how many to sow?

[grannydrums]

After some success this year growing tomatoes, cucumbers beans and potatoes at the bottom of the gardenI have decided to really go for it next year and add other vegetables we like--peppers, courgette, chard and aztec broccoli. I am starting to plan the two beds (plus the greenhouse) for next year, What I have no feel for is how many plants of each to have. There is just the two of us, and we only need to eat in 6 evenings a week. I wont be freezing or preserving or anything Anybody any ideas?

[ken]

Tricky! But to get the ball rolling...In a similar situation, we find 2 cucumber plants are enough. For tomatoes, I'd grow 2 Latah (very early bush variety), 1 Sungold and 1 Gardners Delight. A shame you don't want to preserve anything though, because it's very easy to get a glut of various crops. As well as eating french beans fresh, we freeze a lot for winter use. Ditto goes for tomatoes - we grow Olivade, a very prolific plum variety, and a lot of those go in the freezer to use in winter casseroles. Peppers? We like those, too, and generally grow 4-6 of Gypsy, where the peppers are smallish but early and you get a lot of them.

[Primrose]

Chard leves boil/steam down tremendously when cooked so what seems like a enormous bowlful when picked fresh will steam down to a very small quantity, so grow a generous amout so you can keep picking through much of the season. 3 - 6 pepper plants should be enough if you're not going to freeze and two courgette plants should be adequate. If you're not going to be freezing I would sow half a dozen broccoli plants at a time in succession the basis that not all will germinate. Everything will depend on weather, bugs and slugs , so sow and plant more generously at first and be prepared for losses. Better to be slightly overwhelmed than disappointed in my view!