Last week I shared my excitement of buying and saving seeds, and the produce I put in the garden as starts. This week’s article is about taking an inventory of the items we currently have stored from last year’s harvest, how much a family should grow to sustain themselves, and planning your garden.
If you are already someone who cans or stores your produce, spring is the time to take an inventory of what you have left from the previous year’s garden. On our homestead, it’s also a time to eat up what’s still on the shelves to make room and empty some jars for the upcoming canning season. The easiest way that we have found to keep track of what we have on hand for canned goods, is to have a dry erase board hanging close by. Every time a jar of green beans, crushed tomatoes, pickles, or any other canned goods are taken off the shelves, we subtract it from the running total on the dry erase board. If I’m being completely honest, there are several times throughout the year when I have to go down and do an inventory because there are a few people (I won’t call anyone out by name) that “forgets” to update the dry erase board.
Growing any amount of fresh produce for your family is already a step in the right direction, but if you are looking to grow enough to sustain your family for the year, a little more research is needed. The most obvious place to start is the size of your family and the ages. When you’re planning how much you are going to grow, keep in mind that a toddler does not eat as much as a teenager, so the number of plants per person may vary slightly.
The chart below shows some of the vegetables that we grow here on the homestead, and an estimate of how much is needed to sustain a person through the year.
| Green Beans | 12-15 Plants per Person |
| Cucumbers | 4-5 Plants per Person |
| Carrots | 25-35 Plants per Person |
| Corn | 10-15 Plants per Person |
| Lettuce | 4-6 Plants per Person |
| Melons | 1-2 Plants per Person |
| Onions | 12-20 Sets per Person |
| Peas | 15-20 Plants per Person |
| Potatoes | 10-15 Plants per Person |
| Spinach | 5-6 Plants per Person |
| Squash | 1-2 Plants per Person |
| Tomatoes | 2-4 Plants per Person |
Our homestead doesn’t quite follow this chart, as we grow enough not only for our family, but also for farmer’s markets/produce stand.
Lastly, for today, I wanted to share some garden planning ideas. If you don’t have a garden and are looking to start growing some produce, or you have a garden but ran out of ground space and aren’t able to expand, it’s time to get creative! There’s no right or wrong way to have a garden. It doesn’t have to be big enough to be tilled with a tractor, or fenced in, or even in the ground. One option that I have seen people with very small do is planting vegetables in their flower beds. Maybe you have health issues and getting up and down isn’t possible for you, so you could have a raised bed garden, where your plants are in boxes above the ground. Or maybe container gardening is a more realistic option for your living situation. This is where you can be creative. You can plant in anything, from a wooden box, a bucket, an old bathtub, or even an old boot! The possibilities are endless, and this allows you to make your garden special and unique. Have FUN with your garden!! If you enjoy your garden and have fun with it, it is less of a chore to have to take care of.
I hope this post got your creative ideas going, from canning storage, keeping track of what you have on hand, how much to grow to sustain a person for a year, to some creative gardening ideas. I would love to see other people’s gardens and some of the fun things people use as planters!!! Send me some pics!!!
Have a great week!!!