Vegetables I Want to Grow
I started my planning with a general list of vegetables and herbs I want to grow. Then I divided them into family types and then category for rotation (legumes → root → fruit → leaf). This took a while to research. Finally, I researched the number to plant per square online (there are a variety of sources). This will give me an idea of how many squares I will need to construct to start (or rather how many things to grow each year in the given space I have). Here goes:
Perrenials: rhubarb, red current bushes, mint. Asparagus, day lilies and chives are part of the lily family. These need 2-3 squares each.
Legumes: 8 peas, 8 beans. These must be trellised. Alfalfa is also used as fallow.
Root:
- Chenopodiaceae: 4 swiss chard, 9 beets (red or golden).
- Alliaceae (lily): 9 overwinter garlic, 6 leeks, onions.
- *Umbelliferae family includes parsnips, carrots, parsley, celery and fennel. Aside from parsley (which I will treat as a leaf) I won’t grow these veggies because they are readily accessible all year round. However, you can grow many in 1 square foot, such as 16 carrots.
- *Crucifereae (mustard/cabbage) family includes broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, cabbage, kale and so on. I won’t likely grow these veggies either because they are readily accessible all year round. They also need about 1 square per vegetable and I have a small space.
Fruits:
- Marrow: 2 cucumber, 2 squares for 1 zucchini, 2 squares for 1 butternut squash. These all must be trellised.
- Solanaceae (night shade): vine or bush tomatoes, ground cherries, peppers, eggplant. These need 1 square each. Petunias are also part of this family.
Leaf:
- Compositae: 4 lettuce, endive and artichoke (check seed package).
- Lamiaceae (mint family): 1 oregano, 4 basil (all varieties), 1 rosemary. Similarly for sage, savory, marjoram, thyme, and lavender. Mint itself is not recommended because it spreads so easily. Coleus is a decorative flower in this family.
- *I will probably grow parsley as well in the form of an herb garden, but it is from the root category.
You can also create themed garden boxes and rotate the squares amongst it between the categories:
- The Three Sisters is apparently a native American trio of vegetables. It is recommended to grow them in a 3×3 and rotate the corners and edges each year, with one year as an annual herb garden (with coleus in the middle) that gets tilled at the harvest for fallow:
- Centre: 4 corn (which is from the grass family) in the middle
- 4 Corners: 3 beans along each edge (i.e. 6 per square) with poles (or let them train up the corn stalks), lettuce or nasturtium in the middle
- 4 edges: 2 squash (i.e. cucumber, butternut squash, zucchini) with ground space around the corn and lettuce
- A pizza garden has all the fixings you need: basil, oregano, marjoram, garlic and onions, and tomatoes (for the sauce) and peppers (for the pizza topping). This has a leaf, root and fruit rotation over three years.
