Raised bed shape ?

[MartinRSharpe]

2x 8ft x 4ft..... No.

To be honest I don't think its realistic to be able to feed a family of 4 from a couple beds in the garden. You can get certain parts of your food from it (e.g. Salad, Peas, Beans and Tomatoes) but it won't cover everything.

Most people tend to prioritise on
What gives the most improvement on quality
What is the most cost effective
What is easy to grow

[Sanke]

Hi Martin
I take your point but my plan is this
Use greenhouse 8 x 6 high eaves for toms cucumber peppers etc
Seating area near to house for vertical gardening of salad etc
Beds for basic veg

[Alison]

It depends what you mean really. If you wanted to be totally self sufficient then you have no chance. For example you'd need more space than that just for spuds and much of my winter veg is in the ground for a good part of the year so taking up valuable space all summer too. I keep us in veg from 12 10' x 4' & 4 6' x 4' beds js various other bits and pieces, a greenhouse and a polytunnel but then again we eat a lot of veg and I use quite a bit if space for seed saving. If I were you I'd target things that are expensive or difficult to buy or that are much better very fresh. Enjoy.

[kathyd]

We have 13 beds 4ft wide and between 5m and 7m long, plus a 30ftx14ft polytunnel, a big glass porch and a bit of overflow space in the chicken house for extra tomatoes in pots. Oh, and fruit trees and bushes. That's for 2 of us. Granted, we've not bought much veg this summer, but we'll not feed ourselves all year - believe it or not, we struggle to grow enough potatoes (I have probs with them), or onions (we eat loads of them), and there are always some things that fail. We do get gluts of some stuff which we freeze where possible, but as others have said some things take up so much space for so long that you may be better off just buying them in the shops when they're cheap ... eg in my case, I probably won't bother with sprouts any more because although the plants grow huge, they've consistently not produced many edible sprouts for the past 3 years and they're in the ground for ages, hogging a whole bed. So you need to experiment - I grow sprouting broccoli because it's expensive to buy in the shops for some reason, it's available large parts of the year if you plan carefully, it seems to grow well here and it's very productive, and we love broccoli! I also give lots of room to red onions, because they get really expensive over here (between £4-£9 a kg last year!!), and we love them. So be selective, and introduce more space as you decide what else you want to grow.

[Bill HH]

Thanks for all your replies Looks like I will be settling for 2 8 x 4 beds running in line with the greenhouse Would this be big enough to feed a family of 4 or will I need to find room for some more ?

I think your going to need a bigger garden.