Question: How many plants to feed a family?

grrmich

Nodwah, the broadbean falafel sounds good. Is the recipie in her edible garden book? If so I'll borrow it off my mate and have a look. If not, would you mind sharing it? Sounds good!

Rummer

I feel totally inadequate as we do not grow anywhere near that number!

Lotus-eater

Rummer wrote: »

I feel totally inadequate as we do not grow anywhere near that number!

It's no good growing too much for you to eat, that's a waste of space and nutrients.
You need to work out how much you need to grow for yourselves, seeing what other people grow can only be a guide.
We grow about 7 courgette plants and no parsley, but my friend grows 10 metres of parsley and 2 courgette plants, we both eat all of what we grow, but wouldn't eat what the other grows.

annie123

American chart for how much in feet to grow to feed a family:
http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetable1/a/How-Much-Plant_2.htm

The dig for victory book from the war years is great.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digging-Victory-Wartime-Gardening-Middleton/dp/1845133714/ref=pd_sim_b_1

It gives detailed planting on how many rows etc to feed a family, along with keeping chickens and rabbits for food:(

Unfortunately even if I used all of my 10' x 30' garden I still wouldn't have enough space to feed us, but I do like a challenge;)

Rummer

I have one of the wartime books "Make your garden feed you" and it is a really good guide. I guess I am choosing to grow less as I want to develop my garden in managable chunks so that I develop my skills and land slowly and carefully.

annie123

Rummer wrote: »

I guess I am choosing to grow less as I want to develop my garden in managable chunks so that I develop my skills and land slowly and carefully.

That is a good way to do it. In fact that's how we learn everything, bit by bit.
For some reason when it comes to gardening people often want a crash course and it doesn't work. Can't beet old fashioned trial and error for learning, as each garden is different.

angelavdavis

Love the carrot fun group. That's what I'm talking about - x-rated carrots

I did try the square foot gardening process which worked quite well in my garden (pre-allotment). I found it kept me on top of consecutive sowings which I can get a bit lax about. I probably produced more than ever that year although marking out the square foot planting was a faff and then my chickens trashed the layout in the end!

nodwah

grrmich wrote: »

Nodwah, the broadbean falafel sounds good. Is the recipie in her edible garden book? If so I'll borrow it off my mate and have a look. If not, would you mind sharing it? Sounds good!

I don't have it - I was hoping to find it on the internet when the time comes !