Suburban Homesteading – Frugal Living

The effort to reclaim my little homestead is coming along, albeit slowly, which is fine by me.

And, although we are in full planting swing, weather wise, I am happy for a slower less rushed pace to get seeds in the ground.

It’s amazing what a year of inactivity can do to a vegetable patch.  But, the respite has given me the chance to rethink my gardening efforts.  Now that Brianne is out of school and on her own I am cooking for one, rather than two.  You’d think that cooking for one person isn’t that different than cooking for two, but amazingly enough…it is!  More times than not I’m happy to come home and throw together a big salad with tons of chopped veggies and a bit of meat and cheese.  This would have NEVER flown with Brianne in the house.  She was, and still is, a carnivore.

The weather over the past few weeks has been bouncing around like a kite in the wind…hot, cold, rain, wind, take your pick, we’ve had it all.  Although the weather has kept me indoors I haven’t been unproductive.  I’ve used the cold and rainy days as an opportunity to layout my new vegetable garden, sometimes wondering, “what the heck will it be”?

I have to admit, it has been a bit of a struggle deciding how much of each vegetable to plant for a one person household.  In years past I planted with abandon, ending up with mounds of something that looked really tantalizing in the seed catalog, but wasn’t enjoyed or eaten all that much in real life.

I also had to take into consideration how much preserving I would be doing, whether canning or freezing because that would also dictate how much of each seed I planted.

But, I think I have a plan!

Famous last words, right?

So—on a rainy Sunday afternoon I set out to create my new vegetable garden design.  There are no great plans to reconfigure the already installed raised beds.  I’ll just work with what I already have.  First things first, though.  I had to decide “what” to plant.

I thought about my daily meals and what I really like to eat, making a list of all my favorite vegetables and how often I use them.  Onions and carrots, for example, are the basis of many of the dishes I prepare, so they should be planted in greater quantities.  Zucchini, however, I like, but only eat occasionally.  And then there were the decorative pumpkins and winter squash, that can be stored.  This process helped guide my planting decisions.  It was also the beginnings of laying out my beds.

Keep in mind that location will also dictate the planting schedule.  Here in So Cal, where we can garden almost 365-days-a-year, we don’t have to worry about growing enough at one time to last an entire year.  We can plant many veggies, successively, throughout the year.

I decided to incorporate a modified “square-foot” plan where I could plant different seeds in each square rather than a single variety.  So, one square may contain beets, carrots and onions, or lettuce, spinach, and kale.  And, since my beds are 4-feet by 8-feet it will be easy to mark off the 1-foot squares.  It will also make succession planting super easy because I will have two rows of squares to work with—one planted and one waiting to be planted.

I also had to take into consideration the growing habits of some vegetables.  Squash, pumpkins and melons all have a rambling growing habit and can literally take over the garden.  Runner beans, on the other hand, need vertical space and support to handle their meandering ways, so these veggies will be planted outside of my raised beds.

One year our runner beans outgrew their supports and attached themselves to the branches of a neighboring tree.  We had vines more than 15 feet into the tree, making picking a challenge.

Inside my raised beds I will plant root crops, lettuces, spinach, onions, carrots, beets, peppers, bush beans and a variety of other more contained veggies, while the more uncontrollable pumpkins and squash will be planted in the old sheep corral.

But—I still had the uncertainty of how much to plant.  The “square-foot” plots would dictate part of this, but think about how many different varieties of lettuces there are.  As much as I love salads, and eat them often during hot summer months, do I really need multiple squares of lettuce.  I had to really fine tune my garden plan, which I did.

The One Person Garden Plan

(This plan is for MY one person household, based on my personal preferences, but can be increased to accommodate a larger family, or food preservation plans.)

Beans (bush): 4-6 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals)

Beans (pole):  3-6 plants (for each of my 3 arbors)

Beets: 30-50 plants (successively planted throughout the season)

Broccoli: 6-12 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals)

Brussel Sprouts: 3-6 plants (successively planted throughout the season)

Cabbage (Asian): 4-6 plants (successively planted at 3-week intervals)

Cabbage (Green): 4-6 plants (successively planted at 3-week intervals)

Carrots: 30-50 plants (successively planted throughout the season)

Cauliflower: 3-6 plants (successively planted throughout the season)

Cucumbers (Slicing): 3-6 plants (successively planted at 3-week intervals)

Cucumbers (Specialty): 3-6 plants (successively planted at 3-week intervals)

Garlic: 15-20 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals)

Kale: 2-4 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals)

Lettuce & Musclun: 2-4 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals)

Melons: 2-4 plants (planted at the same time)

Onions: 20-40 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals)

Parsnips: 10-12 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals, late summer to early fall)

Peas: 10-12 plants (successively planted at 1-week intervals, early spring to winter)

Potatoes (Bakers, Mashers & Fingerlings): 15-20 plants (planted at the same time)

Potatoes (Sweet & Yams): 10-15 plants (planted at the same time)

Pumpkins: 3-6 plants (planted at the same time)

Radishes: 20-30 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals)

Shallots: 20-40 plants (successively planted at 2-week intervals)

Spinach: 30-50 plants (successively planted at 3-week intervals)

Squash (Summer): 1-2 plants (successively planted at 3-week intervals)

Squash (Winter): 2-3 plants (successively planted at 3-week intervals)

Sweet Peppers: 2-4 plants (planted at the same time)

Tomatoes: 3-5 plants (planted at the same time)

With my new garden layout and a more realistic planting schedule, I should have fresh, homegrown produce all year long!