Feed Your Family In 64 Square Feet Of Garden Space

Tiny Gardens – Plant Across the Width to Maximize Choice & Yield

Many people have only a small space in which to grow, such as a porch, patio, or driveway, and want to plant so as to get the greatest possible yield in the least space. Here’s an idea on how to do that.

You can plant across the width of a box or soil-bed, rather than the traditional lengthwise, if you’re willing to do the extra work of feeding, watering, weeding, and pruning that it requires. Remember the first law of plant growth – direct sunlight all day long – and that applies to all of your plants, for optimum harvest.  Therefore, planting close together as I’ll suggest here requires that you prune your plants so that they do NOT shade or overlap each other.

You’ll also need to water by hand, to assure even coverage to all plants.  And if you’re in the soil, weeding will not be as easy because of the close proximity of plants to each other. The two-way hoe is still the best tool for the job.

And remember to quit feeding the single-crop varieties three weeks before they reach maturity, and ever-bearing crops 8 weeks before hard frost, so as not to waste fertilizers. Multiple crops are certainly an option for several of these, especially carrots, kale, lettuce, and green onions.

Here’s what you could grow in a 2” X 8” box 4’ wide by 16’ long

Rows are from North to South OR East to West (Yields are in parentheses):

ROW    LOC   CROP – (No. Plants & Yield)

1 – – – –   0’ 1” – Tomatoes (2 = 30#), Cucumber (2 = 40#) and Vining Squash (1 = 10#)

 2 – – –    2’ 6” – Zucchini (3 = 45#)

 3 – – –    5’ 0” – Peppers (5 = 15#)

 4 – – –    7’ 0” – Broccoli (5 = 5# + 10# from leaves)

5 –  – –    9’ 0” – Cauliflower (5 = 10# + 10# from leaves)

6 – – –   10’ 6” – Kale (9 = 30# Note: keep leaves picked and harvest can be 9 months!)

7 – – –   11’ 0” – Carrots (45 = 15# + 5# from leaves – YES they’re edible and tasty!)

8 – – –   12’ 6” – Red leaf lettuce (9 = 18# – keep outer leaves picked and yield increases result)

9 – – –   13’ 0” – Romaine lettuce (9 = 18# – same as above)

10 – – – 14’ 6” – Green onions (48 = 5# + 8# from 12 bulbs)

11 – – – 15’ 0” – Italian parsley (16 = 10# – again, harvest can be season-long)

12 – – – 16’ 0” – Sweet potatoes (5 = 25# + 10# from leaves) at opposite end of box

TOTAL YIELD – Plants = 164 – – – – Production = 314#

Tomatoes, cucumber, squash, and zucchini all must be grown on 2” X 2” stakes and pruned to one stem – tomatoes right at the crotch, cucumber and squash cut sucker stems after first female blossom. Zucchini – older leaves pruned as they touch the ground or interfere with adjacent plants

Broccoli and cauliflower leaves should be pruned to keep them off the ground and away from adjacent plants (eat them, they’re edible!).

Sweet potatoes will only work in the space describes above if you can let them run outside the box. You’ll need to prune and train them so they don’t cover your onions and lettuce.   These leaves are also edible – use them.

For more information visit www.growfood.com

Jim Kennard.                  

Feed Your Family On 1/50th of an Acre

Instructions for Growing The Sustainable Family Garden Heirloom Bugout Seed Bag

 By Following The Recipe Below, You’ll Eat Healthier, Save Money, And Maybe Even Save Your Life!

 

Our bodies were designed to be herbivores, and as you eat primarily a whole food, plant-based diet you will be healthier, need less volume of food, avoid many chronic health problems, and live a longer, happier life!

Follow the Sample Garden Plan included at the link at the end of this article and you can eat fresh, healthy and tasty vegetables from your own garden – even one as small as 1/50th of an acre.

By planting a spring garden, a summer garden, and a fall garden (using the same beds over again) you can harvest as much as 1,600# of 24 different vegetables. That’s 4 1/3# per day of fresh home-grown food!!

You will make a very wise choice by starting with fresh seeds with a high germination rate. Good seeds are very inexpensive but SO important! We suggest you consider a multi-year storage pouch containing over 22,000 of the best Heirloom Seeds you can buy. True Leaf Market calls it the Emergency Heirloom Bugout Seed Bag, and you can get it here:

https://www.trueleafmarket.com/products/bug-out-seed-bag

The Sample Garden Plan shows that your spring garden has only 7 plant varieties, with only 101 seeds that need to be grown beforehand and transplanted into the garden. Of the 1,104 seeds to plant 1,003 can be planted directly into the garden!  Follow the Garden Planting Details Schedule at the link below for pretty much everything you need to know about when, where, and how to plant everything in your garden.

Growing your own seedlings is simple and straight forward. If you don’t know how to do this, consider getting the complete Mittleider Gardening Course book (www.growfood.com/shop), and just follow the instructions in Lesson 22. We’re only talking about 7 plant varieties, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, kale, and the two lettuce, and most of them grow at about the same rate, so they can all be grown in a single 10″ X 20″ or 18″ X 18″ seedling flat, Place the celery on an outside row, as it is slower growing.

And for the plants you’ll put directly into the garden maximize yield and minimize thinning by mixing 1 part seeds with 100 parts sand, and distribute that mixture to give  seeds the separation desired. Then give your plants protection in cold weather with PVC “mini a-frames” covered with 6 mil plastic, and a little heat on cold nights.  Lesson 23 of the Mittleider gardening course book includes detailed instructions for this as well.  

For your summer garden 151 seeds go directly into the garden, and only 52 seeds, including broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes are best transplanted as seedlings into the garden.

Again, one seedling flat is ample. Just start your tomatoes and peppers about 8 weeks before you expect to put them in the garden, and the others – broccoli, cabbage and cucumbers – start 3-4 weeks before they go into the garden.

For the fall garden carrots and potatoes are planted directly in the garden. That’s 368 seeds, and 168 seeds of 5 others we recommend transplanting.  Broccoli, cabbage and lettuce are best transplanted, and onions and turnips benefit from an early start in the seedling flat to allow them time to mature in the garden

Prune your plant leaves at least weekly, and EAT the edible leaves daily (listed as R/T)!  Eating the outer leaves and celery stalks regularly keeps your plants producing for MANY MONTHS, increases your harvest substantially, and keeps them from going to seed.  Notice that Kale, chard, and celery only need one planting for the entire growing season!

You are now on your way to getting more than 3/4 of a TON of vegetables, pretty much every variety you need and want, in order  to sustain a healthy eating lifestyle.

https://growfood.com/SampleGardenPlan-50th-Acre

https://growfood.com/GardenPlantingDetails

 www.growfood.com

Plant Spacing, etc – Mittleider Method vs Square Foot Gardening

Square Foot Gardening – Planting Instructions:
“Vegetables will be planted in each block according to their size at maturity.
Artichokes, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower get one block each (1/sq ft).
Corn, cilantro or leaf lettuce 4 to a block (4/sq ft).
Beans Leeks, bulb onions, 9 to a block (9/sq ft).
Carrots, green onions, or radishes, 16 to a block (16/sq ft).
Exact seed count
• Plant two seeds per hole in case one fails to sprout.
• If both seeds sprout, snip out one with scissors.
• If neither seed sprouts within two weeks – replant.
• For small seeds, radishes and carrots just a pinch of seed in each hole. After a few weeks if several seeds sprout chose the strongest one and snip out the others. Don’t pull or you will disturb the roots of the survivor”.

Mittleider Method Plant Spacing Instructions, etc.

Plants require ample space for light and air, and must not crowd adjacent plants, or all will suffer and none will produce properly. The Mittleider Method recommends much more space for most plants than does SFG, with a planting area of 18” separated by 3 ½’-wide aisles, and mandates that taller plants be planted North or East of shorter plants, so as not to shade them.

Artichokes require at least 6 square feet of space, and they require 150-180 days to mature a crop.
Broccoli and cauliflower need 14” spacing with 2 rows in 5’ width. (2 ½ sq ft ea) – 85 days.
Cabbage – depending on variety – needs from 1 ½ to 3 square feet each – 65-85 days.
Corn – again depending on variety – can be planted 8” apart in 2 rows 12” apart, but must have 3 ½’ aisles between each two rows – 65-85 days. (1/2 sq ft ea)
Leaf lettuce can do with 6” spacing – if they are pruned regularly to keep them small – 30-6 days.

Planting multiple seeds in the same space is wasteful of seeds and disruptive to the plants’ growth. Both compete for the same water, food, space, and light and all plants suffer, stretching for light and producing leggy and weak stems.

Waiting for “a few weeks” is far too long, plants become “leggy” and weak from sharing limited light, water, and nutrients, and rarely recover fully.

Planting a 4 X 4 box with many different varieties is problematic, as growth rates and hence requirements for light, space, fertilizer, and water are very different, as described above. Also, maturity dates differ greatly, and spaces would need to be re-planted, but adjacent plants, being taller, would shade new plants and deny them essential light.

The Mittleider Method is designed for high production in limited space. All seeds are planted in shallow furrows and covered with sand, to facilitate easy germination and seedling emergence. Small seeds are planted by mixing 1 part seed with 100 parts clean sand, then sprinkling evenly throughout the length of the furrow and covering with sand. All seeds are covered 2 ½ times the thickness of the seed.