With the number of people attempting their first gardens, and even for the rest of us who continue to have 'firsts' as we try something new each year, it's still an important question. Maybe we've finally added some space - perhaps a dinner with friends has expanded our gustatory horizons - or maybe we just want a new challenge.
As a long-time volunteer at our local Master Gardener garden hotline, I know we get this question every spring, even though we live in a fairly rural area where edible gardens reign. (Yes, I pass numerous barns & silos on my drive to work and occassionally have to literally wait for chickens to cross the road.) Often, someone has moved into the area or perhaps just moved away from home for the first time. A lot of families are trying to save money and many are interested in feeding their families food grown with minimal to no chemical pesticides.
At this point, I'm thinking I should say that mapping out a garden is the key to success, but frankly, I prefer following some general guidelines rather than getting out the graph paper. My best advice is to start by deciding what it is you love to eat. Not that I'm not personally guilty of growing "ornamental" leaf lettuce (I love it, but am sometimes too lazy to pick and prepare it for dinner) and then there was last year's Chinese eggplant experiment...
But I digress. Once you have your "love to eat" list, go online or to your favorite catalog and find out what each crop needs. Most veggies need full sun and good drainage, but some do well in shade or do not need loads of organic matter in the soil to thrive. Some (like lettuce) do well in cooler weather and are ready to eat when everything else is just getting started, so remember to leave room for more than one planting of these crops if you want to enjoy them all summer. Do not scrimp on space - if recommended spacing is 3 feet, give each plant at least that. And, if you're going to plant seeds on a hill, or in a row, and thin them after they come up, you need to be ruthless and do what's required. Not only will you grow bigger plants, but adequate spacing will reduce problems with diseases later on when the humidity and temperatures rise.
Find out if the crop ripens all at once. If so, processing it may mean you'll be spending your Labor Day weekend in the kitchen. If you'd rather spend it at the local fair, you may want to go easy when planting those crops. Of course if you're lucky enough only to be responsible for all the growing and someone else is willing to do the processing, then by all means get out the tractor and disk up a farmer-sized garden and plant 500 tomatoes!
Speaking of space, I'm always amazed at how much produce can be grown on a small plot of ground or even in containers. Any of the vine crops can be grown upright on sturdy supports. (You can either build permanent supports that will last over the years, or throw together temporary supports for the season at hand.) Not only does this save space, but it improves air circulation, reducing the potential for disease issues as the season progresses.
Finally, ask your fellow gardening friends how much they plant, how many people they feed, whether they preserve any harvest, and how much they give away or return to the compost pile. Most gardeners love talking about their gardens. Not once when I mentioned that I was thinking of blogging about this topic did I hear any stories about the time someone planted too little of anything. I attribute a lot of this to the way things are packaged. It's hard to leave those extra seeds or multi-pack transplants unplanted but consider sharing with your friends or donating to a community garden. If you do decide to preserve some of the harvest, maybe those friends would like to join you. If you still end up with too many tomatoes or summer squash, you can always help others by donating the excess to a local food bank or shelter.
Did I answer the question? I'm not sure I've given a definitive answer, but hopefully you'll now be able to avoid some common garden pitfalls. For those who still want numbers and a map for a garden to feed a family of four, check out Penn State's Circular #559 "Grow Your Own Vegetables". http://tinyurl.com/3f3f2r9
Linda Grotzinger
