Depends on which veggies you like to eat. 15'x17' is small for my standards (1/3 veggie acre here). But you could try secession planting, as in early broc followed by late bush beans, or early spinach followed by late cukes. There are a lot of variations to this theme. I have 3 separate plantings as spring, summer, and fall crops. Some like tomatoes are all season long while others like lettuce are short season and can be followed up with other veggies.

You may need to grow high yield vegetables for small garden

This post was edited by JCTsai on Mon, Dec 15, 14 at 20:37

I'd add bush or pole beans, cucumbers, beets, and lettuce or chard.....assuming you like to eat these. Beans freeze well and yield quite a lot in a small space. Maybe some onions and garlic, too. They store well into the winter months. The garlic would do best if planted in the late fall in Pennsylvania.

I love fresh asparagus, but it takes quite a large planting to get enough to do much with. Also, it takes a few years before you can harvest much at all from it. And since it is a perennial you must plan ahead so you can leave the area undisturbed from year to year. So you may want to consider if it is worth the space it will take. If you like rhubarb, another perennial, you can get a good sized harvest from only a few plants.

Our asparagus bed is 4x8 and feeds the 3 of us just fine (no canning or freezing except for soups)
I also love green beans, eggplant, a variety of peppers, basil, other herbs (to your taste), cukes, etc.
Go to the grocery store to see what you like, then see if it's growable or reasonable in your area.
For example, corn is a crop that takes a lot of room, seems to all ripen at the same time, and is a heavy feeder. And yes, it is great right off the stalk, but for the hassle, they sell for 10 for a dollar at peak season around here! I've tried it twice and have given up on it. I also don't like the texture of frozen corn.
I don't know if you are into canning/preserving. That might be another consideration. I don't can any longer (might in the future since I retired), but I do freeze sauces and soups. I go for as many tomatoes and peppers as I can, then make sauce and freeze those things.
Get some seed catalogues and dream! LOL Nancy

I'm in NEPA, and love my bean arches! I grow Kentucky Wonder pole beans, and this year am going to add some Rattlesnakes.

Vertical gardening is something you might want to explore. I learned to make a bean arch on GardenWeb, using a 5 x 16' cattle panel folded in half.

Asparagus takes a long time to be truly productive (5 years) and may not be a good choice for a small garden (or so I read!)

I'd recommend bush winter squash (Acorns are great) and beans for sure, also potatoes!

You can also consider onions, carrots, lettuce, eggplant, okra, beets, chard, snap peas, leeks, and sweet potatoes, among others.

Do you grow any herbs or flowers? Non-vegetables might take up some of your productive space, but provide health benefits for the soil and plants nearby, and also help attract insects that may pollinate your larger garden easier.

I have a 1' x 1' area with rosemary, a 2' x 1' area with thyme, as well as marigolds and sages which I plant patches of, patterned into the vegetable patches (i.e. a ten plant row with "plants" 5 and 10 herb/flower patch).

Under my apple trees I'm trying a few different ground covers to see which has the most benefit to the soil structure and the tree itself: a 'hot and spicy' oregano, two varieties of nasturtium (which self seed!), and goji berry vine. I highly recommend you add at least 1 or 2 transplants of nasturtiums because of their highly productive trailing habit. You never know where they'll end up growing but they find their way to the sweet spot..

This post was edited by Persimmons on Tue, Dec 16, 14 at 10:15

I'm in colder NH and can do some succession planting but a late planting of bush beans needs low tunnel protection to get it past a light frost we usually get mid September. Garlic planted in October is harvested by the end of July plus I get garlic scapes in late June (hardneck garlic). I followed garlic with kale, hakurei turnips, daikon radish and chard.
I think you've done great with a small garden. Green beans and sugar snap peas would be my first choice of what new to add BUT pay attention to how much you need for eating fresh. My 6' rows provide quite a bit. I like hakurei turnips which seem to be holding up in the garden so far (pulled some yesterday 12/16) but the family isn't crazy about them. a 3' row would have been sufficient. I didn't do a good job thinning but they've grown in thick clusters.

I've been very happy with potato samplers from Moose's Tubers/Fedco Seeds. Stored in the basement for winter. I'm trying to avoid doing a lot of canning. We love winter squash but that takes up a lot of room. Carrots are so cheap at the supermarket that I didn't grow any for years but my husband has decided that homegrown carrots taste great. I was amazed at how many grew in two short rows.

I think you can probably do a lot more succession planting than I can. Lasagna gardening is great!

Thanks for the suggestions.

I chose asparagus because we both love them and I have successfully grown them in the past. We have herbs scattered about our perennial beds.

Pole beans seem like a good idea. There are ferel cats in my yard which will keep the rabbits away. Onions , lettuce and spinach might be worth a try. Sugar snap peas and garlic too.

Okay. Time to start planning this out.

Thanks

Harry

If you have room for a herb garden that is also highly recommended... I love my herb garden, especially considering some of it is perennial. It is attractive all year and rewarding. It does not take a lot of space.

If you plant asparagus, plant it on the north side as it is a shady plant. I think you need to move the cantaloupes to the new location as they can be very disease prone if planting again and again in the same spot.