One of the hardest parts of gardening food is how much do you plant?

I get asked that a lot, and it plays into another aspect: How much growing space do you need? If you know how much to plant, and expected crops to harvest, you can then determine if you need to put more growing space in this winter. For us, I do much of our hard labor in late Fall and Winter, because…it’s cool outside. I can work all day, where as in late Spring and Summer it’s just too bright and hot midday to work long enough.

This is a list of how many plants/hills/feet of planted space you need for each person you are growing food for. Then, after that how much goes into a 100 foot row (be it seed or plants). This can be easily broken down into smaller beds. If a 100 foot bed can hold 50 Asparagus beds, then a 25 foot bed holds 50 plants. If you are planting in raised beds, for example, that are 8 feet long and 4 feet wide, you can often fit 2 to 3 rows in the bed (depending on the type of produce) so it can be worked out easy.

Having said that, this list is aimed at those with land to use, homesteaders with space. But, you can use the per person as a guide if you only have a small garden. Ignore the 100 foot row parts. If you have small garden space, then realize you may not be able to fit in 10 artichoke plants as they are perennials and take up a lot of space. Your best use of space will be compact crops, that you can grow multiple times in a growing season (bush beans, bush peas, carrots, beets, and so on).

When you sit down to figure out your needs, after counting in your household, include animals. Do you have chickens? Ducks? Goats? Pigs? I grow Swiss Chard, Bok Choy and Lettuce for our birds, and I include a share for them as well. That means for Lettuce, I add in a 10 to 20 foot section for them. It gives them variety, and I buy a lot less feed. Better eggs as well.

Add in how many times you will plant a succession crop. If you grow Spinach in Spring, will you plant it again in late Summer?

And if you preserve food for Winter, plan this in. 5 plants per person may well not be enough if you wish to eat fresh Tomatoes all Summer, then also can them. You will want to double to quadruple the plants you are hoping to preserve.

Plan in that certain plants, such as Artichokes, Asparagus, and Rhubarb will take a couple years to produce. Because they are perennials, they will eat up a lot of garden space doing nothing for a couple of years. Consider your space needs before you commit.

Plants: 

• Artichokes: 2 plants. 17 to 18 plants per 100 foot row.
• Arugula: 5 plants. 1 packet of seed will be enough for most families.
• Asparagus: 10 plants. 50 plants per 100 ft row.
• Beans, bush (snap green, yellow, purple): 15 to 20 feet. ½ pound seed per 100 foot row.
• Beans, pole (snap or beans to dry): 5 to 6 feet. ½ pound seed per 100 foot row.
• Beets: 5 to 10 feet. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
• Bok Choy: 3 plants.
• Broccoli: 3 to 5 plants. 50 plants per 100 foot row.
• Brussels Sprouts: 2 to 5 plants. 50 plants per 100 foot row.
• Cabbage: 5 to 10 feet. 75 to 100 plants per 100 foot row.
• Carrots: 5 to 10 feet. ¼ ounce seed per 100 foot row.
• Cauliflower: 3 to 5 plants. 50 to 75 plants per 100 foot row.
• Celeriac: 5 feet. 200 plants per 100 foot row.
• Celery: 10 plants. 150 to 200 plants per 100 foot row.
• Chard, Swiss: 5 plants. 2 ounces of seed per 100 foot row.
• Chinese Cabbage: 3 to 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
• Collards: 5 to 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
• Corn, Sweet: 10 to 15 feet. 4 ounces of seed per 100 foot row.
• Cucumbers, eating: 1-2 hills. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
• Cucumbers, Pickling: 2 hills. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
• Eggplant: 2-3 plants. 50 to 75 plants per 100 foot row.
• Kale: 5 to 10 feet. ½ ounce seed per 100 foot row.
• Kohlrabi: 3 to 5 feet. ¼ ounce seeds per 100 foot row.
• Leeks: 10 plants.
• Lettuce: 10 feet. ¼ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
• Mustard: 5 to 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
• Okara: 4 to 6 feet. 2 ounces seed per 100 foot row.
• Onions (plants, in spring): 3 to 5 feet. 300 to 400 plants per 100 foot row.
• Onions (sets, in fall): 3 to 5 feet. 3 to 5 pounds baby onions.
• Onions (seeds, in late winter): 3 to 5 feet. ¼ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
• Parsnips: 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
• Peas (bush or pole): 15 to 20 feet. 1 pound seed per 100 foot row.
• Peppers (both sweet and hot): 3 to 5 plants. 50 to 75 plants per 100 foot row.
• Potatoes: 50 to 100 feet. 10 pounds seed potatoes per 100 foot row.
• Potatoes, Sweet: 5 to 10 plants. 75 to 100 plants per 100 foot row.
• Pumpkins, eating: 1 to 2 hills. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
• Radishes: 3 to 5 feet. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
• Rhubarb: 3 to 5 plants. 25 to 30 plants per 100 foot row.
• Spinach: 5 to 10 feet. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.
• Squash, Summer: 2-3 hills. 1 ounce seeds per 100 foot row.
• Squash, Winter: 1 to 3 hills. 1 ounce per 100 foot row.
• Tomatillo: 1 to 2 plants.
• Tomatoes: 3 to 5 plants. 50 staked, 30 in large cages, per 100 foot row.
• Turnips: 5 to 10 feet. ½ ounce of seed per 100 foot row.
• Watermelons: 2 to 4 hills. 1 ounce seed per 100 foot row.

~Sarah

With Fall upon us it’s time to consider planting onion sets in your garden(s) in growing zone 8b in the Pacific Northwest. Onion sets go quickly, so grab as soon as they show up. I buy mine online from a trusted source, Irish Eyes, who grows in Eastern Washington. I prefer to not buy onion sets in person unless you know they just came in. Otherwise, if left inside in a warm store they can go soft quickly. (Or worse, the farm store hid them in the back, leftover from Spring. Make sure the onions feel firm and are not sprouting.)

Planting onions in early Fall can lead to larger onions at harvest time, and that they are ready weeks before Spring planted ones are. Typically I start my onions from seed, in late February into the end of March, depending on the variety. A Walla Walla onion can take 120 days to harvest, so you have to plan it out. Seeding is tricky as well, balancing light and warmth to germinate and be ready to plant in the garden by end of April. Add in the planting of tiny seedlings is a pain in the rear I do every year (and of course, I’ll do it again every year to have my beloved Walla Walla onions). (And yes, you should learn to grow onions from seeds, it’s a skill to have. But there is no issue with making it easier on yourself and having less to do in late Winter.)

(Tiny, tiny seedlings in mid April)

But with Fall planting of onion sets, you can walk away and just forget about it, as one does with garlic. And the planting of onion sets is exactly the same as garlic. They are nearly the same size as well. An onion set is just a cocktail sized onion, ready to grow. You can also sometimes find onion starts, in soil cups, as well this time of year. Just plant like you would a seedling in Spring. Often these will be Walla Walla or similar sweet onions that grow big. If you buy these, plant and carefully place straw around them. They will sleep through the Winter as well.

Determine which onions you want to grow: In our grow zone, we use long-day onions, so be sure to remember that, in the Pacific Northwest we have long hours of sunlight in summer (for our homestead we top out at 16½ hours in summer). The onions start forming bulbs as we cross 14 hours daylight in late Spring.

Think how many onions you want to harvest. You will be harvesting over time, picking young ones for dinner, then finally pulling and curing the remaining ones. Always grow more than you think you will use. See below for spacing.

Figure where you want to plant your onions: If your ground water level is high, deep raised boxes can be your friend. Since your onions will be over wintering, you don’t want it sitting in water and potentially rotting. Think about if rain water sits in the area, or does it sink in quickly. Raised rows also work well. Make sure your onions will receive as much sun as possible in summer.

Once situated: Weed the bed well, turning it over gently. Add soil or compost as needed on top.

Spacing and planting: I do rows 1 foot apart and as our beds are 30″ wide, I can fit 5 onions across. Our rows are a shy 100 ft long each. You want at least 6″ apart per onion, for ample growth. As you can see, we grow quite a few!

(That is my antique dibble)

Using a dibble or a broomstick: Poke the holes into the soil. Drop a single onion in, bottom down, and cover with dirt, gently tamping down the soil. It doesn’t need to be a deep hole, just enough that the onion is covered.

Cover your onions with straw deeply. Water the straw to hold it down, then walk away for the fall and winter. Unless your fall is hot, don’t worry about watering.

In late winter to early spring the onions will come alive once again, and push up through the straw, green stalks rising up. As the weather heats up, you will want to keep it well watered so it grows large.

(No straw in summer, and boy the weeds were fun….)

You will know when to harvest when the tops start turning tawny in color and the onion is looking good sized about the dirt. To harvest, pull gently up to pop out. If the top breaks (and it does a few times at least) gently use a small hand shovel to loosen under the roots, being careful to not gouge the onion.

To cure: Shake dirt off of the onion, especially on the roots (which I trim) and gather all the onions. Trim the stalks back, leaving 12 or so inches. Place it in an airy spot, out of the sun for a couple of weeks. We place a wood pallet over a garden cart in our shop, and walk away. The pallet ensures air flow, and the dirt drops down as the onions dry. Once cured, we trim the stalk back even more.

To store for use: We keep ours on the pallet. We have a cellar that is 55* year round and use this to store it in, or use our shop. The key is keep it cool, in the dark, and no moisture. Always look through your stored onions when grabbing one to cook. Check quickly for any spoiling, and toss those in the compost pile. We use our sweet varieties first, then get into the white and yellow ones that are standard onions. And keep onions separate from your other stored vegetables, particularly potatoes.

~Sarah