Growing your own food is a rewarding and sustainable way to provide healthy and fresh produce for your family. However, before you start planting your garden, it’s important to determine how many plants are needed to feed your family. Not planting enough produce means you’ll need to source food from somewhere else, planting too much creates waste. If you’re looking for a graph that tells you exactly how much you’ll need, unfortunately that isn’t something that I can accurately create. I say this because each family has different tastes, and each person has different dietary needs. While I can’t give you an exact count, here are some steps to help you determine your own planting needs.
Determine Your Family’s Food Needs
The first step in determining how much to plant is to figure out how much food your family needs. This can vary depending on the number of people in your family, their ages, activity levels, and dietary requirements. This can also vary greatly if you are planning to grow food for livestock. We always plant more than we think we’ll need. We know that we can feed our surplus to our chickens and rabbits. A good place to start is to use a food calculator, such as the USDA’s MyPlate Plan. This tool can help you determine how many calories and nutrients your family needs each day.
Another great option is to keep a running list of ingredients that you add to each time you cook. Keep that information handy and use it to plan the following year’s garden.
Plan Your Garden Space
Once you know your family’s food needs, you can plan your garden space accordingly. Consider the available space you have and the types of plants that grow well in your climate and soil conditions. It’s also important to consider how much time and effort you’re willing to invest in maintaining your garden. This is another time when your garden planner and journal will be really important. For example, you may need 25 plants to accommodate your family’s needs, but only have space for half of that. In this case, you can look into varieties that offer higher yields. Adding container gardening to your plan or planting in a community garden are more options.
Just remember that while you may not be able to grow 100% of your own food, anything that you are able to grow is a step in the right direction.
Choose Your Crops
Choose the crops you want to grow based on your family’s preferences and nutritional needs. You may want to focus on vegetables that are expensive to buy, such as tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Gardeners may also choose produce that their family enjoys eating regularly. .
In our family, we grow a ton of tomatoes, cucumbers, leafy greens, potatoes, and herbs. We grow plenty of other edible plants as well. Since these are the plants that our family tends to eat more than others, we always make sure to plant plenty of them. This year we are planting extra green beans because we learned that we absolutely love dill pickled green beans!
Calculate How Much to Plant
To calculate how much to plant, you’ll need to consider the yield of each crop and the number of plants you’ll need to meet your family’s needs. For example, one tomato plant can yield up to 10 pounds of tomatoes. A single zucchini plant can produce up to 10 zucchinis per season! That’s a lot of zucchini. You can use online calculators or reference books to determine the expected yield for each crop.
You’ll also want to factor in the ability to preserve anything that you can’t use while it is fresh. For example, lettuce is not a crop that stores well, so for families that do not raise livestock, growing more lettuce than you can consume before it bolts or spoils will only serve as compost. If you are growing things for livestock, be sure to calculate how much you will need to grow to feed your livestock.
Plan for Succession Planting
Succession planting is the practice of planting crops at different times throughout the growing season. This is done to ensure a steady supply of fresh produce. By staggering your planting times, you can ensure that you have a continuous supply of fresh vegetables throughout the season. You can also consider planting a variety of crops that mature at different times. Fast-maturing crops like lettuce and radishes, can be paired with slower-growing crops like tomatoes and peppers.
We stagger our radish planting by about 2 weeks and plant them every 2 weeks from late March until early November here at Hogs and Hens Urban Farm. We’re in zone 6a, so be sure to plan for your crops to be harvested before your first frost when planting frost intolerant plants like tomatoes and peppers.
Consider Preservation Methods
Once you’ve determined how much to plant, you’ll need to consider how to preserve your harvest for future use. Consider canning, freezing, or drying your excess produce to ensure you have a supply of fresh vegetables throughout the year. Other great option for preserving fresh produce is using a freeze dryer. We currently do not have this equipment on our farm, but are hoping to add it to our preservation tools in the future. Creating things like Nasturtium Pesto is a great way to use and store surplus herbs.
In conclusion, determining how much to plant to feed your family requires careful planning and consideration. By using the steps listed above, you can ensure that you have a steady supply of fresh and healthy produce to feed your family. Gardening can be a rewarding and sustainable way to provide for your family, and with some planning and effort, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor all year round.