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How Much Food Can One Small Garden Grow?

In 2022 we grew nearly 300 pounds of food + cut flowers + maple syrup from our in town 1/4 acre urban homestead. And in 2023 we grew even more by just adding a few more container gardens and planting flowers in new places. We grew it all completely organically without a ton of work. This article shows how much of each kind of veggie we harvested in 2022 and three easy changes we made to bump the harvest.

These results really show that you do not need a huge acreage or a homestead to grow a large amount of food for your family. And it doesn’t take a ton of work (as long as you’re willing to live with a few weeds!)

We do not have a big garden! In total, the raised beds are around 600 square feet, we have two Haralson apple trees, 6 neighborhood maple trees, two rhubarb plants, and six deck pots (in 2023 we upped this to 12 pots). Plus every corner I can find is planted with perennial or annual flowers.

We live right in town with neighbors on all sides. We have busy work schedules and are gone a lot so we don’t spend a lot of time on maintenance or replanting (so this garden could have probably grown even more!). This harvest is more than enough for our small family and we ended up sharing with neighbors and taking a lot to the food shelf.

Three things we added that made a huge difference:

  1. I put a water filter on my hose – this is normally attached to RVs to filter the water coming into the camper. I have treated city water and I’ve always wondered if that affected the plants. I can say it does and I think this change is one factor in such a great garden season. These are not inexpensive and can be found online, just search “RV/Marine inline water filter”
  2. I added soaker hoses to my vegetable garden and put it on a timer. Highly recommend the timer because you will forget you turned it on! This kept everything at a much more consistent moisture level and it protected tomatoes from soil splash which causes blight. And side note: I did not have blight on my tomatoes this year for the first time in 10 years!
  3. I let volunteers grow and did not till in the spring. Last fall I decided to leave garden debris in my garden to build up the soil quality and give critters food and habitat. I also didn’t till the garden up before planting. Wow, did I have volunteer plants! Sunflowers, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, and parsley. The sunflowers produced a lot of seeds and both the tomatoes and cucumbers used the sporadically-spaced sunflowers at trellises. (You have to be willing to love non-straight rows and haphazard planting to like this kind of garden!)

Here’s what we harvested in one season:

Maple syrup: the first harvest of the year, we made 2 gallons of pure maple syrup

Rhubarb: enough to make two large rhubarb crisps and 8 pints of jam. Also made a few pints of hot pepper rhubarb jam (recipe here)

Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, Swiss Chard: 15 gallon bags

Parsley: made 1 quart of chimichurri and used all summer fresh

Basil: made 2 quarts of pesto and used all summer fresh

Mint: made 5 batches of mojitos, made 2 quarts infused tincture for sore throats

Dill: picked multiple batches for pickles and dried herbs

Thyme, Rosemary, Sage: Used all summer and made 3 pounds of herb infused butter (just mix fresh herbs with softened butter and roll into a log. Wrap in wax paper and freeze. Then just slice off as needed.

Kohlrabi: 10 plants, ate raw and roasted and sauteed the greens

Zucchini: harvested 47 zucchini, most about 8″ long

Cucumbers: harvested 212 cucumbers (!)

Green beans: harvested 7 gallon bags

Peas: harvested 3 gallon bags

Roma and Beefsteak Tomatoes: picked 38 tomatoes from 4 plants, made 8 quarts of tomato sauce plus lots of fresh slices and salsa.

Cherry Tomatoes: picked 4 gallon bags from 3 plants. One cherry tomato plant grew as tall as the sunflower using it as a trellis.

Peppers: harvested 15 peppers off 2 plants.

Carrots: 25 carrots, largest one was 2” in diameter

Apples: grew almost 2 bushels of apples but the bees and ladybugs got at about ½ bushel before we picked them.

Sunflowers: All my sunflowers were volunteer this year and each stalk grew at least 5 heads, some grew 12! I let them dry in the garden and a lot of the seeds got eaten by the birds. After picking this week and shucking, we ended up with about 1 gallon of seeds. We’ll feed these to the birds and save some for planting next year.

Cut flowers: I had fresh bouquets in the house from May until this past week! And I harvested zinnia, daisy, cosmos, and salvia seeds from the dried flowers for planting next year.

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Pest Control using Natural Pesticides

Natural pesticides versus chemical pesticides

The use of chemical pesticides in your garden or yard can lead to many unintended consequences. For instance, if you apply a chemical pesticide before a heavy rain most of it will wash away, missing its intended target, and likely end up contaminating and possibly killing critters that are beneficial to the environment. In addition to potentially polluting an area you didn’t intend to spread it to, these treatments are full of harsh man-made chemicals that are not necessarily safe for the environment. This article will explain a few natural pesticides that are not only safe for your plants and critters you do not want to harm a few of them are also completely safe for your children or pets.

Diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous earth is a sedimentary rock made up of fossilized algae and makes up about 25% of the Earth’s crust by weight. So there is plenty to go around! You can buy it by the bag at any nursery or gardening store. It works because it’s abrasive so crawling insects do not like to move across or burrow through it (especially snails, grubs, or slugs).

Diatomaceous earth also has affinity it has for absorbing lipids it will quickly rid your yard or garden of any unwanted insects. The way it does this is by dehydrating these insects it contacts by draining their exoskeletons through the absorption of the lipids within their exoskeleton. The best part about using it, is it is totally safe around kids and pets!

How to use Diatomaceous Earth

This is very easy to use in your yard and garden. Just spread a light dusting of it on any problem areas you have been experiencing. One thing to keep note of when using diatomaceous earth, is it has a tendency to absorb lots of water from rain which reduces its effectiveness. To combat this, you will want to keep an eye on the weather and avoid spreading it if you know it is going to rain; along with that it is also a good idea to reapply it after it rains to maintain its effectiveness.

Neem oil

Neem oil is an extract from the seeds of the neem tree, which makes it another natural pesticide that is safe for use around kids and pets. In addition to being a powerful natural pesticide, it can also be used as a fungicide if you are having problems with fungi in your gardens or on house plants. Like diatomaceous earth, neem oil can usually be found in the gardening stores and home supply centers. Typically it’s sold in a concentrated form as an oil. A little goes a long way and be forewarned, it does not smell pleasant. The smell with dissipate quickly but if using indoors, plan ahead to be able to open your windows.

How to make your own neem oil spray

If you are interested in mixing your own spray, which in most cases would be cheaper, just mix a couple teaspoons of neem oil with a teaspoon of mild liquid soap and a quart of water. After mixing this combination thoroughly, it is ready to be sprayed on plants that you have noticed being eating by insects. The way it works is by acting as a hormone disruptor for any insect that decides to try and make a meal out of plants in your garden. Put a little more simply, it will make any insects that eat it unable to perform their normal bodily functions. Eventually they will die from ingesting any of the neem oil mix you have put on your plants.

Tomato leaf insecticide

Believe it or not, the leaves of the tomato plant are poisonous. The tomato plant is a member of the nightshade family, so you can use this to your advantage to effectively combat an aphid infestation or something similar in your garden while avoiding the use of harsh chemicals. This is just another great way to ensure you are using chemical free pesticides within your garden, it is good for your garden and will not harm any ecosystems it may be washed into from the rain.

How to make your own tomato leaf spray

All you need to do to make tomato leaf insecticide, is chop up about 2 or 3 cups of leaves from a tomato plant or plants and let them sit in a quart of water overnight. In the morning, use a strainer to get all the chopped up leaves out of the water and put the remaining liquid in a spray bottle. After you do this, it is ready for use! It’s really that simple, all you need to do to use it is spray it onto plants in your garden if you suspect they might have a run in with aphids or another insect that thinks they will make a meal out of the plants in your garden.

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How to use Compost

How to tell if compost is ready for use

The best way to tell if your compost is ready for use is if it looks like soil or if it still resembles whatever you put in your composting area. If it looks like soil and does not look like the things you put in to be composted, it is ready for use! Another easy way to tell if it is ready, is if it smells earthy, it is ready for use! If you are still unsure after these two techniques, there is one more you can try. Put some in a sealed container and remove the air from it; a plastic bag works best for this. Let it sit in the bag for a few days and after this open it up. If you detect any sort of funky smell coming from it, your compost is not quite ready for use yet and needs more time to decompose.

Where to use compost

As far as usage of your compost, there really is not a limit to where you can use it. Any plant that uses soil will love a compost home. It can be sprinkled and then raked into flower beds or gardens; it can used to fill outdoor containers; you can put some in your indoor plants as well to help maintain nutrient rich soil. It can also be spread around a newly planted tree to help it grow. Compost is especially helpful in enclosed raised beds which over time lose soil health. Essentially, compost is good to use just about anywhere you might try to grow something. It will provide the necessary nutrients to the soil to improve the growth of whatever you might try to grow.

Helpful tips to use compost more effectively

Generally speaking, indoor plants do not need to have compost added in the amount or frequency of an outdoor garden. This is mostly because an outdoor garden will have more plants removing more nutrients compared to an indoor plant. For indoor plants you only need to add compost every 6 months or so and you do not need to add more than a handful or two provided it is not a large plant.

For outdoor gardens, there are a few different approaches you can take. In the fall, add a layer of compost that is a few inches thick across the entire surface. Then in the springtime, till the soil so the layer of compost you added in the fall gets mixed in thoroughly with the topsoil. In addition to this, it would also be helpful to add a small handful to each hole as you plant something in within your garden.

What not to do when using compost

The most important thing to avoid when using compost is to ensure it is actually decomposed completely. If food scraps are still present or not completely decomposed, you may attract critters or pests and by removing it from your composter, you will significantly slow down the process. Be patient and wait until your compost looks and smells like soil.

Once it’s ready, use like you would regular soil. Be sure to till it in well with existing soil and plant as you normally would. You may be able to cut back on fertilizer when adding compost as this soil will be much more nutritious for plants than regular garden soil.