Table Preferences : How much do I plant?

How much do I plant?

This section is intended as a guide as our food needs are so varied, depending on how many there are in your family, how many meals you eat at home, how much you like to eat, how many visitors you get.

Then there’s your families personal taste preferences to consider. There’s not much point in growing 10 eggplant vines if only one person likes it. But if you like to make your own batch of tomato sauce to see you throughout the year, you’ll want to grow extra tomatoes, onions and garlic to provide your own delicious, organic ingredients.

The following plant numbers are roughly based on the needs of a family of two adults and two children (assuming your children eat vegetables!), so add or take to suit your own requirements.

Some seasons you’ll end up with an excess of some things. I’ve never found it to be a problem when there are so many great recipes for pickles, preserves or sauces – not to mention my friends and family who are thrilled when I turn up a box of goodies for them!

Of course you will also need to consider how much available space you have. If space is limited grow the things you like most – or vegetables that cost the most if you had to pay for them – or hard to get vegetables, that perhaps won’t be particularly fresh by the time they get to your table.

Beans	We usually grow several types – climbing and bush varieties. A seed packet in spring, then another in summer when the last lot is flowering. Grow more if you want to dry some for winter.
Beetroot	12 – 20 plants early spring, the same late spring, and again mid-summer
Broad Beans	Plant blocks of about 2 square meters late autumn / early winter. Grow more if you want to dry some
Broccoli	Twenty or so plants in mid-late summer
Brussels Sprouts	Twelve plants mid-late summer
Cabbage	12 cabbages and red cabbage in spring, plus 20 – 30 small cabbages late summer
Capsicum (peppers)	One dozen plants in spring
Carrots	Plant about a square meter per month, during spring
Cauliflower	20 – 30 plants in late summer
Celery	Around 15 plants, 30 plants if you want a lot for salads
Chilli	2 or 3 plants every other year
Corn	30 – 50 plants (in blocks) in spring, then more throughout summer
Cucumbers	6 plants in spring, then another 6 plants mid-summer
Eggplant	2 – 6 bushes
Leeks	50 – 100 plants, depending on what you use them for
Lettuce	If you eat a lot of salad 6 plants every week most of the year, except mid-winter. Plant extra late in summer for winter lettuces or grow cut & come again lettuce
Melons	6 plants or more! You can grow them among your flowers
Onions	About 400 seedlings + spring onions + chives + garlic
Parsley	A dozen flat leaf & a dozen curly leaf plants – feed well
Parsnips	Parsnip seed only germinates if it is really fresh, so you may have to sow a lot of seed your first time. But then if you let one go to seed and self-sow you’ll always have enough
Peas	At least 3 packets in autumn and 3 in spring – more if you want to freeze some
Potatoes	You’ll need about 200 kg a year. Plant a large sack of seed potatoes. You’ll find you miss gathering some and they will produce some of your next years crop
Pumpkins	10 or 12 vines, include several bush varieties
Radish	Sow a packet of seeds every other month throughout the year
Silverbeet/Spinach	10 – 20 plants, a combination of Silverbeet, spinach & chard
Tomatoes	12 plants (double if you make sauce), 2 grafted plants, a cherry tomato, an egg tomato & a climbing yellow or heirloom variety
Zucchini	2 - 4 plants in spring, 2 mid-summer