How Much to Plant to Feed a Family

“How big a garden do I need?” is one of the first questions people ask when they start thinking about growing food. The honest answer depends on your soil, season and appetite, but there is a useful starting point: university extension services publish how many feet of row to plant per person.

Every figure in this post comes from University of Missouri Extension’s Vegetable Planting Calendar (G6201), which lists an “approximate amount to plant (feet of row per person).” Where Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s planning sheet gives the same crop, I note it for comparison. I have not tested these amounts in my own garden, and I have not estimated or adjusted any number.

Per person, from Missouri Extension

Missouri gives two columns: one for fresh use and one for processing (canning, freezing and other preserving). The table does not say whether the two columns add together, so I show them side by side as published.

Crop	Fresh use, per person	Processing, per person	Days to harvest
Potato	50 to 100 ft	not listed	100 to 120
Onion, dry	25 to 50 ft	not listed	100 to 120
Snap bean, bush	10 to 15 ft	20 to 30 ft	50 to 60
Pea	10 to 15 ft	25 to 30 ft	65 to 75
Carrot	5 to 10 ft	10 to 15 ft	70 to 85
Beet	5 to 10 ft	10 to 20 ft	55 to 65
Kale	5 to 10 ft	10 to 15 ft	50 to 65
Lettuce, leaf	5 to 10 ft	not listed	35 to 50
Cabbage	3 to 5 plants	3 to 5 plants	70 to 80
Tomato, staked	3 to 5 plants	5 to 10 plants	65 to 75
Squash, summer	2 to 3 hills	not listed	80 to 90
Squash, winter	3 to 5 hills	not listed	100

For metric, 10 feet is about 3 metres.

Scaled to a household of four

This is the same table multiplied by four, with no other changes.

Crop	Fresh use, 4 people	Processing, 4 people
Potato	200 to 400 ft (61 to 122 m)	not listed
Onion, dry	100 to 200 ft (30 to 61 m)	not listed
Snap bean, bush	40 to 60 ft (12 to 18 m)	80 to 120 ft (24 to 37 m)
Pea	40 to 60 ft (12 to 18 m)	100 to 120 ft (30 to 37 m)
Carrot	20 to 40 ft (6 to 12 m)	40 to 60 ft (12 to 18 m)
Beet	20 to 40 ft (6 to 12 m)	40 to 80 ft (12 to 24 m)
Kale	20 to 40 ft (6 to 12 m)	40 to 60 ft (12 to 18 m)
Lettuce, leaf	20 to 40 ft (6 to 12 m)	not listed
Cabbage	12 to 20 plants	12 to 20 plants
Tomato, staked	12 to 20 plants	20 to 40 plants
Squash, summer	8 to 12 hills	not listed
Squash, winter	12 to 20 hills	not listed

Potatoes and onions take far more row than anything else. That is worth knowing before you dig: if space is tight, you might buy those in bulk and give your beds to crops that are expensive or hard to find fresh in winter.

How Texas A&M compares

Texas A&M’s sheet E-289 lists an “amount to plant per person” too. Its figures for bush beans (15 ft fresh, 20 ft to preserve), beets (10 ft fresh, 20 ft to preserve), carrots (10 ft fresh, 15 ft to preserve), leaf lettuce (10 ft) and tomatoes (3 plants fresh, 5 to preserve) sit inside or close to Missouri’s ranges. Its onion figure is very different: 5 ft fresh and 30 ft to preserve, against Missouri’s 25 to 50 ft for dry onions. The two sheets may be counting onions differently, so I would not mix them for that crop.

What these numbers do not cover

• Calories. Most vegetables are low in calories. A garden of this size gives a household plenty of fresh vegetables, but staples like rice, beans, oats, flour and oil still come from the pantry. To see what a household needs in calories, use what to stock by calories or the plan builder.
• Your yields. Soil, weather, pests and experience all change how much a row produces. Treat the table as a first plan, then keep notes and adjust next year.
• Storage. Growing it is half the job. University of Minnesota Extension’s storage figures for these crops are in 10 easy vegetables that store well, and ways to keep them through winter are in root cellar and cold storage.
• Preserving. If you plan to can part of the harvest, only use tested recipes and processing times. My canning section covers that, and it is marked as under review until checked.

Time it to your frost dates

The days-to-harvest column only helps if you know your season. Look up your average last spring frost and first fall frost:

• United States: NOAA’s Climate.gov last spring freeze map shows the average date for nearby weather stations. NC State Extension explains that this kind of average is a 50% date, meaning frost after it still happens in about half of years, so for frost-tender crops a more cautious date is safer.
• Canada: Search Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Canadian Climate Normals for your nearest station.

Count the frost-free days between them. A crop with 100 to 120 days to harvest, like potatoes or dry onions, needs a season long enough to fit it, or a head start indoors where the seed packet allows.

A sensible first year

You do not need to plant the whole table at once. A practical start for a family is the fresh-use column for four or five crops you already eat every week, plus one storage crop such as potatoes or winter squash. Choose open-pollinated varieties if you want to save seed; seed saving for beginners explains why.

Keep the pantry as the backbone: the food section covers bulk staples, and the recipes show how to turn rice, beans and a few fresh vegetables into meals, like pantry chili.