I heartily approve of SqFt gardening. You will find it much, much, much easier than the old-fashioned big gardens with their long rows and many paths. I still have both, or to be correct, I have raised beds similar to SqFt, and DH has the old-type garden. I rarely need to pull weeds, while he spends much time doing so. I guess he likes pulling weeds, but that isn't my idea of something fun to do in 90° weather.

Unless you plan to can or freeze extra produce, Bartholomew's list of planting times is very useful. His plan is to harvest continually, just enough for the next meal or two... but to keep on harvesting for month after month. You will like that method in Virginia, because we can use row cover w/plastic to start planting in early April (March for some things) and continue harvesting quite bit right into December. If you are just a bit farther south than I, you may find it possible to have tomatoes off-the-vine for New Year's (I usually harvest through November). If you are going to preserve food, use his chart to compute the best planting time, and then plant enough extra of whatever for at least one big session of preserving -- or you can pot-luck it and just put up a jar or two now and then. Potluck means no waste, but it also means you may not have enough of something to last through the winter. I freeze more than canning now, and have found that potluck does just fine, if I plant enough for 8 instead of for the 2 of us in the things I prefer to freeze (beans, limas, peas, broccoli, greens, tomatoes, peppers). But his best bit of advice is: if you aren't going to eat it, don't plant it!

BTW, most of my beds are 3' wide... 4' is just too far for me to stretch across. And do mulch the paths around the beds... I don't recommend growing grass paths, because if you do, it will have to be mowed, and you can't mow very close to the bed, so you'll end up pulling grass out of the bed. Bah.

Oh yes, look at the package: determinate tomatoes give you some and then a big harvest and then a few more. Indeterminate tomatoes give you some, and then some more and then some more -- not a huge amount at once, but they just keep on producing. Bush beans are similar to determinate tomatoes, and pole beans are keep-on-harvesting like indeterminate tomatoes.

As far as everything else goes, just keep records for the future and enjoy the garden in the present.

Meldy nva,

How do you freeze your produce? Like what is your prep? Any info is appreciated.