Day 47 - Self-Sufficiency Sizing Stuff

It's a question that is posed all over the internet: how big will my garden need to be to provide vegetables for my family? Unfortunately, no two families have the same appetites, so the answers can vary wildly. According to one of my gardening books ("Your Vegetable Garden in Australia" by George Seddon) 335 square meters are required for a family of four.

At the moment, my total possible gardening area (including window sills, edges of steps etc.) is about 2 square metres. Luckily, my wife and I are buying our first house at the end of this year, which means I will have much more room. However, the garden will not be just a food-producing facility. We have to take into consideration the dog that we will be rescuing from the RSPCA, the kids that we will be having and the flowers that I will be growing for the Sunday table!

At the moment I've got no idea of how much area would keep us in fruit and vegetables. The good thing is that I have a cunning plan. Since January 18th, I've been maintaining a document containing details of all fruit and vegetables purchased. After keeping this record for a year, I'll know how much we go through annually. Then it's just a matter of finding average yields for these plants and their areas required and I'll have a total figure.

My guess is 200 square metres considering that we don't eat a lot of potatoes. Reader guesses are very welcome! The closest guess wins my congratulations!