One of the hardest parts of gardening food is how much do you plant?
I get asked that a lot, and it plays into another aspect: How much growing space do you need? If you know how much to plant, and expected crops to harvest, you can then determine if you need to put more growing space in this winter. For us, I do much of our hard labor in late Fall and Winter, because…it’s cool outside. I can work all day, where as in late Spring and Summer it’s just too bright and hot midday to work long enough.
This is a list of how many plants/hills/feet of planted space you need for each person you are growing food for. Then, after that how much goes into a 100 foot row (be it seed or plants). This can be easily broken down into smaller beds. If a 100 foot bed can hold 50 Asparagus beds, then a 25 foot bed holds 50 plants. If you are planting in raised beds, for example, that are 8 feet long and 4 feet wide, you can often fit 2 to 3 rows in the bed (depending on the type of produce) so it can be worked out easy.
Having said that, this list is aimed at those with land to use, homesteaders with space. But, you can use the per person as a guide if you only have a small garden. Ignore the 100 foot row parts. If you have small garden space, then realize you may not be able to fit in 10 artichoke plants as they are perennials and take up a lot of space. Your best use of space will be compact crops, that you can grow multiple times in a growing season (bush beans, bush peas, carrots, beets, and so on).
When you sit down to figure out your needs, after counting in your household, include animals. Do you have chickens? Ducks? Goats? Pigs? I grow Swiss Chard, Bok Choy and Lettuce for our birds, and I include a share for them as well. That means for Lettuce, I add in a 10 to 20 foot section for them. It gives them variety, and I buy a lot less feed. Better eggs as well.
Add in how many times you will plant a succession crop. If you grow Spinach in Spring, will you plant it again in late Summer?
And if you preserve food for Winter, plan this in. 5 plants per person may well not be enough if you wish to eat fresh Tomatoes all Summer, then also can them. You will want to double to quadruple the plants you are hoping to preserve.
Plan in that certain plants, such as Artichokes, Asparagus, and Rhubarb will take a couple years to produce. Because they are perennials, they will eat up a lot of garden space doing nothing for a couple of years. Consider your space needs before you commit.
Plants:
- Artichokes: 2 plants. 17 to 18 plants per 100 foot row.
- Arugula: 5 plants. 1 packet of seed will be enough for most families.
- Asparagus: 10 plants. 50 plants per 100 ft row.
- Beans, bush (snap green, yellow, purple): 15 to 20 feet. ½ pound seed per 100 foot row.
- Beans, pole (snap or beans to dry): 5 to 6 feet. ½ pound seed per 100 foot row.
- Beets: 5 to 10 feet. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
- Bok Choy: 3 plants.
- Broccoli: 3 to 5 plants. 50 plants per 100 foot row.
- Brussels Sprouts: 2 to 5 plants. 50 plants per 100 foot row.
- Cabbage: 5 to 10 feet. 75 to 100 plants per 100 foot row.
- Carrots: 5 to 10 feet. ¼ ounce seed per 100 foot row.
- Cauliflower: 3 to 5 plants. 50 to 75 plants per 100 foot row.
- Celeriac: 5 feet. 200 plants per 100 foot row.
- Celery: 10 plants. 150 to 200 plants per 100 foot row.
- Chard, Swiss: 5 plants. 2 ounces of seed per 100 foot row.
- Chinese Cabbage: 3 to 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
- Collards: 5 to 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
- Corn, Sweet: 10 to 15 feet. 4 ounces of seed per 100 foot row.
- Cucumbers, eating: 1-2 hills. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
- Cucumbers, Pickling: 2 hills. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
- Eggplant: 2-3 plants. 50 to 75 plants per 100 foot row.
- Kale: 5 to 10 feet. ½ ounce seed per 100 foot row.
- Kohlrabi: 3 to 5 feet. ¼ ounce seeds per 100 foot row.
- Leeks: 10 plants.
- Lettuce: 10 feet. ¼ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
- Mustard: 5 to 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
- Okara: 4 to 6 feet. 2 ounces seed per 100 foot row.
- Onions (plants, in spring): 3 to 5 feet. 300 to 400 plants per 100 foot row.
- Onions (sets, in fall): 3 to 5 feet. 3 to 5 pounds baby onions.
- Onions (seeds, in late winter): 3 to 5 feet. ¼ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
- Parsnips: 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
- Peas (bush or pole): 15 to 20 feet. 1 pound seed per 100 foot row.
- Peppers (both sweet and hot): 3 to 5 plants. 50 to 75 plants per 100 foot row.
- Potatoes: 50 to 100 feet. 10 pounds seed potatoes per 100 foot row.
- Potatoes, Sweet: 5 to 10 plants. 75 to 100 plants per 100 foot row.
- Pumpkins, eating: 1 to 2 hills. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
- Radishes: 3 to 5 feet. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
- Rhubarb: 3 to 5 plants. 25 to 30 plants per 100 foot row.
- Spinach: 5 to 10 feet. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
- Squash, Summer: 2-3 hills. 1 ounce seeds per 100 foot row.
- Squash, Winter: 1 to 3 hills. 1 ounce per 100 foot row.
- Tomatillo: 1 to 2 plants.
- Tomatoes: 3 to 5 plants. 50 staked, 30 in large cages, per 100 foot row.
- Turnips: 5 to 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
- Watermelons: 2 to 4 hills. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
~Sarah