Grow 100's of $$$'s of Food in 100 Square Feet

Have you ever wondered what the productivity of just a small part of your lawn would be if there were edibles instead of grass?

Amazingly I saved hundreds on my groceries in 2011 by creating raised gardens and using potted plants to grow my fresh vegetables in!

The Plants:

I wanted to make my garden simple. I didn’t include any fancy vegetable varieties; I selected vegetables that are expensive to buy at the supermarket, as well as varieties that my experience has told me produce high yields.

The first season (spring/summer 2011), I grew the following:

• Four tomato plants: ‘Better Boy’ and ‘Early Girl’
• Peppers: two ‘California Wonder,’ two ‘Cayenne,’ one ‘Serano,’ and two ‘Jalapeno’
• Four Squash: ‘Crookneck’
• Four basils (expensive in stores but essential in the kitchen)
• 12 lettuces: six romaine and six butterhead
• Cilantro: two plants, used one for cilantro and grew the other to collect Coliander
• Four Cucumbers: two straight eights and two pickling size cukes
• Chives

Layout:

Using four 5 gallon container pots (nursery grade), I planted my tomato plants and used tomato cages around them. These took up approximately 20sf. I used the 5 gallon size pots because I have had great success growing them in containers and it seems easier for me to keep a check on them.

My peppers were all planted in 3 gallon containers, I have the same success with them as the tomatoes in the containers, used about 10sf.

Now, squash does better in the ground as does all your vine-type vegetables. The smaller pickling size cukes do good in 5 gallon containers using tomato cages around them, but I put the straight eights in the ground. These veggies took up about 50sf

The lettuce was planted directly in the ground, taking up about 10sf

My cilantro & chives grow in 5 gallon containers as does the basil, using up about another 10sf.