A garden that feeds you is planned around your time, sun, water and soil, not around enthusiasm, and the books say the commonest beginner mistake is planting too much too soon.
Start smaller than you think
The book suggests a 20 by 20 foot garden (about 6 by 6 metres) as a manageable starting point for one or two adults, and advises expanding step by step. Every extra row means more watering, weeding, pest control and harvesting, which becomes hard work if you are tending the garden alone. Make the garden only as big as you can easily look after.
Choose the site
- Sun: a kitchen garden needs at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight a day.
- Close to home and water: you will visit it daily, and every litre has to be carried or piped from your own supply.
- Shelter: protect it from strong winds with a fence.
Test the soil
Test the soil before planting anything. The book says most vegetables grow well at a pH of 6.0 to 7.0. If the soil is poor, you can improve it over time (see building soil for a productive garden), but raised beds let you fill your growing space with good soil from the start, so you do not need to fix the land first. The book strongly recommends them for beginners: they warm up faster in spring, drain better and are easier to weed.
Plan for storage, not just fresh eating
Many beginners find they are self-sufficient in energy and water but still buying almost all their food. Choose crops that are productive, forgiving and store well (choosing crops), and plan to preserve the harvest (planning an off-grid food supply).
A simple planning sequence
- Find the sunniest, most sheltered spot near the house and water.
- Test the soil and decide on raised beds or in-ground rows.
- Start with about 6 by 6 metres.
- Choose a handful of reliable crops rather than many unfamiliar ones.
- Plan watering from the start (watering strategies).
- Expand only when you are keeping up comfortably.
Worked example: a four-bed starter plot
This is an illustration; adjust it to your climate. Build four raised beds, each 1.2 m wide and 3 m long (14.4 m² in all). At 1.2 m wide you can reach the middle from the path without stepping on the soil.
- Bed 1: potatoes, a calorie crop that stores well.
- Bed 2: peas and beans.
- Bed 3: cabbage family crops.
- Bed 4: root crops such as carrots and beetroot.
Each year, move every crop group on to the next bed. Rotating like this is a common way to limit pest and disease build-up. Start with a plot you can keep weeded and watered; a small plot that is looked after beats a large one that is not.
Sources and further reading
- Growing vegetables (Royal Horticultural Society).
- Soil types (Royal Horticultural Society).
Where the books cover this
Chapter 8, “Growing Your Own Food, The Survival Garden”, covers planning your garden, what to grow, pest management, water management and seed saving; Chapter 10 adds targeting calorie crops. The same chapter text appears in both books (see the comparison), so you only need one. Some examples use US units and US organisations, so check how they apply where you live. You can read sample pages before buying.
Off Grid Survival for Beginners · The Off-Grid Survival Manual
The Survival Garden guide follows the whole garden chapter. If you want the DIY approach to growing, building beds and preserving food, see The Off-Grid Survival Manual.