How Big a Garden to Make?

[obsessed]

As BIG as possible. worst comes to worse you may get too many zukes.

 

[Greenthumb18]

Can never have too many zukes

 

[curly_kate]

I say start small. I'm in starting my 3rd year of gardening. I started with a 15x15 bed that I divided into 3 rows. I didn't try anything too complicated - tomatoes, peppers, beans, cukes. It's REALLY easy to get overwhelmed, so it's better to take it slow. You can always make it bigger!

 

[seedcorn]

How much time do you want to devote to this garden. This is the key to how large should the garden be.

Next question is what do you want to eat, how much variety, and how much room do the plants need.

Answer those questions and you'll know how large of a garden. It varies from person to person.

 

[Rusty]

I would suggest starting with nothing bigger than about 12x12 (*possibly* twice that, one for your friend and one for you), but doing intensive planting such as in Mel Bartholomew's book Square Foot Gardening (or any other similar approach).

Reason being, the two biggest causes of garden failures are inability to keep up with weeding (which is an especially fierce task the first few years in a new garden bed), and inability to attend to each plant's particular watering needs (which happens when you have too many of them to deal with or notice on a daily basis).

You can really grow *quite a lot* in a 12x12 (ish) space, intensively planted, and it makes the work manageable. Then NEXT year you will have a pretty good idea how much, if any, you want to expand.

Better to get some good crop from a modest workload in a modest garden, than near-zero crop from an overwhelming workload in a big garden.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

My sentiments exactly! Too big too soon takes all the fun out of it and once it becomes drudgery....there goes your success rate and with it your love of gardening.

I think the tendency is to jump right in and try to grow everything in your first garden. Trouble is that each different plant has different needs/likes/dislikes/tricks-of-the-trade so to speak. Start small and give yourself a chance to master a few, then add to them each year. That way you are much less likely to be defeated by your own garden.

Been there. Done that.


Rusty

 

[Adrien]

Start small, so you don't get overwhelmed by it!
When deciding how big to make the garden, take into account:
how big your family is.
how much water you have available in the dry season.
what vegetables you wish to grow. Pumpkins, for example, can only be grown in a large garden.
how much time you have to look after the garden.

 

[RedClayGardener]

I agree that you should start small. Last year was my first year gardening and I had a small bed. It was manageable and fun to do, so I came back this even more excited to start a garden again.

Something else to consider, if you have a small garden and it not more than you can handle, you can plant many things in containers as the season progresses. This will let you increase the size of your garden without the hassle of digging a new bed. Then next year you can plan for these vegetables in the bed.

 

[Grow 4 Food]

I am with out a doubt the wrong one to ask. I started with the exact same thought as you. My garden started as the spot under the old boat that I used to pile grass clippings. So it was about 8 ft by 15 ft. About 125 square foot if you are calculating. This year I did a minor expansion again and I am sitting at about 4000 square ft and still just exparimenting. It is addictive! RUN NOW!!

Save yourself while you still can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[smom1976]

I am with out a doubt the wrong one to ask. I started with the exact same thought as you. My garden started as the spot under the old boat that I used to pile grass clippings. So it was about 8 ft by 15 ft. About 125 square foot if you are calculating. This year I did a minor expansion again and I am sitting at about 4000 square ft and still just exparimenting. It is addictive! RUN NOW!!

Save yourself while you still can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well I wonder what a major expansion would be LOL :tools