How much can your garden grow?

[PotterWatch]

Can you grow enough in your garden to feed your family? I know I can't; not completely. I have very limited space (especially in comparison to many people across the country). I sometimes wonder how much space it would really take to sustain all the produce my family eats in a year... especially if we were to completely eschew eating out. How much sqare footage do you have and can you feed your family for a year on it?

 

[Greenthumb18]

Thats a great question PotterWatch!
Yep me too not completely. I guess it depends what vegetables or crops your growing. Some vegetables like cucumbers produce so much even 6 plants are a little too much for people.
I actually dont really know exactly how big or small my garden is but i will try to measure it to see.

 

[PotterWatch]

I'm going to try and measure mine tomorrow as well. We use several different areas around our home and have a plot at a community garden as well. I know there are more areas I could utilize, but I'm worried about having more going than I can manage!

 

[Catalina]

I grew more than enough to feed myself/give to friends/feed 21 chickens through the winter.

Right now I'm trying to use everything up and make some room for this year's crop. I canned, froze and dried way too much! Last month I made up gift baskets of canned items and gave them away to 10 of my friends. I still have too much!
My goal at the beginning of the winter was to eat at least one home canned item every day. I stuck to my goal! Some days I even used 2 or 3 jars.
It's important to plant every square inch.

You can see the size of my garden here.
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=25175

 

[journey11]

I expanded my garden to 2700 sq ft last year. Planting in the front yard this year too! 3 apple trees, 1 peach, 24 blackberry plants (plus we gather wild ones too), 50 strawberry plants, butcher 25 meat chickens per year, have 13 layers (currently) for eggs, and harvest 3-4 deer a year. This accounts for most of my family's food. Can and freeze lots, and have plans for building a root cellar this summer. Trying to plant as much on one acre as I can and aiming to expand gradually over the next couple of years to selling roadside produce too.

Catalina, what do you grow for your chickens? I've always wondered about doing that.

 

[PotterWatch]

I grew more than enough to feed myself/give to friends/feed 21 chickens through the winter.

Right now I'm trying to use everything up and make some room for this year's crop. I canned, froze and dried way too much! Last month I made up gift baskets of canned items and gave them away to 10 of my friends. I still have too much!
My goal at the beginning of the winter was to eat at least one home canned item every day. I stuck to my goal! Some days I even used 2 or 3 jars.
It's important to plant every square inch.

You can see the size of my garden here.
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=25175

I have seen that thread and I am completely jealous of all the space you have! I don't know if I could keep up with that much space right now though... I think it's good that I only have a small amount of space as I am still learning.


The things we are doing this year to try and eat more homegrown/local foods are:

Gardening. I am constantly trying to find new places I can put plants, it takes me a while to get going, but I am slowly getting it done. The garden is the one thing I really feel like I can do by myself that actually saves us money. It is great to go out and pick what I need rather than buy too much at the store and end up giving half of it to the chickens so it doesn't go completely to waste.

We are making payments on 1/3 of a steer that is being raised at a local farm. He should be ready for butchering near the end of summer.

We are working with that same farm to create a pasture to put some turkeys and chickens on. I don't care about the chickens so much as I raise some meat birds here at my house.

We are also working on getting a milk share going at the farm. In fact, I am going there tomorrow and Friday to take my turns milking until we get it all figured out, we don't want her to dry out while we are trying to get things in order so we are taking turns milking her each evening.

 

[Catalina]

Catalina, what do you grow for your chickens? I've always wondered about doing that.

I froze whole blemished tomatoes, 2nd quality peas, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage and carrots for the chickens.

 

[vfem]

My chickens got lettuce, cabbage, corn and sunflower seeds from my garden. So the little guys really enjoyed those bonuses over winter.

However, the rest of the food I grew was MORE then enough to feed my family if they ate it! My husband turned his nose up to most of it. I was lucky to get lettuce, beans and corn in him. He wouldn't eat anything else. Mostly the same with my daughter. I am slowly getting them to eat more. I really gave the rest of what I couldn't can or freeze away.

But I TRULY want to know what everyone manages to grow in their garden. I don't know if you've seen this Potter:
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=27660

I would love you to join... would love for ANYONE to join in who'd like to.

I need to upload a new xml spread sheet though, I changed websites and this file got lost in the move. :/ But I will create a new one and upload it soon. I wanted to grab a copy from Wifezilla!!!

 

[PotterWatch]

I haven't really kept records up till now to figure out costs, but I bet I can get close if I sit down and think about it. I think it would be neat to see how the numbers add up. I will check that out and try to get it done vfem!

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I expanded my garden last year. Now it is this L shaped garden so I am not sure of the sq. ft. I do can and freeze a lot of our family food. My chickens get get tomatoes, watermelons, corn, and sunflower seeds. I do buy pasta's, bread or flour and some canned soups. I buy dried beans and most of our meat and milk products.