Hi Doug,
We live in Seattle on a relatively small plot of land (7000 sqft) and find that we get get quite a bit of food from our yard---though there is lots of room for improvement. When we didn't have our own land, my wife kept a small garden in containers---growing largely greens, strawberries and tomatoes---sometimes zukes. There are lots of books out there that give advice. With land we've expanded into trees (apple) and berries (rasp straw and blue). One lesson that I've learned is to find the right spot for the right plant. My blueberries did not like being on a hot, relatively dry slope...but thrived on wetter ground where protected by late-afternoon sun. Find out what grows best on your property and concentrate on that. We, for example, found that strawberries liked our sunny exposure and sandy-loam soil. We harvested maybe 200 lbs this year over month--but we can't grow corn or melons for crap. Another tip is to use a gardening technique that I think they use in France that abandons neat, orderly rows with spacing between plants and instead ops for density of crops in a smaller plot. Seeds are broadcast and then plants thinned as necessary with a variety of crops sharing the same area. Obviously they will need to have similar needs in terms of soil type, etc. maybe called intensive cultivation? I think this also requires s steady supply of compost to maintain nutrients. Anyway, hope this helps.
United States 
