What size should my first garden be?
May 25, 2010 by
Filed under growing scallions
I plan to grow three types of tomatoes, three types of hot peppers, corn, squash, peas, corn salad, carrots, pak choy, scallions and two types of radish. I’m doing this in a community garden. My plot size choices are 20 X 40 ft. or 20 X 20 ft. What’s my best choice?
2 acres
For how many people? And how much of these vegetables do you want to produce?
Without the corn and for 2 people the 20×20 would be big enough and then some.
If you really have your heart set on corn get the 20×40 plot as it takes a lot of space to grow a substantial amount of corn.
Always go with the biggest plot available. My parents have gone bigger every year. Their garden is 70 x 30 and they love it. Next year they are gonna make it even bigger. Last year they had 20 tomato plants, 10 types of lettuce, 3 watermelons vines, 3 cantelope vines, 5 zuchinni plants, 10 green peppers plants, 10 jalepeno plants, 25 herb plants, 10 roma tomato plants, 5 yellow squash, well you get the idea. Might be a little extra work but it will be well worth it. Have fun and I hope all goes well. BTW Try using grass clippings as mulch.
20′ x 40′ is a huge space to care for. Corn can use much of it and you could easily grow scads of the rest of your choices. If you are prepared to work very hard, go for the 20 x 40′ space.
I would use option number 1 – 20 x 40 feet. You will need to squeeze plants together to get this much planted in your space.
any size
My advice. Go for the smaller size to start. As a beginner, if you plant more than you can properly care for you can end up with less produce than from a smaller, well tended garden. And failure can lead to discouragement. As you become more familiar and proficient you can move up to the double sized plot.