I understand where you are coming from! I have "planned" my boxes and crops, but I feel completely overwhelmed and confused about how much is actually going to grow and exactly how to space. Will it be too much, or not enough?

I finally realized I am just going to have to go with experience this first year and find out first hand. No matter how much I read (here and in books) I think I just won't "get it" until I've done it. And I'm going to journal and write down everything so I know what worked and what didn't. :)

stelrosa, those are great questions. I have the same questions you do, so I hope to see some of the more experienced SFG'ers here chime in with answers.

I found planning the layout particularly difficult, especially since I didn't have Mel's SFG book when I started. I ordered it a couple of days ago, so I'll have it soon. I have a good idea of how much space the tomato vines and bushes will take, but little sense with regard to my other plants.

I hope you get some good answers, because it'll help me too.

Yrdling and Crystabel, I had the same questions and went online to figure out the spacings. I then wrote the spacing on the front of every seed packet that I have, so I'm not in the garden trying to plant and figure it out at the same time. :)

I wasn't prepared for how big a squash plant gets, even after reading about it here! Also, my tomatoes around my house have HUGE plants. One of them covers at least 4 feet of space, so I'm going to have to stay on top of them to make them vine.

I love the "little" plants, radishes, carrots, beets, although each seed only produces one food item. I figure the other plants will grow on me (pun intended) as I start harvesting from them.

I am in the same family situation that you're in. And I find that the more 4 x 4's that I can plant the better! And if you have the space, use it! I find that most of what I harvest has been supplemental so far. I can't live on it alone. Because it takes awhile to produce. I basically went by mel's book for the spacing. ALthough the tomatoe plants grow like weeds. They are huge! I use conduit trellis. ANd just started to compost this year. Radishes take off fast. Other plants take awhile. This is my first year as well. I will definately start seeds before frost next year. I have found that certain nurserys ( depending on their growers ) have better plants than others. I will buy tansplants from certain places and wont from others. That is more of trial and error. My grandmother insisted that this whole idea with SFG will fail. she is from the "old" school of row gardening. And her relatives who were the first pioneers to the west "farmed" this way. She did say that my tomato plants would grow. Nothing else. As big as some plants get it does appear to be over crowded. But you trying to use as much space as you have. I have 8 ( 4 x 4 ) and I know I could use more for suh a big family. I think the book tells you a box per person per season just for salad and an extra box for supper. Romaine lettuce works well for cuttings. Butternut lettuce not so much. I have 6 planted. And at the rate that reproduce I could use more I am not only trying to save money from this but also trips to the grocery store. So more meals that I can get from this the better.

I was just going to post a new message with the title... "where is mel gardening??? Alaska??" I used the spacing's recommended by the book and find my garden to be way too crowded.

I just came in from thinning a bunch of plants. The broccoli, which should have be finished producing two weeks ago, is just starting to form heads and crowding out all of the adjacent squares.

Pinch the suckers off your tomatoes and plant one per square foot??? No way. I attempted to do that in the back of one 8 x 4 bed. And the plants are going crazy. I ripped out one plant (murderer!!!), transplanted another and staked the rest. Now I have six in eight squares. I plan on training the two on the end to grow outside the bed so now we are down to four in six squares. If the one I transplanted makes it, I'll take out another one or two. I also ended up cutting a bunch of branches that were shading the plants in front of it. It killed me to have to prune branches with flowers but I really had no choice. Luckily, I have about 16 tomato plants growing in different places so I should be okay.

So, my advice, for all of us first timers, watch and learn. And ask tons of questions on these boards!!!

Chrissy