A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening How much do I need

Is there some place on here or online that will help me decide how many of each plant I need to feed my family, and to help me decide the size and plotting of my garden? I read the begining area that tells you to plant rows east to west and tall plants to the north, and the rest of that page, and printed out the Vegetable growing Guide, but I was hoping to find something a little easier like a caculator that I can plug in the numbers and it do all the math for me. It seems a little confusing trying to put together a garden where the different plants need different spacing. Maybe I am just trying to make things to hard formyself. I don't know.
While I don't have "unlimited" space I have a very nice sized area picked out where my sister had her 4 cows and 3 horses pastured 2 years ago.
I have a family size of 6 to 10... 4 SHOULD be moving out of the house by summer, so should not be here this fall to worry about.
I want to can and freeze for our winter uses.

Thanks for any information you can help me with.

As far as Planning a garden being easy...not so much. Take a large piece of graph paper and begin marking things out. That way you can keep the things away from each other that need that and keep those together that do well together. And it will take care of the spacing by assigning a value to each block. Usually for me since the smallest spacing is usually 3 inches I assign that value to each block. Things to think about are succession planting, that is planting some of the seeds every two weeks so you can harvest several times and thus have fresh produce throughout the season. This is great for radishes, green onions, lettuce and others that really aren't good for canning. The next thing to consider is which veggies are cool and which are warm weather. For example the radishes like to catch the last chill of the season so they are planted a little earlier than most things.

I hope that THIS PAGE helps

Using the list of vegtables from your other post here are the number of plants suggested per person. Of course you have to adjust this based on how much each person likes the given veggie.

Green Beans, bush = 15 to 30 plants
Green Beans, Pole = 12 to 15 plants

Corn = 10 to 20 plants

Onions = 20 to 30 plants

Brussel Sprouts = 5 to 10 plants

cauliflower = 4 to 8 plants

brocoli = 5 to 10 plants

green peppers = 4 tp 6 plants

cucumbers = 4 to 8 plants

Melons = 2 to 4 plants (For the best result you want to knock off all but 3 flowers per vine.)

Is this the end of the considerations? No. How much a plant yields depends on the spieces you choose and how well the enviroment meets that plants needs. For example green peppers like a very rich soil. I've done best with a 50% mix of compost to garden soil. I've heard that melons are also heavy feeders. So before the first plant is planted you need to take a soil sample send it to the university cooperative extention and find out what you need to add to your soil for the crops you wish to grow.

Thank you all for the help. I will get some graph paper and start plotting.
I also will be starting a better compost area/pile this spring because our current compost pile is not good for gardening with meat and oils thrown into it.
As far as sending away soil samples...I am not quite to that point yet. I know that everything I have planned to plant does very well in the soil around here. My sister owns this property and has had multiple gardens in different places here. The site I currently have picked out is on a very slight hill and was pasture for a few cows and horses for a few years up until last spring.

I think that the only thing that I did not list that I want is salad greens, but I have had good luck with that in the past in containers, and it is very easy to grow.
I am not so worried about having fresh produce thoughout the season other then the melons, cucumbers, and corn. Most everything will be canned and frozen.
I have figured I need about 100 quarts of greenbeens and corn. And about 150 brocoli and cauliflower. Onions and peppers, I just want to chop and freeze so that I can get it out and cook with it as needed. Only one person in the house likes the brussel sprouts so I don't think I will need more then 6 plants...I have no clue how much you can get off of one...I will probably plant more, but they can always go back into my compost area.

UUUUUUUUUUHHHHG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I got out the graph paper and just spent the last 2 hours planning and playing. Now I realize that I have to tear it all up and start over.
Where I am planting is a small incline that runs downs hill from east to west, so I need to plant my rows from north to south. If I plant in rows like I planned then sometime during the day, one side or the other will be blocking the sun (like my corn shadowing everything).
So now I need to rethink and plant everything in blocks of rows with my corn to the north and then peppers, beans, cucumbers, and on down to smaller plants.
Am I over thinking this? Or should I really replot my garden?

you sound like me. I plan and plan and plan and I still never get it completely right. I can't remember the screen name of they guy that finally plotted out my garden for me. I wish I could he was a life saver.

Just remember that full sun just means a minimum of 6 hours and I think most of your problems will be solved.

My garden plotting tool is actually made out of lamenated tag board so I can use it over and over. And I have little pieces that signify the different veggies. I got it for christmas several years ago. I love it.

LOL..I think I got it right this time. North to south I have corn, then green peppers and tomatoes, then greenbeans,then cucumbers, brocoli, cauliflower,and melons, then the shortest stuff like onions, salad greens and radishes.
Or something like that.
I tried to make sure I went from north to south with tall to short and keep my radishes away from the onions.(not sure if that matters, but better safe then sorry.) At least I am not growing hot peppers and have to worry about those crossing with the green peppers. My dad did that one year and OH MAN those were hot green peppers, he had to throw them all out.
If I can get the hang of this veggie garden, I think I am gowing to start with the yard next. While I do plant some flowers, I never have a plan and would rather have things pop by themselves instead of planting every year.

Your plan sounds like it sould make sense. Tallest to the north, thats the way I will be doing it as well. Though I always want to grow more things then there is actually room for in the garden so it tends to end up being over crowded