How Much to Plant for a Years Worth of Food AND when to plant it (handy chart)

Updated: Mar 6, 2022

Some things to keep in mind about the chart below. This chart includes optimum realistic soil germination temperature, and the maximum and minimum kill (or non flowering) temperature for each vegetable. It also includes the average amount of days to harvest so you can plant the exact dates you need to plant each crop for the weather in your area.

DON'T EXPERIMENT IN LARGE QUANTITIES

Black eyed peas are ridiculously easy to grow in the south but if your family has never eaten them (or expressed that they don't like them) don't waste valuable space on an unknown the first year.

We pick a small area for our experimental crop of the year (this year is lentils). While we all love lentils, we have never grown them before and don't even know if they will grow well in our area. If they grow and produce well, the next years planting will take up more space. Since we feed our family from our crops, we use the majority of the area for crops we know do well in our area and that we love.

If you are a Texas resident, click HERE to find out what varieties of vegetables grow best in your area of Texas.

GROW FOR WHAT AND HOW YOU EAT

We are blessed to live in Zone 8b here. Which means that we can grow some vegetables all year long.

This chart assumes a few things. It assumes that adults are eating their recommended almost one pound of vegetables per day. It assumes that you eat in season, fresh food most of the time. It also assumes that each person is eating every meal at home and that you are not on a primarily plant based type diet.

This chart is a simple jumping off point. Adjust up (or down) based on what you and your family love and how you actually eat!