What does this calculator calculate?
The tool multiplies standard per-person planting amounts by your household size. The amounts come from the Kansas State University vegetable garden planting guide, which lists roughly how many plants, hills, stalks, or feet of row one person eats across a season for about thirty common crops.
A family of four growing tomatoes for fresh eating lands at 12 to 20 plants. The same family growing carrots needs 20 to 40 feet of row. The preserving option roughly doubles every amount, which suits households that freeze, can, or store part of the harvest.
What you will need
Household size
Count the people who will actually eat the garden's produce. A toddler and a teenager do not eat the same amount, but starting from headcount beats starting from enthusiasm.
Harvest goal
Fresh eating uses the base amounts. Fresh plus preserving doubles them. If you can everything you can get your hands on, the doubled figure is still conservative; experienced canners often plant three to four times the fresh amount for tomatoes and beans.
Reading the results
Each crop shows a range rather than a single number because appetites and growing conditions vary. The low end suits households where the crop is an occasional side dish. The high end suits households that treat it as a staple.
Three units appear in the list:
- Plants: individual transplants or crowns, such as tomatoes, peppers, and broccoli.
- Feet of row: direct-sown crops measured in row length, such as carrots, peas, and lettuce.
- Hills and stalks: vining crops are traditionally planted in hills of two or three seeds; celery is counted in stalks.
Turn the list into a plan
The output is a shopping list, not a layout. To place the crops in actual beds:
- Delete the crops nobody in the house eats.
- Convert feet of row into bed space with the plant spacing calculator.
- Check the timing for each crop in the planting calendar so you know whether it is one planting or several successions.
- Use the seed quantity calculator if you are sowing rather than buying transplants.
Worked examples
A couple eating fresh
Two people on the fresh setting get 6 to 10 tomato plants, 10 to 20 feet of carrots, and 3 to 5 broccoli plants. That is a modest garden: one bed of tomatoes, a couple of carrot rows, and a handful of brassicas.
A family that freezes beans
Four people on the preserving setting get about 120 feet of bush beans, which is eight 15-foot rows. That is a serious commitment, and it is exactly why the goal question exists: the difference between feeding a family fresh beans and filling a freezer is the entire size of the bean patch.
Common mistakes
Planting for the garden you wish you had
The most common outcome of per-person tables is too much zucchini. Scale back crops that produce continuously. Two healthy summer squash hills feed most households on their own.
Planting the whole list
The table covers thirty crops because gardens vary, not because one garden should grow all thirty. Pick the dozen your household actually eats and give that land to them.
Ignoring succession planting
Ten feet of lettuce planted on one April weekend means a mountain of lettuce in June and none in July. Sow greens, radishes, and beans in two or three smaller plantings two weeks apart.
Forgetting that perennials lag
Asparagus and garlic appear in the table, but asparagus takes two to three years to produce and garlic plants in fall for the next summer. Read the crop notes before assuming this season's planting covers this season's eating.
When this calculator may not be the right choice
The amounts assume a competent garden in decent soil with ordinary weather. Yields vary widely by region, variety, and skill, so treat the numbers as a starting point to refine over two or three seasons of notes. For square-foot or container gardens, the bed-based row amounts translate awkwardly; use the spacing data instead.
Where our data comes from
Per-person amounts follow the Kansas State University Extension vegetable garden planting guide (MF315). The preserving multiplier is an approximation; how much extra you need depends on how aggressively you preserve. Ranges reflect variation in appetite and yield rather than measurement precision.
Frequently asked questions
What changes between fresh eating and preserving? The preserving quantities are several times larger, because a household that freezes beans or cans tomatoes needs a surplus at harvest, not a steady trickle through the season.
Should I plant everything on the list? No. The list shows amounts per crop so you can pick the ones your household actually eats. Planting the full list for four people would fill far more garden than most families maintain.
How does this work with succession planting? The amounts assume a normal season for each crop. Quick crops like lettuce and radish are grown in repeat sowings rather than one large planting, so treat their quantity as per sowing, not all at once.
