This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Number of plants

>Still trying to plan my garden.
>This spring is out, though I plan to put in a fall garden.
>I do have a few tomato plants in containers that seem to be doing quite well.
>I would like to find out approximately how many of the following to plant
>so that our family (2 people, wife & myself) will have enough for
>canning/freezing, and eating fresh.
>We would like to put up enough for a full year.
>
>Okay, here they are;
>
>Asparagus
>Beans, snap, pole
>Beets
>Broccoli
>Brussels sprouts
>Cabbage
>Carrots
>Corn, sweet
>Okra
>Peas, Black-eyed
>Tomatoes
>
>Thanks, Clark

Hi, Clark

You don't tell us how much you like these vegetables, so here are my
suggestions:

Asparagus--none
Beans--lots
Beets--none
Broccoli--lots
Brussels sprouts--none (in fact, let this vegetable die out completely <g>)
Cabbage--one head, strictly for cold slaw in the summer

Carrots--lots, in lots of different colors and configurations (colored
carrots are available from SSE)

Sweet corn--lots, not in a SF bed, but the full length of one side of your
yard, divided among early, mid, and late varieties

Okra--none

Black eyed peas--lots, again not in a SF bed, but along side of the sweet
corn.  You need a lot of room to grow "calorie" crops (see Jeavons, _How to
grow more vegetables...._)

Tomatoes--well, since you will be trialing at least 10 varieties, you should
spread them around among several beds.

(I'm serious here.  That hysterical laughter you hear *must* be coming from
someone else on the NET!)

Okay, okay, I'm serious about the corn and the black eyed peas.  (Okay, I'm
not sure on this one.  Are black eyed peas harvested fresh or dry?  The
following comments apply more to dry peas than fresh, but I still believe
they are a field crop.)  Don't waste your nice beds and soil on these two.
They are traditionally field crops, rather than garden crops.  They take up
too much room in square foot beds for the return.  That said, I did try sweet
corn in my SF beds twice and was disapointed.  In the last two years, I
haven't grown corn at all, but this year I will be growing two flour
corns--Navajo blue corn, and Hopi pink corn.  (I use these for seed saving,
decorations, and cooking.  Let me tell you, blue corn blueberry muffins are
to die for!)  I'll be planting my sweet corn in my mom's garden, which has
not yet been converted to SF.  (She's gone for the month of May and doesn't
plan to plant a garden.  Boy will she be surprised to come home in June and
discover corn, beans, and soup peas taking over the side yard!)

I have tried chick peas, one full bed.  I ended up with about a cup of peas
after harvest.  I also tried soup peas down the center of one bed (two rows
on either side of a fence).  From that smaller planting, I filled a half
gallon jar.  Still not enough to rely on for a full winter, but better.

Other than that, you need to consider how you are going to store your
harvest, how much you eat per week or month, and how sick of beans you are
going to get by the end of the year.  Then estimate harvests, and figure
out for yourself how much to plant. <g>  In addition, John Jeavons' _How to
grow more vegetables...._ addresses self-sufficiency, and the latest edition
discusses "calorie" crops (grains, legumes, potatoes) as the base of the
human diet, and which ones are most reasonable in the self-sufficient home
garden/mini farm.  There was also a very interesting article about a full
year's garden in an _Organic Gardening_ last year some time (November?
December?  can't remember right now, and my OGs are hidden away at the
moment).  You might also look at _The Harvest Gardener_ by McClure.

Oh, and your list neglected chile peppers.  I suggest Espan~ola Improved and
Chimayo as my personal favorites.  Harvest when green, roast until the
outside skin bubbles, and then freeze.  To use, let thaw, peel the skin off,
remove seeds, chop, and add to stews, hash, hamburgers, etc.  Or, after
peeling, slit carefully down one side, remove seeds, stuff with cheese and
some bread cubes, cover with your favorite batter, and deep fry until the
batter is browned.  This delicacy is called a Chile Rellano.  Every house
needs a few to keep it warm over the winter. <g>  I suggest one or two plants
of each, with the varieties separated by at least one full bed.  That way,
you can let a couple ripen to full red, let them dry (on the plant, if you
live an an arid region), and save the seeds for the next year's planting.

Just my 10 cents

Catherine (Zone 5, alpine desert)

***************************************************************************
To unsubscribe, send to: listserv@umslvma.umsl.edu
the body message: unsubscribe sqft
See http://www.umsl.edu/~silvest/garden/sqft.html for archive, FAQ and more.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index