Small gardens set natural limits to the size of the vegetable bed, because there should still be enough space left for the ornamental garden. If you have plenty of space, you can become self-sufficient with a generous vegetable patch and harvest enough vegetables, potatoes and herbs to be stored and preserved for the winter.
It is important that all areas of the bed are easy to reach
how much bed space is required?
A vegetable patch should be at least twenty square meters, divided into four to eight segments. This allows you to sow in a colorful and varied way while following the methods of crop rotation and mixed cultivation. The yields are then just sufficient to supplement the diet of a family of four. While you won't harvest much surplus, you don't have to worry about preserving vegetables for a long time either.
If you want to become self-sufficient and store fruit and vegetables for the cold season, the vegetable patch should be at least forty square meters per person. Try to create the beds as long as possible, so you can put a sufficient number of plants in a row. A bed width of 1.50 meters has proven itself, the path width between the individual segments should not be less than thirty centimeters. For this you have to plan about twenty percent of the bed area.
The cultivation plan
On average, you can harvest around three kilograms from one square meter of vegetable patch. However, the different types of vegetables are very different in their space requirements, so this information can only be used as a rough guide to the size of the vegetable patch. In addition, this harvest quantity can only be achieved if at least half of the bed is used several times, for example by planting lettuce on the harvested radish bed. A planting plan is important for this.
The following table compares the harvested quantities of different types of vegetables:
| kind | Expected crop yields per square meter |
|---|---|
| bush beans | 2kg |
| pole beans | 2.5 to 4 kg |
| peas | 1.5kg |
| pumpkin | up to 30kg |
| zucchini | 3-4kg |
| lettuce | 15 pieces |
| sugarloaf | 10 pieces |
| spinach | 1.5kg |
| carrots | 3kg |
| onions | 2.5-4kg |
| shallots | 1.5kg |
| Kale | 2kg |
| Kohlrabi | 2.5kg |
| potatoes | 3.5kg |
tips
When you plan the size of the vegetable patch, you should consider that such a little garden is a lot of work. You will spend about half an hour per week watering, hoeing or weeding for every ten square meters. What is initially relaxing can quickly turn from a nice hobby to a chore. So think carefully about how much time you actually want to invest.