[matt80]

Hi,

I've bought some seeds ready for my first year's planting, but have on idea at all how much to plant. I've currently got the following seeds, can anyone give me an idea of how many plants I'll need to grow of each in order to provide enough for a family of 3?

1. seed potatoes
2. shallot set
2. alicante tomatoes
3. gardeners delight tomatoes
4. hot patio sizzle chilli peppers
5. leeks
6. carrots
7. broad beans
8. courgettes
9. spring onion
10. cabbage
11. lettuce / salad leaves

I'm also unsure about spacings. I gather that you can plant things closer together in raised beds. Presumably the seed pack instructions are not for raised beds, so how do I konw how close to plant things? Or should I stick to what it says?

Thanks so much for any help

[gobs]

This will be just a very rough guide of someone else's eating and growing habits. What you get of a plant will depend on growing practices and skill but also hugely on the weather and will slightly, sometimes dramatically diff year by year.

This will be also without too much pickle making and storing, otherwise noted.

1. seed potatoes - 140 tubers or I plant yearly
2. shallot set - don't use much, so irrelevant, but I plant about 20-30 a year
2. alicante tomatoes - 5-8 plants for eating in summer strictly, for passata, etc, you need much more
3. gardeners delight tomatoes
4. hot patio sizzle chilli peppers -  1-2 plants are plenty for us
5. leeks - 140-200 I plant for once a week winter use
6. carrots - we go through four packets of seed a year, from young till something gets them
7. broad beans - 2 packets, 1 over-wintering, which usually gives a tremendous crop, this includes a lot of frozen crops, too
8. courgettes - a couple of plants is oodles of no need
9. spring onion - don't grow
10. cabbage - we go through about 60-80 a year, diff varieties, time of year , etc.
11. lettuce / salad leaves  - little and often all year round, plenty of seed in most packets, so a few diff ones should keep you going for a few years

[noshed]

Plant all the seed spuds and onion sets you have - 12" apart for spuds but you can put the onion sets in quite close together 2" or so, or even closer, they just end up smaller and you can eat them in salads.
As for the other stuff - it depends what you like. I planted about 50 tomato plants last year, amazed my plot neighbours but kept my office happy and survived the blight. However logically you will only really need about 8-10 good plants for enough toms for the average family.
 Then just divide up the remaining space for the rest of the stuff. Runner beans grow upwards so you can fit loads in, you can grow cucumbers up as well.
Lettuce you grow yourself tastes much better. Sow it at fortnightly intervals to keep it going all summer long.
You can grow the leeks in a seed bed for ages and plant them out later at their full spacing and they will sit happily all winter providing good nosh - the same goes for spinach, kale, chard and cabbage.
Sow a couple of seed trays or rows of what you've got and see how you get on. Seeds are cheap and have fun!

[matt80]

thanks for the guidance... quick question - what is a "tuber"?

[gobs]

A swollen, underground part of a plant, from which it usually grows, so can be multiplied that way. In this case the potato that we eat or plant.