Try this link

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting Guide

The planting guide above looks like a good general estimate. However, a lot of it depends on your personal tastes and if you plan to can or freeze any of your produce. My husband loves broccoli but doesn't care for most squashes. However, we have a friend that loves squash and takes all our access (and will even ask for more!) So I usually plant 12-14 broccoli plants, 4-6 summer squashes,and 3 winter squashes. That's more than enough to eat, freeze and give away some. I plant a double 20' row of various bush beans and one 10 foot row of peas. That too is more than enough to eat, freeze and give some away.

I also can. So I can't get enough peppers, onions, tomatoes and peppers. I dry herbs too. So I plant LOTS of basil, oregano & parsley. I usually have one thyme plant and its more than enough. Thyme is perennial. Sage is perennial too. I planted 3 sage plants a couple years ago and am drowning in the stuff! One would have been enough.

I should also say, there's just the two of us.

if you're new to gardening, consider starting small. If your garden is too big the first year while you're still learning (everything is hardest the first year and gets easier each time you do it again) you will have a lot of frustration and be more likely to experience a failure that will sour you on gardening forever.

That said, I garden for two. I can get by (for summer) with 4 tomatoes (a cherry, a slicer, a plum, an early), 1 summer squash (and this is too much, I'd plant a half of a summer squash if I could), 10 ft. row of pole beans, 20 foot row of pole peas, two cukes (which is too many), a 12 foot row of carrots, a 4 foot row of green onions, a couple jalapenos and 4 bell peppers. I don't can or freeze any of this - I always have way too many tomatoes. In addition I plant an eggplant, lots of lettuce, spinach in spring, and 4 or 5 broccoli. I grow tons of garlic as well - don't know if zone 5 is good for this.

For herbs, I plant two parsley in spring and eat them until they freeze out in about January (zone 8). I like to make pesto in summer and freeze lots for winter, so I plant 16 sweet basil and take multiple harvests from them over summer. I plant a couple of thai basil as well as a couple cilantro and dill. The perennial herb bed has a sage and a rosemary and some mint that I am perpetually whacking back to keep it under control.

You'll probably find it really useful to keep some notes - your garden plan, and then what you had too much of and not enough of. Was 60 carrots enough, or could you have eaten twice that? Were you drowning in summer squash and can plant less next year? that sort of thing. Good weather to you!

The above advise is very good. The one thing I would like to add is to consider the growth habits of the plants.

tomatoes come in two types; determinant and indeterminant. The determinant types grow to a certain size the fruits all ripen pretty much at the same time. Very good for canning. Inderminants tend to keep on growing until frost stops them and the fruit will ripen more slowly - tho' there will come a point when they are ripening faster than you can eat them.

bush beans and sugar snap peas: Both have short harvest seasons. The good news is that the beans start to ripen just as the peas are petering out. The bad news is, you need to get the pea seeds in the ground NOW. Mine are already germinating. If you wait too long, the heat of summer will kill them off before you get any. By the way, pole beans are harvesting in smaller quantities over longer periods, so you might want to consider them as an addition or alternative.

green peppers, cukes, and summer squash are all good fresh but can be put up as well. Peppers and squash freeze well. All of them pickle well. Growth and harvest depend on the variety.

winter squash,carrots,and onions all hold up well in the pantry or better yet a fruit cellar. Herbs can be dried or frozen. So I can't see having too much of any of these.

Hope this is helpful. I'm making myself hungry just thinking of harvest time!!! Kay.

kay can you tell how to build a fruit cellar? just playing. I could not stop my self,organicstarr; Kays advise is good and right,but I thank she meant root cellar,not fruit cellar. again sorry kay just could not help myself.cactus Pat.

Only thing I have to add is-- The herbs you mentioned are all perennial except the basil. 1 sage 1 thyme 1 oregano and 1 rosemary. Should be more then enough. However you could, should plant them in containers. You can bring them in in the winter and have fresh herbs year round. The basil plant alot. pick and dry them in the fall. The seeds are rather large and easy to harvest for a planting the following year.

Everything else really depends on how much your family eats, how many friends you have that like the extra, and if you plan to freeze or can.

This is really a loaded question and really depends on what you think you'll eat. Example: between me and my husband we had just over 20 pepper plants of various types...we didn't have a single pepper left over at the end of the season. My husband loves peppers and he does the cooking for us...we had A LOT of pepper dishes, yum!

Plant what you like in decent numbers and then adjust for next year.

Rebecca

This is a funny question that I wish I had asked when I started gardening. The first year we planted a real garden we planted 12 tomato plants. Now we both love tomatoes and eat them every day, but unless you are into canning, that is way too many tomatoes for 2 people. We didn't have enough friends/neighbors to take the excess. The next year we planted nine, for the past two years we planted six. This year we are planting 5, 2 slicers and 3 San Marzano. The plums are really good for sauce and salsa.

Right now we have in about 40 Walla Walla onions, a 6 foot row of lettuce(we replant constantly through the summer and we had our first salad last night! Yum!), 10 foot rows of radishes, beets, spinach, swiss chard. Snap peas are not doing well. We also have in an herb garden with the exception of the basil, it's still a little too cold at night. We will plant the 5 tomatoes, 3 hot peppers, 3 bell peppers, two eggplants, about 20 pole beans, carrots, and a few pickling cukes. The pickling cukes are great because one is good for two salads, and I like to make refigerator cukes. We are also going to try a couple of so called dwarf zucchini. I love summer squash but the plants really take over the garden. So we'll see. Later we will plant broccoli and cabbage.

We make a lot of sauce which we freeze, and we freeze a lot of veggies. Salsa(green and red) freezes well, and so does caponata.

Someday I may get into canning, but right now I barely have the time do the gardening let alone preserving.