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Set a realistic food goal

Decide what share of your household's food the estate will supply in the first three years. Starting small and scaling with experience avoids the most common beginner failure: a garden too large to keep up with.

How

1. List what your household actually eats in a typical month, grouped into fresh vegetables, fruit, staples (grains, legumes, potatoes), and animal products.
2. Pick a first-year goal for fresh vegetables only. Colorado State University Extension suggests starting with about 100 square feet (roughly 9 square metres) or less per household member, growing the easiest crops first and expanding later.
3. Use an extension planting table to translate household eating into row length. For example, Texas A&M AgriLife lists about 3 tomato plants per person for fresh use and 5 for preserving, and about 15 feet (4.5 m) of bush beans for fresh use.
4. Decide whether you will preserve food. Planting for canning, drying or freezing roughly doubles the area for many crops in the Texas A&M table, and also needs kitchen time and storage (see the living module).
5. Write down a staged target, for example: year 1 summer salads and herbs, year 2 most fresh vegetables, year 3 orchard bearing and some stored crops. Treat staples as a later, separate decision (step food-23).
6. Record your goal in the estate plan so the water, waste and animals modules can size their systems to it.

Do these first

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Sources

1. Planning a Vegetable Garden (PlantTalk 1811). Colorado State University Extension, accessed 2026-11
2. Planning a Garden (E-289). Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, accessed 2026-11
3. Livelihoods grow in gardens (FAO Diversification Booklet No. 2), Foreword. FAO, accessed 2026-11

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