How Much to Plant per Person (Vegetable Garden Chart)

The most common first-year garden mistake is planting the wrong amounts: twelve zucchini plants and three carrots. This chart gives a sensible number of plants per person for 16 popular vegetables, both for eating fresh during the season and for putting some by for winter.

To get totals for your household and the bed space they need, use the Garden Planner.

Planting chart per person

“Fresh” covers what one person eats during the growing season. “Preserving” adds enough to freeze, can or store.

Vegetable	Fresh eating	Fresh and preserving	Space each (sq ft)
Tomatoes	3 plants	6 plants	4
Peppers	3 plants	6 plants	1.5
Cucumbers	1–2 plants	4 plants	2 (on a trellis)
Zucchini and summer squash	1 plant	2 plants	9
Bush beans	10 plants	25 plants	1/9
Lettuce	6 plants	6 plants	1/4
Carrots	30 plants	60 plants	1/16
Onions	15 sets	30 sets	1/9
Potatoes	10 seed pieces	20 seed pieces	2
Broccoli	3 plants	6 plants	2.25
Kale	2 plants	4 plants	2.25
Spinach	10 plants	20 plants	1/9
Peas	20 plants	40 plants	1/8
Garlic	10 cloves	20 cloves	1/9
Sweet corn	15 plants	30 plants	1
Winter squash	1 plant	2 plants	16

These are typical planning figures from university Extension and seed company guides. Sources differ, so the chart uses middle-of-the-range values. Spacing assumes close planting in raised beds; in-ground rows need more room for paths.

How much space does a family need?

For a family of four growing the eight most popular crops (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, bush beans, lettuce, carrots and onions):

Fresh eating: about 140 square feet of beds, or five 4×8 ft raised beds.
Fresh and preserving: about 350 square feet, or eleven 4×8 ft beds.

Add room for paths between beds; 18 to 24 inches is comfortable for kneeling and a wheelbarrow.

Adjusting the numbers for your household

Children usually eat about half as much as adults. Two adults and two young children plan like three people.
Favorite foods deserve more. Salad lovers may want twice the lettuce; families who don’t like zucchini can skip it.
Your climate matters. Long, hot seasons give bigger harvests from tomatoes, peppers and squash. Short seasons favor more plants of quick crops.
How you preserve changes the picture. Canning tomato sauce takes far more tomatoes than eating them in salads; storing onions and potatoes through winter takes more of those.

Get more from fewer plants

Succession sowing

Lettuce, bush beans, carrots and spinach produce all at once. Instead of sowing a whole season’s worth on one day, sow a few plants every 2 to 3 weeks. You get a steady supply with less waste, and the chart numbers stretch further.

Grow up

Cucumbers, pole beans, peas and even winter squash can climb a trellis. Vertical growing turns a 9-square-foot sprawling plant into a 2-square-foot footprint.

Keep picking

Beans, zucchini, cucumbers and peppers keep producing only if you harvest regularly. Leaving overgrown fruit on the plant tells it to stop.

Plant fewer of these than you think

Zucchini and summer squash. One healthy plant can produce more than one person wants.
Cherry tomatoes. A single plant often feeds two people.
Hot peppers. One or two plants supply most households for a year.

Keep notes

The best chart is the one you write yourself. Note what you planted, what ran short and what you gave away, and adjust next year. After two seasons your numbers will fit your household better than any general guide.