Nourish & Flourish: Calculate next year's garden with this handy online tool

It’s never too early to start planning next year’s garden.

The Groves family, profiled in the April 2025 Samaritan Ministries newsletter, has updated a “How Much to Grow Calculator.” The tool is designed to help you determine how many vegetables to plant to feed your family, whether you just want to supply 20% of your own consumption or 100%.

The calculator requires you to input the following:

• the percentage of your self-sufficiency goal
• the amount of each particular vegetable per meal you intend to eat in cups
• the number of meals per month at which you would serve that vegetable

The calculator will then tell you the following:

• row length
• space required in square feet
• plantings (before thinning)
• annual harvest in pounds

The page will also calculate the minimum garden size that will be needed in square feet, not including walking paths.

You can also print the resulting table or save it as a CSV file.

The table also allows you to factor in a loss-and-replanting situation and has a table that shows what the calculations are based on in terms of yield, seed spacing, row spacing, and raw weight.

So while you’re enjoying this year’s harvest, start looking at how to improve on it next year!

Three chicken thigh meal prep ideas

Eating healthy doesn’t mean dry and tasteless chicken for every meal.

Chicken thighs are a relatively inexpensive and delicious high-protein option. They are juicier than chicken breasts and don’t dry out as easily. Each thigh (typically) has about 200 calories with 25 grams of protein.

For each of the following three meals, get 2 to 3 pounds of chicken thighs and make them as a batch.

Add whatever veggies you want as a side (asparagus, green beans, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.).

See recipes at Layman's Fitness.