2,000 Sq. Foot Garden Need Plant Ideas

I have built roughly 2,000 square feet of raised beds. I have two other ladies that are going to help me work the garden. We are going to feed our three families (8 people total) and the rest that we are able to produce is going to given away to people that need it. With times as tough as they are I want to feed as many as I can. I need ideas of what else to plant. I have most of the beds laid out but have around another 300 squares that need to be planted. I also have 22 feet of trellises that is with the broccoli and cauliflower that needs something planted that will climb up it. I have used companion planting and been really careful with placement to make sure all the plants get along. I am located in Washington State on the coast side of the mountains so it stays fairly cool. It takes longer for things to mature and to get going. This is my first garden since moving here. I am going to try it in the garden but I'm scared that I am going to have to grow my black-eyed peas and okra in the greenhouse. However, being from the southeast, it is just not a garden without them. The things that are already in the garden are:

Artichoke 4
Asparagus 30
Basil 72
Beans (Bush Snap) 891
Beans (Dry) 252
Beans (Lima) 189
Beans (Pole) 552
Borage 14
Broccoli 54
Brussels Sprouts 17
Cabbage (Red) 6
Cabbage (Summer) 12
Calendula 4
Carrots 224
Cauliflower 29
Celery 99
Chives 576
Cilantro 4
Corn 1,044
Cucumber 132
Dill 84
Fennel (Herb) 8
Garlic 72
Horseradish 2
Kale 3
Kohlrabi 36
Lavender 6
Leek 54
Lettuce (Crisphead) 52
Lettuce (Leaf) 54
Lettuce (Miners) 48
Lovage 6
Marjoram 6
Melons 22 feet of trellises
Mint 6
Monarda 6
Okra 20
Onion (Yellow) 288
Onion (Green) 128
Onion (Red) 160
Oregano 5
Parsley 96
Peas 504
Peppers 65
Potatoes 42
Pumpkin 8
Radish 128
Rosemary 8
Sage 10
Spinach 54
Squash 28
Strawberry 108
Sweet Potato 10
Tarragon 3
Thyme 4
Tomato 50
Companion Flowers 634 (Cosmos, Aster, Black Eyed Susan, Geranium, Heliotrope, Morning Glory, Petunia, Snapdragon, Torenia, Viola, Marigold, Nasturtium, Sunflower)

The only thing I know is not there are beets. None of us eat them so we were not going to plant them.

This is link for the garden layout that is 50' x 101' and there are close-ups of Section 1 and 2 that still have squares that need to be filled:

My Square Foot Garden Link

The garden has been designed to be a landscape feature in addition to a garden. My husband requested a maze. We are going to spend so much time there, I wanted it to be a place we all truly enjoyed spending our time. I will eventually have a couple of statues in center of the two big center beds along with benches and some tables scattered around. The entrance from the top is the main entrance to the garden so it needs to have the wow factor. I thought about maybe some cut perennials in the squares at the bed edges. It also crossed my mind to have an arbor with roses or a vining melon that would grow over it.

The 22 foot section with the trellises, I did think maybe some gourds would be a fun option. That would take up some space but what to do with the rest?

So in summary, does anybody have any ideas for:
1. The grand entrance plants and/or layout.
2. Plants and/or their layout to complete Sections 1 &2.
3. Plants that are good companions for broccoli/cauliflower that will grow up the 6 foot trellises to make a living wall.

I've done so much all at one time that my creative design tank has just hit empty.

I didnt see any Swiss chard, Stevia, Parsnips or Turnips

how about some berry bushes

grapes and kiwi will climb

how about Espalier fruit trees as a living wall

and before i forget to say.....WOW ...thats a lot of growing area and sounds so wonderful....could you post some pictures?...please

happy gardening
rose

FamilyGardening wrote:I didnt see any Swiss chard, Stevia, Parsnips or Turnips

how about some berry bushes

grapes and kiwi will climb

how about Espalier fruit trees as a living wall

and before i forget to say.....WOW ...thats a lot of growing area and sounds so wonderful....could you post some pictures?...please

happy gardening
rose

I actually have a separate blueberry bed with 32 bushes. I also have a grape arbor with really old grape vines that were here when I bought the property last year. There are also established raspberries, blackberries, plums, apples, pears and kiwi that are spread all around the house. None of us eat turnips, parsnips just got missed on the list but I do need to add the Swiss Chard and Stevia.

Here are some pictures of the beds before I started planting them. It is broken into three pictures because it was impossible to get the whole garden in one picture. Once everything is up and going I thought about going to a little local airport that is nearby to see if they could get a picture of the whole thing from the air.

Upper Portion Sections 1&2
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Upper Portion Sections 3&4
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Lower Portion
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Thanks for your help.

Now that I figured out how to get the pictures to post rather than a link, here is the garden layout and the closeup of the two sections I still have to figure out what to plant.

Overall Garden Layout
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Upper Portion Section One


Upper Portion Section Two

SLake2000 wrote:I have built roughly 2,000 square feet of raised beds. .......The garden has been designed to be a landscape feature in addition to a garden. My husband requested a maze.

Awesome space!

Question 3: Nasturtiums are supposed to be good companions for broccoli, and the leaves and flowers are both edible. The flowers may attract some pollinators to your garden, and the plants are supposed to repel some pests (can't remember now which ones!)

GG

PS: NASTURTIUMS:......deterring aphids, squash bugs, and striped pumpkin beetles..... (info from Golden Harvest Organics, LLC)

Your SFG will probably qualify as World's Most Beautiful!

wow!! that is an A M A Z I N G garden! How did you get enough MM to fill all those boxes? What are the boxes made of? Looks like a lot of time and $$, and it's beautiful!! Can't wait to see your progress!!

I'm not seeing greens and herbs.
You can grow chives, Rosemary, and thymes in a permanent bed if you've not planned that way yet.
How about Pak Choi (Bok Choy), Chinese cabbage, radicchio, arugula, mizuna, Tokyo bekana.
I'm in the north country and those all grow well under cooler conditions.
Actually, you can tuck in greens and lettuces between your broccs and caulis and Brussels quite easily. They'll be harvested before the brassicas need all the soil nutrients.
As for vining crops, Red Malabar spinach even grows thru the summer.
Great garden. Great plans. Good job. Good luck.

Wow, that is a work of art and you and the other families have sure put in a lot of time in just the planning stage!!! You will definitely be growing enough for the three families and enough to feed many other families! That is such a wonderful idea to grow the extra since you do have the room. If you are not set up with MM, advice given here may not exactly work for you as the nutrients in the MM is different than soil. But if you have any questions, ask away.

Great and amazing job!!!

I don't even know what to say! I am speechless... That looks amazing! My wife says "Take that Monsanto" lol

That is a really exciting to see planned out garden!

For 3 families you might want to double your potatoes.
Try growing some rutabagas as well. And what about greens? Bok Choi, raab, mustard greens all love cooler weather.

What kind of dry beans are you planting?

Why not plant sweet peas on the trellis that is not being other wise used.

Be sure to post progress reports. I know I am dying to see this in action.

southern gardener wrote:wow!! that is an A M A Z I N G garden! How did you get enough MM to fill all those boxes? What are the boxes made of? Looks like a lot of time and $$, and it's beautiful!! Can't wait to see your progress!!

I had a local company make MM for me so I could get it in bulk. It took 38 cubic yards to fill the beds. It is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and the other 1/3 is a mixture of 5 different compost.

The beds are built from 1x6, 1x12 and 4x4s. It took a month to build all the beds. All the sides were cut and pocket holes drilled so there would be a nice tight fit.
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The 4x4's were all cut for the corners and I mitered the tops. Then I routed out a 1/2" groove at the meets so the boxes would have really strong joints and be nice and square.

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Most of the assembly and paint was all done in my workshop/garage. The landscape fabric was attached to the bottom. Then chicken wire was attached due to we have a lot of moles here. Then all the preassembled boxes were placed in the field and joined together. This is what the boxes looked like before the dirt was put in.

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The boxes ran about $4,000, the soil mix was around $2,800 and the blower truck to put the soil in the beds was $1,200. (Had to have the blower truck or I would still be out there next summer trying to get that much dirt moved.) While that sounds expensive, think of how much the vegetables from this garden would cost at the grocery store. It will quickly pay for itself. The only thing I have left to do is build all the strips to sit on top that mark the squares. Due to time and budget, I had a choice of building the strips or getting the crops in the ground, so I opted to plant crops.

After all the work to get to this point, I can't wait to see it with all the plants growing.

I don't see any in the photos, what about anchoring corners with fruit trees: apples, pears, plums, etc.

I must say that looks amazing and is something that I have in mind for when I get my own house...which is a long time away. I don't know of anything else food wise to plant except maybe to add more of things that people like the most. For instant I had 40 green bean bushes and my 5 year old ate all the green beans by himself from those bushes. I got maybe 2. Also how about some flowers to help bring in the pollinators or to get cuts from. My boys love to pick flowers for me. Just my thoughts and wonderful garden I'm extremely jealous!!!

Slake...This looks wonderful
I have just 1 question
What are you going to do in your spare time ???...

Jaw Dropping and Wow!

That is just wonderful that you thought to have your MM made and brought in! You have done everything correctly, right from the beginning! I totally agree with getting your plants into the beds so they can be growing! With all your fruit you have growing also, you are set! It sounds like you have a very nice shop!

I love how you have double deep beds all ready! Mel will just have to see what you created! You do know he recommends you start small.

I just came in from my 100 footer and compost pile, and I'm exhausted and soaked. How do you water that amazing garden?

CC

It's going to be absolutely stunning when it's full of veggies!

Just to put your dollar numbers in perspective for everyone, it works out to $4 per square foot, and for those of us who started on a small scale, that's $64 for a 4x4 box ready to plant. As I recall from past threads, that's a good price for someone starting out by buying everything they need.

But inquiring minds want to know: what compost ingredients did you use, and where in the world did you find them in sufficient volume?

CapeCoddess wrote:

I just came in from my 100 footer and compost pile, and I'm exhausted and soaked. How do you water that amazing garden?

CC

+1

No_Such_Reality wrote:I don't see any in the photos, what about anchoring corners with fruit trees: apples, pears, plums, etc.

I have apples, pears, plums, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries on the other side of the property. I have two acres and am bound and determined to make use of every inch of it. The apple, pear and plum trees were already part of the landscaping around the house. I don't know how well it would do here but the only thing I have missing is a fig.

Speechless!

Wowzers!!! So exciting to see a project of this magnitude!! Keep posting pics - I can't wait to see it fill out!

SLake2000 wrote: I don't know how well it would do here but the only thing I have missing is a fig.

I'm south of you and next to the foothills. My fig tree is about 8 feet tall and has been producing a nice harvest for 6 years.

I say go for it, if you want some.

But inquiring minds want to know: what compost ingredients did you use, and where in the world did you find them in sufficient volume?

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I agree...what is the compost made of ? I can't wait to see it planted and growing!! PLEASE keep us updated!!