How big is your vegetable garden?As we all compare notes on seed purchases, tomato varieties, and radish choices, I wonder what size gardens others are planting.
My own vegetable garden is set up as raised beds. There are…
Eight 4’ x 8’ beds, which gives me 256 sq. ft. of planting area, plus…
Three 4’ x 4’ beds, which gives me another 48 sq. ft., plus…
Three 2’ x 8’ beds, which provides another 48 sq. ft., plus…
Two 2’ x 4’ beds, which adds another 16 sq. ft. plus
One 4’ x 6’ bed, which provides another 24 sq. ft.
This gives me a total of 492 sq. ft. of raised bed gardens to plant in.
I should memorize that number because I’m often asked “how big is your garden”.
It actually takes up well over 492 sq. ft. of my yard because there are generously wide paths between the beds, wide enough to move around with a wheelbarrow. There is also an area where there are three side by side compost bins, which are about 9’ across all together, and a couple of other open areas, one of which is behind a large shrub, making it the perfect spot for hiding the compost tumbler from general viewing from the rest of the yard. Oh, and there’s a giant rock that I had to work around.
Once I set up the raised beds, year to year maintenance has been minimal. I usually bring in a few cubic yards of mulch for the paths and make sure the raised bed frames are more or less level and squared up at the beginning of the gardening season.
Last year, I skipped mulching the paths… must have gone to Texas that weekend or something, and soon found out that skipping that mulching was a big mistake. There were weeds coming up all over the place. Yes, I did line the paths with some landscape fabric when I first mulched them, but the mulch has slowly decomposed over the years and now it appears to be an excellent growing medium for weeds.
I’ll fix that this year with… more mulch.
I also need to replace a few of the raised bed frames. I used 1 x 6 cedar boards, but even those don’t last forever. I’ve looked into replacing them with manufactured boards, which should theoretically last forever, but after figuring out how many feet of board I would need and pricing that out, I decided not to do that for now. I’m hoping to get one more year out of what I have, and then look into replacing some of the boards next year.
The big decision to be made in the next few weeks is which bed to plant the early spring crops in, because you know that around here, we like to plant those peas around St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, and that’s just TWO WEEKS from now!
How big is your vegetable garden?
Comments
will try to expand it :)
greetings,
e
Two 4 foot by 8 foot raised beds= 64 sq. feet
One 8 by 10 foot bed (with very narrow paths)=80 sq. feet
One 10 by 3 foot bed = 30 square feet
The new bed, which is 12 feet by 20 feet (it will include narrow paths once I figure out how I want to lay the bed out) =240 sq. feet
Two 6 by 4 foot raised beds = 48 square feet
Total bed space is 462 square feet (minus a bit for paths I still need to add). So, pretty close to the size of your garden. I had half the space last year, so I'm looking forward to having more room this year.
I also have a 4x40 section that is slowly getting filled with berry bushes.
Then there is the 10x50 section that is waiting to get planted with fruit trees (someday).
I'm also hoping that our ginormous hill (30x15?) will get terraced this year so I can plant that with perennial veg....
Our front yard is just flowers right now but I'm planning on mixing in some peppers and squash and adding a herb bed.
Basically I want to turn all of my 66x140 property into food/flowers.
Lol it might take me awhile.
I have:
two 8 by 8 beds...that's 128 sq ft.
one 8 by 16 bed...that's 128 sq ft.
one 8 by 24 bed...that's 192 sq ft.
Total: 448 sq ft.
I'm planting flowers in some beds and vegetables in others. Plus a bed for hostas, cannas and ferns around a shady pecan tree that's back there. Plus pots.
I'm almost finished carting the dirt and just waiting til the last frost so I can start putting seedlings and seeds in the ground.
So from now on I will think: leek where the cooker is, salad crops around the sink...
Our fruit cage is about that size and I was thinking of replacing some of the weeds ( Campanula persicifoilia actually, so a very pretty weed) with some veggies in addition to the soft fruit.
I searched your blog for 'mulch' but can't find what you use. Just know that leafmold is always full of weed-seeds. I am now reluctant to use it for covering the beds, as it makes the problem worse rather than better.
Carol, I have an award for you over at my blog if you'd like to come pick it up. :)
Word verification: culturi
You have reminded me that I need to work on my raised beds.
Happy BLoom TUesday!
I Set out an area in the front garden for veggies, just need to ammend the soil. Pretty much our whole garden is gonna be edibles after I get done. It's just a long project!
The part we use as a vegetable garden is 10x20m², so when I have counted that correctly, that's around 2150 square feet.
(counting 1m² = 10.76 square feet)
It's crazy because there's only 2 of us now that the kids are grown and gone. We give a lot away to friends and neighbors.
Because the soil in my area of the country is generally pretty good, I haven't had to bring in topsoil. I just keep adding compost and whatever is left over from container plantings, and so far that's worked for me.
For the paths, I use a mulch that is designed for walking on called "Playsoft", at least that's what it's called where I buy mulch. I think it also used on a lot of playgrounds.
This year, however, several family members and I are going to put in a large canning garden at my parents' farm. It will be huge - no idea how to estimate it. I'll be over there tomorrow, maybe I'll have a chance to walk it off and see!
I liked your post about making the garden larger, also. Great tips!
I live in Pittsburgh and am going to be selling organically grown tomatoes directly from the garden...probably for only $.80/lb. I'll have about 100 plants. I'm also finally getting a few chickens and building a cob bread oven in a shady part of the yard.
Let's see. Last fall we put a 4x12 raised bed for fall veggies = 48 sqft (It's in the shade in the summer, though so I use it for seed starting then). I just put in a 3x5 raised bed for raspberries = 15 sqft. In the front yard I have another 3x3 raised bed = 9 sqft.
Subtotal raised beds: 72sqft.
Last fall I also made an herb circle...about 24 sq feet (or is that round feet?)
However, I also tuck vegetable plants in the garden anywhere I think there might be some sun. This year 6 tomatoes are in an old rose bed. Add another 24 sq feet.
Total: 120sqft.
Until we get some sunlight in this yard we aren't going to be self-sufficient anytime soon but I find grofys comment above to be very interesting and inspiring.
Gold is in Those Yard Clean-up Bags