Help in planning

I have had one garden before this year but this is the first sfg for me.
I have a family of 2 adults and 4 kids. I really want to rely on this
garden for us. At this point I'm planning on having 3-4 4x4 gardens.
What I need help in is planning what to put in the gardens and what to
plant with what. I just want to make the best of it. I'm a stay at
home mom who wants to do what I can so I don't have to buy as much at
the grocery store.

PLEASE HELP!
Robin

The most important choices are those that your family enjoys eating the most.

You can get two crops from a single square if you plant a few radishes, lettuces, spinach in among the other slower-growing crops. These will also benefit from the shade of the larger crops.

Have you read Mel's 'The New Square Foot Garden?' If not, get it at your library or have them get it for you on loan if they don't have it. Its the best thing out there for someone growing a Square Foot Garden with raised beds.

Most crops take one square foot but in some foot squares you can get 4 plants, like leaf lettuce. parsley and turnip, or 9 bush beans and spinach, or 16 carrots, beets, radishes and leeks, so having the book with the plans is very helpful.

Tomatoes staked or strung on twine take one sq foot as do peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower. Staggering your planting times for any particular crop will have them ripen at later dates so they don't all mature at the same time.
You can also plant a spring crop of cool-weather crops and then a fall crop of them as well at which time they grow even better because they don't have heat to contend with and many taste even better after a light frost or two.

Make a list of your family's favorite foods first, then start planning.

Robin,

To know what to grow, you first need to determine, What your family likes to eat and what you normally buy in the grocery store.
You want to grow things you would normally buy, add in maybe one or two new veggies you have not tried before, then plan your garden around those major choices.

You don't want to grow swiss chard or radishes (or whatever) if no one in the house will eat them. You also want to want to plant varieties that do well in your area.

The following link lists different types of veggies for your garden and also lists the recommended varieties for Kansas.

Kansas Garden Guide

Hope this helps

Amen to that. We were given some bean seeds a while back. It would be a great thing for most people to plant, but since my wife and I hate beans it makes a bad choice for us. (So we smiled an nodded when we got the seeds, and now we're giving them to someone else.)

Here are a few things you can consider:
Tomatoes (get ready to can or freeze them though)
Corn
Peas
Lettuce/spinace/cabbage/etc
Carrots
squash
Herbs (oregano, parsley, basil, etc)

Welcome to the SFG Forum. Using the search feature I found a few previous threads that address some of your questions. Click the links below to see the previous threads.
how much to plant

How much to plant 2

I agree 100% with Furbalsmom. Other aspects to consider:

1. Regarding what you normally buy at the store: What can be gotten cheaply/easily, vs. what is expensive by unit weight or volume. For example, I grew beans last year (and will again) but I can buy organic beans quite cheaply here, and having a few cans around is really handy. On the other hand, it seems that I am forever buying a bunch of cilantro (for around $2) and only using a little bit of it before it turns into icky goo in the fridge. So it makes sense for me to grow the cilantro.

2. There are some plants that are easy to grow but could be hard to find in the store, for whatever reason. For me that one is fresh dill seed heads, which I found out last year are a hot commodity when doing home canning. You can sub in dill seed, but I wanted to do it the "real" way.... so now here I am growing dill.

I went on gardener's website and took some of theirs and switched some of theirs what do you think?

I haven't even thought out directions yet but I will do so after thoughts.
Thanks.

http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KGPJS#savesiteplan

Let me know if this doesn't work.

Bigmama......The site posted came up but there are no crops in the blocks. Were you trying to post YOUR garden plan?
It won't post anyone's plan. You have to log in for your own plan when you go back there to see it again. We can't see it. All we get is a black plan.

That sucks and makes since. Do you know if here is a way that I can show it?

1)potatoes

2)2 squares summer squash and 2 squares zucchini

3)3 squares carrots, 1 square chives, 2 square small watermelon, 4 squares cherry tomatoes, 2 squares calendula, 4 squares green beans, 2 square green peppers, 2 square small pumpkins, 12 squares of sweet corn

4)6 squares of peas, 6 squares spinach, 6 square leaf lettuce, 2 square radishes, 1 square green pepper, 2 square green onions, 4 square broccoli, 4 squares tomatoes

5)4 square slicing cucumbers, 4 pickling cucumbers

6)1 square parsley, 2 squares cilantro, 2 squares basil, 4 square of onions, 4 square tomatoes, 2 square green peppers, 1 square tomatillos

If you guys think something won't work please let me know. I have built all my gardens yet but I need to asap. And if anyone knows of good variety of veggies let me know too. I'm planning on getting veggies that vine and put them in cages or trellises.
Thanks.