[Br'er Rabbit]

I'm going to try my first garden this year and need some yield advice. My plan is for a 25x25 ft garden growing the following: Sweet corn, cucumbers, bell peppers, pole beans, tomatoes and peas.

My question is how much produce to expect from each plant. I dont want to go overboard and have tomatoes coming out my ears, but want to make sure I have enough for a family of 3, plus some for canning.

Here is my current plan with each row being 15 ft long except the sweet corn which is in 25 ft rows:

1 row of pole beans - 15 plants.
1 row of bell peppers - 7 plants.
1 row of peas - double row.
1 row of cucumbers - 6 plants.
2 rows of tomatoes - 16 plants.
3 rows of sweet corn - 75 plants.

Am I planting too much or too little of each item?

 

[Wombat]

Whatever you dont eat you can preserve in some way.

 

[vhbrown2]

The following information helped me to determine how much to plant - might be of some use to you...

www.newlifeonahomestead.com
blog archive - "How much should I plant?"

If you come across the updated book "Square Foot Gardening" by M. Bartholemew, there's information about how much to plant per person <<even if you disagree with the principal, it's an interesting book>>.

 

[tadbitangelny]

We currently have a garden that is 60 feet wide by 100 feet long and it will probably get bigger this year. There are only 2 of us and last year we planted one row of potatos 8 plants, 2 rows of green and yellow beans aproximately 25 plants, one row of peppers 20 plants, three rows of tomatoes over 75 plants, 2 rows of pumpkins 8 plants, 2 rows of sugar baby water melon 8 plants, 2 rows of acorn squash 8 plants, and 2 half rows of eggplant 16 plants. We yielded enough veggies to last us the summer and froze and canned the rest which we are still eating. I would up the amount of corn and tomatos you are planting but the rest seem fine to me. Also not sure where you are from but if you plant in stages meaning don't plant all the plants at once but stage them out in two week intervalls you will make your garden last longer.

 

[LD 50/50]

A bit bigger than what we are planning. We when with 10x16 just to get our feet wet.

 

[letsgetreal]

IMO, that's fine, however, I'd suggest putting up sticks and chicken wire along the rows of beans, peas and cukes, as they are vines and will want to spread out....with the wire, they will grow up....the peppers will need 1 sq ft/plant, but the tomatoes will need up to 3sq ft and those wire support things to help hold them up......plus they have different sun requirments.....what's good for the beans and corn is too much for the peas and tomatoes......consider planting the tomatoes in buckets, so you can move them in the shade in the afternoon......also, which way does you garden run? North to South or East to West? North to South is ideal, then you can plant the corn on the west side of the garden, so that the beans and peas are in the shade of the corn in the afternoon. Also, consider planting Sunflowers on the West side of the garden, for more shade.

 

[Enscheff]

also, which way does you garden run? North to South or East to West? North to South is ideal, then you can plant the corn on the west side of the garden, so that the beans and peas are in the shade of the corn in the afternoon. Also, consider planting Sunflowers on the West side of the garden, for more shade.

Excellent tip. I will definitely be using that when I get my garden going.

 

[apneaman]

Start with food that you like and will eat. Weed, weed, and more weed. I hate weeds.

 

[EdD270]

I suggest you use the "square foot method" rather than plant in rows, you get more from less space. Also remember the corn must be planted in a clump rather than rows to ensure proper pollination and bearing. Google squarefoot gardening, or check around your local library for a book about it.
I'd add squash to your plantings. Can't have a garden without squash. Be sure to seperate the squash from the cukes, though.
Also I suggest planting in beds, about 4 ft. wide by however long you have room for. This lets you reach the middle of the bed to plant, weed and harvest, but you don't need to walk on the bed and compress the soil. Much better for your garden. Leave a 2 or 3 ft. walkway between beds.
I hate to weed, too. So I mulch. Put down about 10" or more of mulch all over your garden, as it settles, put down more. Prevents weeds, and improves the soil as it rots. this, together with not compressing the soil by using beds, will do more for your garden than anything else.
The beans, peas and cucumbers will do better if grown vertically, use remesh or some other heavy wire mesh supported by T-posts or other strong supports. Some use chicken wire, but remesh has 5-6" squares that let you reach through it to harvest and also to spray, dust, etc. for bugs. Saves running around from one side to the other.

 

[letsgetreal]

I suggest you use the "square foot method" rather than plant in rows, you get more from less space. Also remember the corn must be planted in a clump rather than rows to ensure proper pollination and bearing.....

Don't know where you got that from.......so I guess farmers have been getting it wrong( planting corn in rows) for hundreds of years.......I'd agree with close rows, but still rows is ok.....worked for me for the last 25 yrs.

 

[levelfarmer]

Planting corn in rows is fine, but six short rows is better than three long rows. If you plant six short rows, four rows will have plants on each side to pollinate. If you plant in three long rows, only one row will have plants on each side to pollinate, that being the middle row.

You can look at a 100 acre corn field, and the outside rows will show signs of poor pollination unless conditions are perfect.

 

[grandma]

I'm not sure how you are arranging this...15 ft rows in a 25 ft garden? What are you planning to do with the other 10 ft? I also have used square ft gardening since 'way back in the 70s and it works well...less weeding, better pollination and less drying out of the garden. Whether farmers have gotten it wrong or not isn't for me to say, but I am not a farmer, I DO, however, like gardening. I suspect when you have a plough it may be easier to have rows...

 

[kev]

If you have some room, plant snap beans instead of peas.

Peas - you only harvest once, maybe twice.

Snap beans - supply you with a steady supply of food. With snap beans you can harvest them every couple of days.

 

[wewild]

If you have some room, plant snap beans instead of peas.

Peas - you only harvest once, maybe twice.

Snap beans - supply you with a steady supply of food. With snap beans you can harvest them every couple of days.

I thought snap beans and pole beans where the same. OP listed 15 pole beans. I do both. Crowder is my favorite pea. Rattlesnake my favorite pole bean.

 

[BrowserCat]

Since it's your first garden, I'd suggest a focus on the gardening part and let the canning/preserving part take potluck this time around and make preserving a 'it would be nice to have' but not a requirement. You have a lot of variables to deal with: weather, varietal issues [too long a season for your area, for example], watering, whether or not you planted enough, soil tilth, pests, etc. will keep you busy. Plus all those nice sore muscles [unless you are lucky to have juvenile minions to whom to delegate weeding, watering, etc.].

 

[SgtBooker44]

Get the Ball Blue Book for a canning resource and look into preserving some of your harvest. Eventually you will expand your garden.

The Ball Blue Book will give you an idea on what you need. Start collecting canning jars when you find them.

Don't deviate from the recipes in the book, you will do fine.

 

[scienceteacher]

Very important for a first time garden !!!!!!!

Its a good size but if you're growing for the first time on that plot you need to make sure all you have 2 or more different types of each to find out what grows best in your soil.
Tomatoes are pretty easy to grow and can but the type I grew in Pa wouldn't grow in FLa and a different type all together here in NC. Buy 2 of each type of tomato at least 3 types of pepper and at least 2 types of cucumber. Pole beans and peas are less touchy and I have grown in all 3 places pretty easily. But you definately don't want all the same kind because there are big differences in how they grow in different soil.

 

[scienceteacher]

vegetable gardening not farming

Don't know where you got that from.......so I guess farmers have been getting it wrong( planting corn in rows) for hundreds of years.......I'd agree with close rows, but still rows is ok.....worked for me for the last 25 yrs.

Rows work best in more than an acre of corn NOT in a 1/2 acre vegetable garden that is only 1/10 corn.

 

[mizer67]

Corn in a garden takes up a lot of space and is a heavy feeder for not a lot of actual results, IMO.

In rows you're looking at ~250 sq ft for 50 plants, or 50 sq ft in the sq ft method. That's an awful lot of space to only get 50-100 ears of corn.

Either in rows or in a sq ft method, you're still going to have trouble with polination unless you're planting over ~50-100 plants. Unless you have almost perfect conditions, you're likely to only get 1 ear per plant sometimes.

 

[auntpugsy]

never had much luck with peas so I get freeze dried and dried. depends on where you are of course, different weather will affect crops year by year. rotate, fence to protect from predators and don;t give up after a failure. last year because of all the rain in Maine most of us couldn't even grow zucchini! good luck