Interactive lesson

Garden plan, step by step

Interactive lesson: how many vegetables your family needs, how many m² that is, where the garden goes, how to make beds and divide them for rotation.

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The whole lesson as text

1. Family first, then the garden

A plan doesn't start with choosing seed — it starts with counting the people at the table.

Count the people at the table — Adults and children from 15 count as 1.0, children 7–14 as 0.7 and children up to 6 as 0.4. Add them up and you have the family's equivalent.
How much from your own ground — In the first year 30–50 % of your vegetables from your own ground is realistic; after three or four seasons, 80–100 %. For half, multiply the equivalent by 0.5.
120 kg of vegetables — An adult eats roughly 120 kg (about 265 lb) of vegetables a year. About half fresh from June to October, the other half preserved.
80 kg of potatoes — On top of that comes roughly 80 kg (about 175 lb) of potatoes per person. Carrots, beetroot, onions and cabbage wait for winter in store.

Why: If you don't know how much of each crop you need, you grow either too little or so much that it all disappears under weeds. Children eat less than adults, so you turn the family into adult equivalents (AE). A good garden starts on paper, in January.

Example: 2 adults, a 10-year-old and a 4-year-old = 2.0 + 0.7 + 0.4 = 3.1 adult equivalents.
If you don't preserve or store, the target is nearer 60–70 kg of vegetables per person.

2. How many m² for which vegetable

The area is simple to work out: the kilograms you need divided by the yield per square metre.

Kilograms through yield — Tomatoes: 19 kg per person at 4 kg/m² is 4.8 m². Peppers need 4.3 m², and French beans as much as 6 m², because they give only 1.2 kg/m².
About 45 m² of beds — All the vegetables together come to about 45 m² of beds per AE, without potatoes and paths. Potatoes need about another 32 m² and usually go in a field or a separate patch.
Add the paths — Multiply the net beds by 1.4 for paths and edges. For a family of 3.1 AE that's roughly 195 m² (about 2,100 sq ft) for vegetables.
Beginners count more — For the first two years add 30 %, which makes about 85 m² of garden per AE. Once your soil improves and you gain experience, you move down to 56 m².

Why: The figures are approximate, for an outdoor garden in a temperate climate and a diet that includes preserved food. The yields are deliberately cautious: an experienced grower gets more, a beginner on soil that is still improving gets less.

A polytunnel changes the sums: under cover tomatoes give roughly 10 kg/m², cucumbers 10 kg/m² and peppers 6 kg/m².
If nobody eats aubergines, give their 2 m² to tomatoes or peppers.