A gardener who devoted most of their plot to growing beets (cylinder shape) eating roots and greens Chard, swiss Leeks Mangels Onions (torpedo type shape) Potatoes, Irish type Rutabagas Turnips eating roots and greens could expect about 8 pounds per square foot of intensive bed.
A gardener who focused on growing beets (round shape) Cabbage (round or chinese) Carrots Collards Cucmbers Lettuce, leaf Onions, bunching or regular Parsnips Potatoes, Sweet Salsify Squash, winter or zucchini Tomatoes Watermelon could expect about 4 pounds per square foot of intensive bed. A gardener who wanted to grow a mix of Apples, dwarf Basil Beans, snap Brussels Sprouts Eggplant Grapes Kale Melons Okra Pears, dwarf Peas, fresh Peppers, green Squash, crookneck Strawberries could expect 1 to 1.5 pounds per square foot of intensive bed. Someone who wanted to produce more items that would do well in natural winter dry storage and grew Amaranth seeds Beans, dry Grains, seed Peas, dry Peppers, cayenne, dry Sunflower seeds along with pereninial fresh fruits and vegetables such as Asparagus Blackberries Blueberries Boysenberries Cherries, dwarf or bush Figs Filberts Plums could expect 1/4 to 1/2 pounds per square foot of intensive bed. And here everything but the asparagus would do well dried for winter storage. To get an amount for a garden in your area, you could design a plot based on the usual plot size with the most commonly grown vegetables and use the info in John Jeavons How to Grow More Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops) than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine by John Jeavons. The latest edition (7th) has the most up to date yield information for intensive growing. The charts have yields at three different levels of beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The levels refer to both the gardener's level of experience and the soil's level of initial quality plus time being built up by the sustainable intensive gardening process. The yields per square foot levels I have given you above are for the best case scenario of good soil and experienced gardener and plants that are likely to do well in your area.. If any of your sites can grow trees in a greenhouse, there are a number of tropical fruits that produce at the 1 pound per square foot level. Sharon [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
