squeezing everything in

[littleminnie]

I made the basics of my 2011 garden plan some time ago. Now I have been figuring how much of each crop that allows space for and how to cram in the extras like fennel and edamame. Also I am trying to figure out how much of certain things I need to grow. Do I need more than 150 pepper plants? Do I need 5 beds of onions or just 4? Where to fit in second crops and will I really have enough time? And then how many pounds of seed potatoes will I need? How much carrot and pea seed do I need? How many pepper and tomato plants will I sell and which ones will people want? EEEK. That is a lot of decisions. I do a lot of math but some things are just guesses.
I know not everyone is as organized or plans everything ahead, but how do you squeeze all you want in and how do you formulate how much you need to grow? Isn't it a b***h when you can't fit everything in?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I don't have the problem of fitting everything in. Every year some part of my fields is vacant because I didn't get it planted in a timely manner. (Last year though it was only about 2000 square feet.) This year I doubled the acreage so YIKES! I expect that I'll leave some areas unplanted. Hopefully I'll do something clever like plant a cover crop to compete with the weeds.
At least this year I think I have all the infrastructure kinks worked out already.

There can never be enough onion beds. Even if they get replanted several times during the summer it still won't be enough onions. <giggles>

My season is so short that I don't typically think about second crops, other than I can grow turnips in the late summer after peas, lettuce, and spinach. But who'd want that many turnips?

People are so hungry for vine ripened tomatoes that they will take everything I can grow and that still won't be enough.

My planning is rather laid-back... Plant more onions, I was always out. Forget about herbs, nobody wants them. Find an earlier producing tomato.

I am getting clever about planning roads though... In one field I will be leaving a racetrack to drive around. So that the furthest I will have to carry anything is 50-80 feet. In another field I am planting peas right through the middle of the field so that after they are gone I can drive into the field to harvest the heavy late crops.

Since I grow much of my own seed I usually have way more seed than I could possibly plant. And when I buy seed I normally buy a 2-3 year supply.

[bertiefox]

The Mel Bartholomew 'square foot' way of thinking is a good way of evaluating how much of each crop you need. I find his calculations a bit mean (we eat vastly more radish than he says is possible!) but the actual principle is good. Last year I decided to concentrate on growing everything really well by enriching every single square foot far more than normal and planting closely. Even broccoli/cauliflowers did really well at square foot spacings with lots of water.
Before I've concentrated on getting as much planted in as much ground as I could cultivate but ended up with smaller crops as much failed and couldn't be weeded and watered as necessary.
I think there will always be a tomato and pepper, aubergine (egg fruit) glut though in late summer.
I'd agree with the comment above that you can never have enough onions or shallots and much more should be planted for winter use, especially roots like parsnips, salsify and scorzonera.