How much can your garden grow?

[ninnymary]

My garden is about 100sq. feet. I just planted my seeds this past weekend and realize that I forgot to leave space for golden beets and basil! Oh well, I WILL find space for them, maybe between my small flower bed. Hattie gave me the idea on another post. She said a real english flower bed has flowers, shrubs, and veggies!

There is an article on a prior Mother News magazine where the author grew alot of stuff on 100sq. feet. This is really inspiring for me since that's all the space I have.

Mary

 

[nittygrittydirtdigger]

We definitely have enough SPACE to feed our family of four, just don't currently have the time/energy. We just put in six fruit trees a couple years ago, so they will begin bearing fruit in a year or two. We have ample room for garden vegetables and used about 1000 feet for that last year. This year we are adding berries and such. We have chickens and get all our eggs from them, more than we can use! We haven't gotten our nerves up to butcher any of the chickens yet, but that is coming. We also are fortunate to have a farm pond that is about 80x120' and is about 30 feet deep. "One of these days" we are going to stock the farm pond with crappie and maybe trout. So if we get our collective act together, we have the ability to feed ourselves very well on the space we have.

 

[simple life]

I think I could grow enough to feed my family if the weather cooperates this year.
There are nine of us, some will eat any veggie you put in front of them and pick them out of the garden and stand there eating them and then two of them (the oldest girls) like some veggies but not others.
We do go through alot of fruit and vegetables in my house so I would like to grow more and buy less of them.

Although I do can and dehydrate alot of things I would love to be able to stock the root cellar this year.

My main vegetable garden before I expand it this year is 875 square feet, we are planning to add on to it, not sure how big it will be though afterwards.

Then I have another area for herbs and veggies that is 8x16 and several 4x4 beds.
I don't include my potatoes in this because I never know how big I am going to go until planting day and that is all seperate from my regular gardens.

We rototilled the front and side yards in the fall and we only replaced the very front of the lawn.
The rest is to be used for garden space. We have been slowly replacing our lawn to do more useful things with it, fruit, veggies and flowers for the bees.

I know one side of the yard is going to give me around 600 square feet useable planting space. The other is probably very similar.
I will probably have around 2000 square feet of designated planting space and then whatever I can squeeze into the flower beds.
I think some vegetables are really pretty and could definitely be used in the landscape.

I have been planning the expansion for the past couple of years and this will be the final year.
We don't have the kind of room many people do but its plenty for us.
I planted 18 fruit trees between the fall and now, 3 grape vines and I have some berry shrubs on order.

I have the bee hives for honey, which we do use alot of because I bake with it and make granola and stuff like that.

I have goats and a doe is in milk so I get milk from her twice a day that I use for keifer, cheese and soap.

I have alot of hens for eggs, I can supply my family with eggs and the rest I sell and it pays for all of their feed and is paying off their new coop.

I started raising meatbirds last fall and I have been doing them in batches continuously since then.
I like that I can feed my family what we grow and I can stock my freezer.

This is my first year with turkeys, I will process some for the holidays and to stock the freezers and I plan to keep a trio of each breed for a sustainable flock.

I also buy my beef by the side, I save money and I get my beef all at once and it gives me a feeling of security to know that I have food put away for my family.

This year will be the year of prepping for the following years in that we are planting trees, vines and shrubs that will not fruit this year but will later but at least I will get some instant gratification with the veggies.
Once everything is mature and the gardens are all established I will be able to provide alot more for my family from my own backyard, just the fruit, veggies and meat I will be able to grow or raise will make a difference.

More importantly I am really hoping this will have a long lasting positive effect on my children.
Not just for their health but for their whole being, their own families they will someday have and
I want them to learn the self sufficiency skills they need to have a better life and succeed and even thrive when there are tough times.
Since I started them working out in the garden and taking care of the animals and teaching them where their food came from since they were small I hope they will be more inclined to practice this as adults and have the knowledge to start much sooner than I did.

Okay, planting season starts for me tomorrow, well at least the peas and possibly one or two other things can go in, its still not warm enough for everything yet but at least I can dig in the dirt!

I wish everyone much success in their gardens this year.
May you all have bountiful harvests.

 

[journey11]

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.

Good idea freezing some for them! Mine get lots of freebies in the summer and random scraps in the winter. So much fun to bowl a tomato across the yard and watch the chubby biddies run for it. I love that they will eat a watermelon down to the very skin...that way nothing is wasted. I thought maybe you meant grains. Mine free-range as much as they can, but I can't always let them out or for the whole day. We're fencing about 1/4 acre for them, "the back 40" that my DH hates to mow anyway. No sense in mowing it if you can turn it into a chicken playground! LOL

 

[PotterWatch]

I have the bee hives for honey, which we do use alot of because I bake with it and make granola and stuff like that.

I just bought my hive yesterday and I'm really excited about getting started with it!

 

[ninnymary]

Boy Simplelife... I would love to see your gardens. I can't imagine something that BIG! Remember, I only have 100sq. feet. That's probably about the size of just one of your beds.

Mary

 

[PotterWatch]

Heck, 2000 sq. ft. of planting space is larger than my house!

 

[mandieg4]

I have the space to grow enough, but we just moved onto this property last year and I haven't had enough time to get the garden into the best shape yet. Currently the garden is 50'x75', plus I have 10 3'x6' raised beds, so not quite 4000 sq ft. Plus I have about an acre set aside for fruit trees, I just haven't had the time or money to get them planted.

 

[old fashioned]

Our main veggie garden is approx 30'x50' (1500sqft?) we have several fruit trees scattered over the back yard, plus a separate berry fruit area roughly 6'x25' (straws, blues, rasp, & grapes)

The berries and some trees are still young and not producing enough to feed us for a year YET.

As for veggies, some produce enough to feed us for a year (we only eat occaisionally) but not other varieties that we eat alot of. Especially potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, leafy greens and such. These I do staggered plantings (several over the season) to last us as long as possible-but winter isn't a good growing time for much of anything here in the PNW (atleast for me). It's either too wet or too cold.
Another is corn and I've had problems getting very much of a harvest for several years. Admittedly my fault/failings and this year I'm more determined than ever to do right by my garden to improve it's yields. Including planting in the front yard/flower beds this year AND making sure everyone gets plenty of water no matter the water bill cost.