This is a reprint from 2007, in response to a question about getting started with a garden. How do you plan it out, and decide what to grow? Maybe this will help you plan your garden this year...

Narelle wrote,

Hello, Kimberly (that's my middle name!) I am a newbie to your site...but I recently purchased a few of your ebooks and thoroughly enjoyed them! I too am trying to establish a good garden for my family, and had a blast this summer, and learned a lot too! I too am wanting a garden that is productive, while attractive! I wanted to ask if you minded me asking you a couple of questions as to gardening as your garden is pretty much what I have been aiming for? I'll tack them on here, and if you don't have time, I understand as I am a busy momma too, with 4 kids 7 and under. OK...How many raspberry/blackberry plants would you need for a family of 6 to provide enough fresh and plenty for canning/freezing/jam/pie fillings etc. Do you recommend thornless or thorny (I'd like the kids to be able to pick them without too much pain, but don't want to sacrifice flavour either!) (that's my main question, is how much do I need....tomatoes, pickles) I too would like currants, have planted a red lake, but it's not doing so great...husband loves blackcurrant juice. I too have been looking into espaliers...Thank you! Narelle

The thing about raspberries and blackberries is that they do spread over time, and can be easily propagated (made to spread) so when buying them, if you bought a couple of packages of raspberry canes (maybe 20?) you could quickly turn that into an awful lot of raspberries, once they get established. The nice thing about that too, is that it would give you the chance to get used to having your raspberries, and seeing how much of them you would use.

I think the Thornless Red Laethams have the best flavor of all of the raspberries we have, and the Purple Royalty Raspberry comes in a close second (those have thorns). The Laetham's don't spread as fast, but the fruit is enormous, and there are rarely any thorns. The Royalty also produces a nice, big fruit with lots of flavor.

As for how much of other things you need, it depends on a lot of things, such as where you live, and what sort of growing season you have, and how you plan to use what you are growing. I also add one more thing to that list: how much does it cost in the store vs. how hard is it to grow/harvest/preserve? When our weather doesn't cooperate too well up here in Michigan, I need way more plants of peppers and tomatoes than when we have nicer, milder weather (at which time we usually have an over-abundance of tomatos and peppers). Usually, though, this is what we plant and how we use it:

• 50 Roma Tomato plants (canned Tomato sauce and Salsa--I do about 100 jars of sauce and 250 of salsa on average)
• 25 Red Pepper Plants--these will produce both green and red peppers but require a long growing season to get "really red" (roasted red pepper sauce, salsa, relish, stir fries)


• 100 sets of onions--SETS NOT SEEDS! (used in Salsa, pickles, and other canning recipes requiring lots of onions).
• 50 cloves of garlic (used mostly in canning recipes but also as roasted garlic spread on toast, and also used fresh)
• about 10-20 pickle plants (used for relish, bread and butter pickles, and also fresh in the salad when peeled--I do about 200 jars)
• 5 Hot Pepper Plants of various types--these are quite prolific (used in salsa, and also dried for use in Chili and other Mexican dishes later). If you have very young children you may want to be extra cautious about these as they can burn skin badly if broken open. Only adults can and should handle them, with gloves on. You need to be careful about having them in the dehydrator too...it can be really strong. I find it easier to dry them somewhere out of the way like the basement.
• I started with 10 strawberry plants, but now I have about 100 by just clipping and replanting the "runners" from the original plants. Now that I have lots of plants, I either give away or sell the young plants. Sometimes I use them to replace plants that don't look like they are doing too well. The first year with strawberries, they make very small berries, but as they get older, the berries get bigger and more plenteous. Everbearing Varieties don't spread as much but have 2 main harvests per year. Junebearing spread faster and only have a harvest in June.
• My 2 grapevines make about 3 bushels of grapes.
• My 1 apple tree has been making about 2 peck to 1 bushel of apples within 6 years of planting (our's is 9 years old).
• 2 packages of Basil Seeds (I freeze basil chopped fine in ice cube trays.)

I think we have given up on corn. It takes up a lot of room and really depletes the soil. Besides that, it can be purchased cheaply from a local organic farm stand.

I often plant other things too which we just enjoy fresh, such as radishes, watermelon, cucumbers (not the pickle variety), squash, pumpkins, various herbs (some of which are perennial and have been in the garden for a long time now), and snow peas. What I listed for you here is what we use for preserving mostly.

About your currants, some currant plants tend to disease, which is why for years currants and gooseberries were outlawed in some states (this ban was lifted, as I understand it, by varieties that are less prone to the diseases that killed pine trees which these plants carried). You may want to go to the library and find Rodale's "Weed, Disease, and Pest I.D. Guide" which is a very handy reference (in fact, I think it is a good one to purchase as you will refer to it again and again). This way, you can check to see if there are any problems with the currant plant itself. My currants grow crazy, but mine are the red variety. The other idea is to ask someone at the nursery you bought them from. Usually mail order is not as good as you want something that has already been living in your local area, especially if it is an "investment" like a fruit tree or bush. A nursery is also a good source of gardening advice relating to big purchases such as bushes, trees, and vines. Still, if you bought it from a catalog or website, you may want to ask them for some advice too, and they may have some helpful suggestions on that exact variety.

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