Planning a garden for a family of 4!
If you are looking to plant a garden to just have fresh produce during the summer I would suggest having a 200 square foot garden. If you are looking to can I would suggest having a 600 square foot garden.
Whether you are just planting a garden for the first time or you have put in a garden for years planning needs to be the first thing that you do! I mean you can’t just throw a bunch of seeds in the ground and hope for the best, right? You need to decide what veggies and fruits you and your family enjoy and if you will just be eating them fresh or preserving some for the winter. Personally, I can a lot of the produce from my garden! I love to have my own canned goods for the winter. But I am aware not everyone is able or wanting to can. So I will show you how to plan for both…
Planning for canning…
If you are planning to can your produce to last you for the whole year you will clearly need a large garden. As I mentioned above a 600 square foot garden would be ideal. But I know that some people do not have that much space to work with. So Just plan with the space that you have!
Step number 1: Plan the size of your garden
I have land to work with so having a large garden is not a problem for me. But before you can pick what plants you want, you need to know what size garden you will have. This is your “foundation” so to speak. You can’t start a project without a foundation, right? SO, in the same way, we can’t plan a garden without our foundation. I would suggest planning your garden on a piece of paper. Draw it out so that you can see what you have to work with. That leads into…
Step number 2: Picking your plants
Now that you know what you have to work with size wise you can choose which plants you want. Just for sake of illustration, I will be sharing with you my garden plans. But make sure you plan accordingly for the state you live in. I live in Michigan by the way!
Okay, so when choosing what I want in my garden I think about the things that we eat the most of and that cost the most to buy. I try to utilize my space as best as possible. For example, onions are very cheap and take up a lot of room in the garden. So I try to use that space I something that will cost more if I had to buy it. Does that make sense? The things I plant in my garden are…
- Green Beans
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- lettuce
- Spaghetti Squash
Now, this might not sound like much but I am able to can enough green beans for the entire year and make all of my own tomato products. ( salsa, tomato sauce, tomato paste, ETC.) The spaghetti squash will last for a good 3 months in a cold dark place and the lettuce we just eat fresh…
It honestly is hard to tell you exactly how many plants you will need. Because every family is different. I have little ones so obviously, they are going to eat much less than if I had teenagers. But for my family I plant…
- 2 20 foot rows of beans
- 15 tomato plants
- 10 pepper plants
- 1 row of lettuce
- 1 row of spaghetti squash
This seemed to be the perfect amount for our family. But you will need to play around with it depending on what your families needs are. Another aspect you want to think about is when you want to do your canning. Do you want to harvest everything at once? Or would it work better to spread it out? Personally, I think it is nice to have things ready at different times. Especially if you are not canning and only eating it fresh. Which leads to our next question…
Planning for fresh produce
If you are planning to just plant a garden for fresh produce than you will not need nearly as many plants. As I mentioned before try to your best to plant things at different times so that you can harvest your produce at different times. Now they don’t need to be drastically different times just try to space them out a few weeks at a time.
This post would be forever long if I posted every item separately, so I think the Square footage I mentioned above is a good thing to go by. So for a family of 4 plan on making a 200 square foot garden. But if you don’t have the option to have that big of a garden than just plan accordingly. Maybe choose less of a variety so that you can have more of what you love.
Freezing your overabundant crops
How many of us know people who have way too many of one thing? I can’t even begin to tell you many times I have been offered zucchini. Now It’s not a bad thing to have extra but think beforehand how you can best utilize your plants if you have an overabundance.
I used to think that zucchini was gross and what would I do with it? But over the last few years, I have found so many yummy ways to eat it and I now freeze it for a later date! You can do this with anything that you did not get a chance to can. I prefer canning because it is so nice to have the food ready and not have to remember to thaw it out, but sometimes I don’t have the time to can! So I throw it in a bag and boom I’m done.
Get a head start
You can get an early start on your gardening season by using a greenhouse. If you are lucky enough to have a full-fledged greenhouse, go you! I do not…But you can make mini greenhouses in your house to give your plants a head start. You can do this with old fruit containers or a rotisserie chicken container. This is also really fun if you have little kids in the house. You can make this a special project for them to work on and help them to learn how plants grow!
Keep track
The information I have shared with you is what has personally worked for my family. But you might need to make some changes for your family. It is important that you keep records of what you do so that in future years you can tweak things so that you can make your garden better and better each year.
I have been gardening for a while now and keep thinking of better ways to fit in more veggies and use the space as wisely as possible. And what plants work well in your soil. I tried corn and it totally failed in my soil. Even though it did great in my neighbor’s yard…Yah plants and soil are weird…
….That being said make sure that you are flexible. Things will not be perfect! Far from it actually. There are many things that work but also a lot that will not. You might plant enough but lose some to animals or bugs. Or forget to water them 🙁 Don’t give up though! Just try again! We are always learning!
A few extra tips
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Put in a fence around your garden!
Thankfully the animals did not totally destroy my garden but I did lose everything around the edge of my garden. I would recommend at least putting in a short garden to keep out the bunnies and small animals. But if you are close to woods you might need a tall fence for deer and such. My garden is at the edge of some tall grass so I usually just get the little animals coming out of the grass.
2. Put enough space in between your rows for a tiller.
Weeding stinks! So a trick my gardening pro neighbor taught me was to plant with enough space in between the rows to fit a tiller through. Now I know this might waste some of the space but it is totally worth it! And If you have a small tiller you do not need to leave that much space. Trust me it will save SO much time.
3. Get the family involved
Get your kids out there! I have little kids so it can be stressful to have them help. I mean half the time they pull out the veggies and not the weeds…But it is so important that we teach our kids about these things. And they need to know responsibility and hard work at a young age. My husband and I want our kids to know where their food comes from and have them know how to raise their own food.
We home-school and this is a great practical lesson for them. I am all about getting my kids outside and away from those screens! I am a little old fashioned and wish those stinking things did not exist…Well not really I can’t live without my smartphone. Anyway, I hope you the best in your garden! I hope you and your family can work together to become more self-sufficient!
~Courtney