What size is your vegetable garden?

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Just curious! Mine is (or will be then the weather co-operates) about 2500 square feet. I use a combination of raised beds, wide rows and hills. We are also trying some square-foot beds this year. I do use a tiller. Can't really complain about the weather, we are getting much needed rain!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), April 19, 2000

Answers

Jean, mines between 15 and 20' wide by 150' long. Plus the asparagus and rhubabr beds plus odds and ends planted in flower beds and a couple of places near the house for quick grabbing. That makes it somewhere between 2200 and 3000 square feet for the main garden. And someday it will warm up enough to get out and plant it. The stores don't even have their seedlings in yet. Brr. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 19, 2000.

Ours is about eighty by one hundred, though we don't plant all of it every year. Plus a small one by the house, and herbs and flowers in front of the house. (Not very many flowers, though -- not enough time.) It's in raised beds, just shaped, they don't have boards or anything holding them in place. It's on a slight north-facing slope, so the beds are higher on the north side to try to catch as much sun as possible. And it's full of rocks.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 19, 2000.

You only have 1 garden .We have 3 , I'm not sure what the size would add up to .I'll have to ask hubby .Happy gardening .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), April 19, 2000.

Mine's about 75 x 100' and not nearly big enough! I like to plant corn, pumpkins,potatoes, and squash plus at least 16 tomato plants. I grow on trellises as much as I can and in wide rows. My husband says I have too many flowers- he's right but don't tell him I admitted it. I'm nuts about irises. One of the things that has worked very well for me is a circle of stout fencing somewhere in any wide row. That's my compost bin(s) for the year. In the spring I pull off the fencing, move it, and put the dry stuff from the top of the bin into the new spot. Then I spread the compost around a little and till it in. I never turn a compost pile. And if you plant things around the pile they really grow.

-- Peg (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 19, 2000.

ors was 54'x5?' and too small. This year we are tilling about 100'x100' but any unused part will be put in buckwheat for my new bees. We put up about 800 lbs. of spuds, 150 qts.pickles, we had a dozen tomatoes and we are adding cherry ones also, we're putting twice as many onions in and 4 times the dry shelling beans, melons,pumpkins,salad greens, cauliflower,cabbage,etc. The basics. Plus the berry patch and herb "flower beds". The only flowers will be the ones my 6 yr. old daughter wants to put in her spot (4'x4' by the hoouse) as my motto is "if you can't eat it, why weed it?"

-- Novina West (lamb@stellarnet.com), April 19, 2000.


I have two one is 80 X 200. THe other one by the house is 20 X 30

-- Grant Eversoll (thegrange@earthlink.net), April 19, 2000.

If you count everything: the main garden, 2 sunflowe houses, the lemon herb garden, two other herb gardens, comfrey bed, the Jerusalem artichokes, the asparagus patch and the flower beds; somwhere between 1/4 and 1/2 acre. The lemon herb garden smell so good!

-- Cindy (atilrthehony@yahoo.com), April 19, 2000.

We have 3 garden beds, 2 are about 50 x 150 feet, the third is about 50 x 60. Asparagus is separate, as is the orchard (about 1 or 2 acres, always expanding), raspberries, blueberies, etc. The strawberries are in one of the 50 x 150 beds, taking up about 20 x 150 feet of it, and rotated through the bed regularly. We grow most of our food for a family of 5 becoming a family of 2 as the boys grow and spend less time at home- still not all gone all the time so the garden is hard to plan this year. We seem to start out each spring saying that we will plant less to vegetables and more to green manure and cover crops, but by the time the dozens of varieties of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, etc. are all planted (and I mean dozens of varieties of each of them) the gardens are full again.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), April 19, 2000.

Our garden area, which includes 22 fruit trees, 10 4X20 raised beds, potting shed & composting area, is 40,000 square feet.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), April 20, 2000.

Not counting apple trees and grapes, the main garden is about 1/2 acre. I have berries out in the field, and other things scattered about.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), April 20, 2000.


Well, I have serious free time limitations so I had to keep my garden size limited. This year I only have about 1100 sq ft but it's crammed. Next year I'm hoping to possibly double that but will have to wait and see how time issues work themselves out.

Of course, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not supposed to be going into commercial production otherwise I'd plow up an acre!

.........Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.ProvidenceCo-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (FL) (athagan@netscape.net), April 20, 2000.


Raised beds in formal design, using square foot gardening: currently 369 square feet; plus 360 sq. feet in paths. As $$$ become available this year, will add an additional 216 sqare feet of raised bed growing area, again with paths. Beds are only three feet across, because I am slightly less than 5 foot tall. Sweet corn (1/4 + acre), melons, pumpkins, asparagus and strawberries are grown in the field. Next year's expansion includes grape arbor/gazebo (unless I DO use the derelict satellite dish idea!) and a dozen or so dwarf fruit trees. Do have some fruit trees scattered around the farm already. Pop can't quite comprehend the raised bed theory - "Ya got thirty acres you could plant on - why the heck you want to grow grub in little boxes?! Actually, it's because I can raise more food with less work, on less land, with fewer inputs (and can concentrate those inputs where they will do the most good), but I settled for the stubborness defense - "cause I by gosh WANT to, that's why!" He'll figure it out eventually!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), April 20, 2000.

Let's see...currently we have 3 vegetable type gardens. Right now, all I have growing in them are rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, and some old horseradish I missed last fall, and I think a couple of old beets! Maybe they will actually have something growing in them this year..ya think? It will be busy around here in the next few weeks. Anyway:

(A)Kitchen garden: (oh yeah, I have herbs growing here year round. Forgot them..Anyway, this one is about 12X20'; (B) Then we have a 6- foot-tall fenced vegetable garden which is approx. 40x40'; and then (C)another garden for spuds, corn, squash, and other big stuff: 33x88'. If I did the math right it's 4,744 sq.ft.

I think I will do the first 2 gardens this year, and skip (C). I plan to go to summer school, and fall quarter is shaping up to be 20 credits (canning, and freezing, and studying, oh my!!) Head examination, coming right up...

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 20, 2000.


Our main garden site is over 4500 sq ft. More garden than I have time to tend. This year we may just plant some strawberries and more fruit trees and forget most of the vege's. I travel so much and my daughter barrel races, so I am gone every week-end too. Maybe next year when daughter is off to college. I used to have just 1000 sq ft and that produced enough vege's for 6 of us for the year. I did progressive planting and kept the garden growing all season. The main reason for the bigger garden was so I could plant it pretty much all at once and not have to plant again.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), April 21, 2000.

Our garden is about 2000 sqaure feet (20 X 100), and it's getting too small. Plus a small herb garden by the house. Strawberries in hanging baskets off of the edges of the car port, blackberries and raspberries along one property line, and a couple of dwarf fruit trees (pear, apple, and peach) scattered around the place.

-- Eric Stone (ems@nac.net), April 21, 2000.


Well, it's becoming clear that a majority of the respondents here are certifiably insane! And I'm one of you. Our main garden is roughly 1/4 acre, where we (that's my military background kicking in with the "military we". Maggie does not share my genetic deficiency with regards to gardening. She tends a few flowers!) grow LOTS of tomatoes, since that is a passion and I like to toy with experimenting. Beyond that, we have garlic, onions, 3 or 4 kinds of potatoes, 3 summer squash, maybe 6 or 8 winter squash, 3 types of cucumbers, gourds (WHY do I grow those?), several kinds of peppers, 2 types of eggplant, several herbs (Ever made Dill vinegar? - it's great!), sweet corn and decorative corn, beets, a few carrots, tomatillos,cabbage, kale (my favorite), broccoli and sprouts in years of weakness (they're so cheap, even good stuff), artichokes, rhubarb, horseradish, lots of peas and beans, and a few other things I can't think of. In the "other" garden, we have several types of pumpkins. I also love and grow gladiolus and sunflowers, 'cause I like 'em. Then, there's the orchard and the grapes, and Christmas trees, and ......... So how big should your garden be? As big as you like, but small enough to be fun for YOU! Any bigger and it's drudge WORK! We put up much of our own food, but I grow more than is necessary because I enjoy it, and friends really appreciate good food from us "fahmas". Hey, have fun and GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@mix-net.net), April 22, 2000.

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