Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

In my last article , I discussed how to get started with your first vegetable garden and advised beginners to start small, a 6 x 6 plot being a good size to grow your own salad greens, pole beans, or potatoes.  When you’ve seen success with this size, you can graduate to a serious plot of about 450 square feet and start growing a substantial portion of your food.

Once you understand how the plants perform and other important factors like the weather, controlling weeds and insects, and your water needs, you may be ready for something even larger.

Thirty-five years ago I planted my first garden with the idea to feed my family of four for the entire year. It was nearly 4,000 square feet and I don’t remember much of the specifics about that garden but it was largely successful.

As I recall, I learned a lot about slugs that year though it took several more years before I was able to downgrade them from the problem category to just nuisance.  I made many refinements to the garden plan each year trying to raise enough to feed our family of four year round.

To start a garden this size you’ll need much more than a spading fork to prepare the soil.  Farmers will use a tractor to turn the soil and then a disk harrow to break up the turned sod.  Without this equipment, the easiest way to turn sod into a garden is to hire someone with a tractor drawn tiller.

Garden size tractors are OK if that is all that can be found in your area but they won’t till as deeply or as thoroughly, and even if they charge less per hour they will likely be more expensive because it will take longer.  The biggest problem with hiring someone to do the work is the temptation to have too big a garden.

Once you get this far, it’s time to decide what to plant.  You’ll find that onions, potatoes, and winter squash can be stored until spring.  Carrots, parsnips, beets, rutabaga, and winter storage radishes can also be stored for several months in a root cellar (with the temperature about freezing and high humidity).  Cabbage will store whole for a month or two.  Then there are the things you can freeze (peas, green beans), can (tomatoes), pickle (cabbage, cucumbers), or dry (beans and grains).

But how much of each should you plant? That’s largely a question of trial and error.  For my own family, I came to the anecdotal conclusion that I needed about 1,000 square feet per person to provide vegetables and grains for a year.

Here’s how one young farmer I know got started with a large sustainable vegetable garden.  He worked with me last summer on my 25,000 square foot garden in which I grow vegetables for my son’s restaurant.  He wanted to learn about gardening so he could start his own garden next year. I suggested that he start preparing the soil right away. He took my suggestion and hired someone to till 3,000 square feet.

Then he scattered buckwheat seed and raked it gently. The buckwheat came up rapidly and choked out the weeds. When the buckwheat flowered he had it tilled again and planted another cover crop, winter rye.  Come spring he will turn under the winter rye incorporating the organic matter which will improve the soil.  He also had the soil tested and will add nutrients as recommended. The Cooperative Extension Service in many states has a soil testing lab.  In Maine, they will give you organic recommendations if requested.

I told this fellow he should continue to devote part of his garden soil to an easy to grow cover crop like rye so he will not become overwhelmed — but I suspect he will not take that advice. All that lovely soil will just be too tempting.  But hopefully he learned enough about weed control, weather, and tips like “visit the garden every day” to give him success.

By the way, in my sixties I tended a 2,500 square foot garden with only a spading fork, garden rake, and a hoe. Those are the only tools you need, even for a large sustainable garden.

[Ed. Note: Mort Mather has been gardening organically for 35 years. He is the author of Gardening for Independence and has founded two non-profits -- one saved a farm on the Maine Coast and the other saved the historic Ogunquit Playhouse.  Mort is a certified organic farmer supplying vegetables for his family-run restaurant (http://joshuas.biz/) in Wells, Maine.  To learn more, click here .]