Once you’ve decided to grow your own food, the main question is how much you should grow. How much space are you going to need to provide food for the family?
There is a lot to learn when it comes to growing your own produce. Having said that, there are some factors to consider that can help you determine how much you’ll need to grow. Here, we’ll look at the main factors to take into account when deciding how much land and food you’re going to need.
How Much Space Is Recommended?
Research on how much space is needed for growing enough food to sustain yourself, was carried out back in the 1970s. The Ecology Action Organization and John Jeavons discovered that each person would need approximately 4,000 square feet of growing space to live on a vegetarian diet for a year. So, if you wanted to provide food for a full year for a family of four, you’d need approximately 16,000 square feet of land.
Now, obviously most of us don’t have this level of space. Even if you do, growing that much food by yourself would become almost like a full-time job. So, you don’t have to focus on growing all of your own food. Anything that you can grow yourself will benefit you and the environment. Simply look at how much space you realistically have and can afford, then work out how much food you can grow from there.
What Are You Going to Be Growing?
What you want to grow will make a big difference to how much of it you’ll need. Think about the produce you currently eat a lot of. Potatoes can be a great example here. When you buy potatoes from the grocery store, how much do you typically consume in a week? If you get through 5lbs of potatoes in a week, you’re going to need 260lbs per year.
Here are some examples on how much space and produce is required for different types of vegetable or fruit you grow:
- Carrots – Each person will require 15-65lbs of carrots per harvest. This means you’d need around 10-15 feet of growing space and around 6-10 carrot plants.
- Potatoes – Each person will need around 75-200lbs of potatoes per harvest. The rows will need to measure between 75-100 feet with around 85 plants required.
- Tomatoes – Each person will need around 15-65lbs per harvest. For this, you’d need 10-15-foot rows with 6-10 plants.
This is a very basic guide and again, it will depend upon how much of each produce you typically eat. You’ll need to do some research to determine how much space you’ll need for each type of food, depending upon how much you consume.
Accounting for Loss
When you’re working out how much you’ll need to grow, don’t forget to take waste into account. Some of the food you’ll grow could be hit by pests or disease. So, always plant a little more than what you actually need to accommodate for any waste.
It’s not always easy determining how much you’ll need to grow when providing your own food. However, the above is a brief guide and the key thing to take away is that you can grow your own food in any space that you have available. So, even if you just grow your own potatoes, you’ll still be helping the environment.
