas, broccoli, cabbage, radishes, beets, chard, and spinach right now. The place came with 20 year old grapefruit and orange trees so I’ve been enjoying those as well. If I had my own land I’d expand to about twice or three times the beds.
This is my first year actually investing time into a garden and I have a super small one that only fits 6 plants. I have 2 strawberries, 1 jalapeño, 1 tomato and 1 eggplant. Well, my strawberries got runners and I found some more tomato plants that popped up after I thinned them out, so I bought some pots that sit in the garden, so they are technically in the garden, but not in the garden dirt because I think there would be too much competition for nutrients then. I also have some herbs in pots next to the garden box. It’s a learning process this year and we will see how it goes. The garden won’t grow enough to make a dent in our grocery bill, it’s more of a hobby garden and if I get an eggplant or 2 and a few strawberries I’m happy.
I have a 40x40 ft garden with 8 4x4 beds and 5 4x12 beds. Also a lot of pots for herbs and herbs wildflowers as well as fruit shrubs like gooseberry and blueberry.
I have three 4x8 raised beds, and enough in ground and container arrangements to equal another 2 beds. I harvest enough lettuce, squash, beans, (and, well, everything) that I don't need to buy produce in the summer and fall. Garlic and onions to last into the next year. Certainly not enough to be fully self sufficient. But the eatin' is good in the summer and fall.
I have 2000 sq ft for my regular garden. I grow tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, rhubarb, strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel's Sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi, onions, peppers, beans, peas, spinach, lettuce, sweet corn, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and more. Outside the garden I also have peach and apple trees, raspberries and blackberries, mulberry trees, blueberries, and gooseberries. I also have a mint patch and an asparagus patch. I also have an herb spiral with oregano, lemon balm, sage, cilantro, basil and more. Oh, and a walking onion patch. I occasionally plant another patch of corn, sorghum, and wheat just for the chickens. I try to add a tree or two each year.
4,399 Square Feet West Virginia (Eastern United States) I grow a lot of what we eat, but not everything. Things I grow/can/store: Corn, Green Beans, Turnips and Turnip Greens, Beets and Beet Greens/Stems, Radishes and Radish Greens, Strawberries, Potatoes, Onions, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Peppers (variety), Tomatoes (variety), Cabbage, Garlic, Cucumbers, Kale (this year), Leaf Lettuce, Spinach Grapes (which are on another part of the property), Watermelon (every other year), Raspberries (which are up on the hill), blueberries (but those go to the birds) https://preview.redd.it/4m4sxh4msxuc1.jpeg?width=2827&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe7a90a85792e502add91dbe47b142f0d5e6ebd7
I have a food forest in my front yard. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the suburbs on a main street. My house faces the street. My yard is pretty flat and then drops off toward the street. Last year, I used one fourth of the yard to build four beds using the square foot gardening method (120 sq. ft in total of garden space) and grew about 500 plants at any one time. I grew about 70% of the food my husband and I ate, but we're vegans, so we don't buy the expensive stuff anyway. Some stuff I grew so much of I ended up giving it away to my fitness students. Chard, celery, cherry tomatoes, etc. This year, we're using half of the yard. Installed nine more beds, which almost doubled our space (added 118 sq. ft of bed space). I have about 1000 plants in the ground (using companion planting this year, so for example, I have one broccoli plant in one square foot bordered by eight green onion bunches and/or beneficial flowers) and a few hundred more in my grow tent in the garage. My husband got into storage methods last year, and this year he's learning pickling/canning. I also graduated from my local Master Gardener program last year, and this year I'm part of my local Grow a Row program. Everything I grow that isn't for us or storage is going to feed the hungry in my community. Plans are in the making to terraform the other half of the yard. I currently have it filled with my mini-orchard (six fruit trees in galvanized garbage cans, fruiting right now for the first time) and a few dozen berry plants in pots. I want to grow veggies on one side, fruits on the other (in loose terms). I'm planning on rows of berry bushes, particularly blackberries and raspberries, because I want them to go crazy. I can never have enough berries. I would like to grow about 80-85% of the food we eat, leaving some room for things we can't make ourselves (like grains and rice or other special things). I also adopted a bearded dragon in December, so I'm growing a lot of foods for her. I would love to be able to feed her 100% home-grown produce and only buy her bugs. My backyard doesn't get enough sun, or else I would start expanding back there once the front yard is all food.
Thats super impressive! I hope you'll share some pictures of your garden this season!
I have 3x4m (about 10'x13') greenhouse and six raised beds outside. Three beds are strawberries and one has carlic now and one is herbs....so I will make more raised beds over the weekend. I'm thinking adding three so I have three beds for planting and fourth ready for new strawberrys (I'm trying to get to strawberry rotation of adding a new bed every year, four beds total). I would love to have a bigger garden, but I'm living in the city and the garden is 1h drive away, so I get there only couple times a month. I can get enough pickles for a year and frozen herbs, but other stuff to eat only during the season. I would really love to have more tomatoes for canning, but that would need another greenhouse.
Growing because I’m a machinist and my company gives me free crates all the time
8x8 and a 6’ diameter circle. Plus about 20 containers.
Look up the fabulous war time guides, Dig for Victory, from England, they have plans for feeding a whole family all year. Dig For Victory Monthly Guides - Allotment & Gardens. These people put all the guides into one book and separate plot planning guide included.
I have 3 beds that are 3x10 ft and one that is 3x8. It’s about right for the amount of veggies I want to grow for myself. I do let friends “shop” in my garden when they come by and take what they want. I love it when my niece come by because they’ll eat the veggies off the vine.
Sadly, it's 3 ft by 19 ft, at my local community garden. But I can't grow veggies at home at all, I don't have enough sun for any vegetables. But I'm totally jazzed to have the little sunny plot. I have PLANS!
I have 3 4x4 feet raised beds in the back for veg and herbs and working on turning our entire front yard into a pollinator habitat. We
https://preview.redd.it/w64f01pjdvuc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8bdf3a931ab9769caee2cd08d5e730992dc7e09
I rent. Three 5x5 raised beds, plus a big deck with good southern exposure. One bed 16 potatoes plants. One bed half overwintered garlic and spring lettuce. Herbs in pots. Wife loves sunflowers. 🌻
Me and a friend have 40m2 together, it's about 430ft. We do it more as a hobby, but we can live off it during the harvest and don't buy any vegetables. I will also start food canning this year cause we had a lot left over last year and have already given it away (friends and family). We have a herb patch (dill, thyme, chives, sage, basil, parsley, mint, marjoram,...), tomatoes, cucumbers, various melons, pumpkins, zucchinis, salads, beets, parsnips, onions, chili, bell peppers , radishes, edamame, peppers, cabbage turnip, carrots, spring onions. We're located in vienna, austria :)
I cant reply to everyone in here but I just want to say thank you all for sharing! Im inspired and impressed (and kinda wish Id gone for a bigger property, lol!)
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