Square foot gardening

[fairfarmhand]

Got a book on this concept today. Anyone tried this? How did it go? I'm considering trying this this summer.

[ThatCyndiGirl]

I've been reading about it for the past two years, swearing I'm gonna do it each spring, but lose my nerve every time.

 

Maybe this is the year!!

[Wyndie]

:lurk5:

[LibraryLover]

I think it works very well for those in small spaces. I don't think you need everything he says, but I think its great start. Pots with good soil and composted dirt will also work well.

 

Why would people chicken out on trying a small garden? :) Be brave. If a garden seems too much, but you want to grow something, grow in containers. Make sure they drain well, and add good dirt. You can also grow herbs in cheap plastic pots, which come in big sizes and are usually piled up at your local dump. :)

 

Put some seeds in some dirt...it's fun.

 

Two books that urban or suburban garders, or wanna-be garderners might like are:

 

Farm City Here is Novella's website:

www.novellacarpenter.com/

 

Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community

Edited March 3, 2010 by LibraryLover

[stormy weather]

I have used it both in raised beds(too many rocks, no soil) and in the ground with boards around with gravel walk ways. I like using it pretty well, it cuts down on weeding. You'd be suprised how much you can grow in a small space. Start small if you've never had a garden.

[Frontier Mom]

I did a few years back and it was fabulous!! I even let the dc's have certain squares and they loved tending their own areas.

 

In my current parsonage, we are in a neighborhood that does not allow gardens. Now, I am wanting to do container gardens. Maybe someone can give me a start with this!

 

It really works very well if you set it up and stagger your planting. Mine was fun and a definite conversation starter.

[Carrie12345]

I followed most of the tips last year. It worked out well except for the storm that took out our corn and other weather issues. I'm going to make another bed and try the soil mix suggested this spring.

[kmacnchs]

We use it. Some tips I have learned:

 

Weed cloth - use it for under the beds but not in between - it keeps NO weeds out :glare: Home/Garden stores sell plastic that works WAAAY better. We have that grass that spreads (can't remember the name so weed cloth does NOTHING!)

 

Space strawberries and corn out more than he says to...don't know about other plants but my corn was tiny b/c it was too close and strawberries spread so much, they need to be spaced out further so they can continue to put baby plants down.

 

We had to use it b/c we do not have a tractor (everyone else around us 'gardens' w/a tractor.

 

Make sure you jump on that composting! It makes it a lot better and a lot easier! Plan it out (we have 2 2x8s for strawberries, 1 4x4 for corn, 1 3x4 (6" deep) for root plants, and 1 4x4 for tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, etc.

 

Have fun and good luck! The first year it is expensive but after that, just use your compost! :)

[kayben]

:lurk5: so where do you find out about this? I would love to start small.

[KnitWit]

We did this when we lived in the city.

 

We are in process of adapting it to our land. we are pretty busy, so we are starting small.

 

I think I'm going to try a *kitchen garden* in containers on my deck for herbs and such.

[Erica in OR]

We started several years ago using the mix recommended in the book. I highly recommend investing in making the mix. Our garden has three of the square foot beds and the rest we just plant in the ground. Comparing the two, it's great to have the beds be guaranteed weed-free when you start. If you keep up with the weeding as you go, they stay in great shape. I also appreciate that in the later years it's so easy to get seeds in as early as you want - no digging or tilling required. It's been excellent. You can always start small and then add beds as you go.

 

Go for it!

 

Erica in OR

[kmacnchs]

:lurk5: so where do you find out about this? I would love to start small.

 

square foot gardening

 

you may be able to check it out from your library

 

it is a great book!

[My3Boys]

We started several years ago using the mix recommended in the book. I highly recommend investing in making the mix. Our garden has three of the square foot beds and the rest we just plant in the ground. Comparing the two, it's great to have the beds be guaranteed weed-free when you start. If you keep up with the weeding as you go, they stay in great shape. I also appreciate that in the later years it's so easy to get seeds in as early as you want - no digging or tilling required. It's been excellent. You can always start small and then add beds as you go.

 

Go for it!

 

Erica in OR

 

I agree. I have always used the mixture SFG recommends and it has worked out well for us. In fact, I probably wouldn't garden without using that mix. No weeds, no fertilizing for the whole season. The next year, you just work in some compost.

 

Definitely get the book. It is well worth the cost. Make sure it is the newest edition since he has refined the technique over the years.

[KristineinKS]

I've debated about this for several years & finally started building our boxes last fall. I'm nowhere near done building boxes, but my goal is to grow all of our veggies & herbs this year using the Square Foot method. We have lots of land here, so it isn't a space issue - I'm just attracted to the idea of everything being relatively neat & orderly + less weeding! I'm eager to see how it goes.

[Ritsumei]

I have a square garden, and another that I do lasagna gardening in. I like 'em both, though I have to keep rabbit fence around them, and the lasagna garden works better with that. But the 2 ideas have definitely melded in my gardening. I found the mix in the book to be cost-prohibitive. Lovely soil, but that vermiculite is very expensive! However, our city has compost that we can pick up for free. If your town picks up leaves & things in the spring & fall, chances are you can get them back as lovely compost & maybe some mulch too. Call your garbage people, or check the city website. Not all city compost is created equal: my city's compost is pretty nice. My folks' city does it to but theirs is STINKY. However, it calms down in a few days and both grow lovely gardens. I'm still working on getting "home-grown" compost, as I appear to be compost-stupid, and my husband would rather I skip it altogether. Anyway, I usually do a compost-peatmoss mix now. Makes great dirt. Loose & workable. Much cheaper than the mix in the book.

 

I never did get the lattice on my square garden, and it didn't suffer for it. I did find, however, that my tomatoes get WAY bigger than 1'x1'. I now figure they need about 2'x2'. Maybe I'm just choosing big tomatoes or something. I dunno. But they don't fit.

[mom2jjka]

We have done this in the past and had a phenomenal harvest!

I highly recommend getting the book.

[Hedgehogs4]

I did a few years back and it was fabulous!! I even let the dc's have certain squares and they loved tending their own areas.

 

In my current parsonage, we are in a neighborhood that does not allow gardens. Now, I am wanting to do container gardens. Maybe someone can give me a start with this!

 

It really works very well if you set it up and stagger your planting. Mine was fun and a definite conversation starter.

 

how in the dickens can they keep people from having a garden??? DEFINE GARDEN! that is absolutely the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard.

[Hedgehogs4]

we built a huge square foot garden last year...4x18. it was a learning experience. we got some delicious lettuces, about enough peas to add to two salads, one serving of green beans, ZERO peppers, a few jalapenos, a good crop of tomatos and ZERO zucchini! HOW DOES ZUCCHINI NOT GROW? i thought it was the easiest thing to grow in the world.

 

so, all that to say we had mixed results. we are definitely trying again this year, and i expect it to go much better since we have a nice bit of compost now that is ready for this year's beds. i also plan on investing in some dried manure. i think my soil wasn't fertile enough.

[MomsintheGarden]

we built a huge square foot garden last year...

 

we got ... ZERO zucchini! HOW DOES ZUCCHINI NOT GROW? i thought it was the easiest thing to grow in the world.

 

Did your zucchini plants sprout up just fine, and then die suddenly (overnight)? If so, they were killed by a squash vine borer (SVB), the bane of many a zucchini/squash/pumpkin grower. The mother moth lays eggs at the base of the plant, and the ugly caterpillar(s) eat their way through the plant stems. You can google ways to prevent this, but they all have their drawbacks.

 

GardenMom

[AnneGabe]

I had to pop in and say thank you for starting this thread and thank you to everyone who responded. I've never heard of square foot gardening before!

I've wanted to start a garden but have been way too intimidated by the work and by the fact that I know NOTHING about it.

After watching that video I'm really feeling like I can do this!

Thanks for sharing!

[MomsintheGarden]

I have read old and new versions of SFG. I think it's great that an industrial engineer has used his professional techniques to streamline gardening and make it accessible to more folks. He's inspirational and organized, which is very appealing. That said, I don't like some of what is in the books.

 

FWIW, here are my quibbles:

1. Mel makes it sound as if SFG is the absolute best way to garden. It's great and has helped many folks, but there are many wonderful ways to garden.

2. He makes it sound as if you must spend a lot of money making raised beds, when you can make beds that work just fine WITHOUT any sides at all. And you don't need the grids, either. It's fine if that's what you want and it works well, but I think a lot of folks don't even start when they see how much it will cost.

3. I do not like his recommendation of using non-biodegradable weed-blocking fabric under the beds. I really don't like that stuff because I believe it's an environmental nightmare. I prefer several layers of newspapers or overlapped cardboard; it works well and turns into soil eventually.

 

Happy gardening, whatever method you chose!

Gardenmom

[LibrarianMom]

I have the Square Foot book and right now I also have the Lasagna Gardening book checked out from the library. Both sound very intriguing but I think I'm drawn more towards lasagna gardening. Please bear with me for a stupid question from a gardening dunce. I'm thinking about making our beds using the lasagna gardening method but then planting it in the square foot sections. Does that make sense and will it work or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[fairfarmhand]

I don't see why the cross of the two methods would not work. Lasagna gardening is just building up the soil and basically planting on top of the compost pile! That is what I am considering doing myself. I've done a row garden for years and it always is a nightmare of work that ends up getting away from me. Then I have a weed patch. So I'm willing to give this a try. But I am going to go the cheap route and see what happens.

[Pamela H in Texas]

GardenMom,

 

I RESEMBLE your remarks! I have tried container gardening (FAIL), but have found it impossible to sq ft garden because I can't afford to do it. I can't afford the sides and I can't afford to fill up the boxes. And I can't imagine I'm gonna get so much yield to justify all that cost if I could come up with all that cost at one time.

 

But my dirt is horrible. A neighbor said he had two trucks of dirt brought in to garden. Well, THAT isn't a choice either.

 

So each year, I want to garden so badly and every year we get a few measly plants that give us 2 or 4 tiny veggies. What IS the point?

 

BTW, we're mostly raw vegan so it would be GREAT if I had a clue, at least for a few basics.

 

I think my biggest issue is my environment. I have NO shade in my yard ANYWHERE. I basically have an acre of weeds. The only place we have actual grass and life is around the septic system sprinklers. The yard is HARD and cracked all summer. Being in Texas, we have a very harsh and hot sun.

Edited March 4, 2010 by 2J5M9K

[keptwoman]

I've planted our first garden in Australia, I'm using the no-dig-lasagne method and I think it's working well.

I started with cardboard, straw and manure with a light topping of compost so I could plant right into it. I've been dumping all our kitchen and garden waste on a designated area of the garden and I'm amazed how quickly it breaks down and is plantable! The old areas of the garden have sustained deep rooted plants, but the new areas compacted very quickly, fine for lettuce, broccoli and cucumber but no good for larger plants.

 

I've never been terribly efficient about rows, I tend to just jam in as many plants as will fit, so I guess I'm a SFG without ever reading the book.

[MomsintheGarden]

I have the Square Foot book and right now I also have the Lasagna Gardening book checked out from the library. Both sound very intriguing but I think I'm drawn more towards lasagna gardening. Please bear with me for a stupid question from a gardening dunce. I'm thinking about making our beds using the lasagna gardening method but then planting it in the square foot sections. Does that make sense and will it work or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

YES! This absolutely works; I've done it a lot myself.

 

For me, the key ingredient with lasagna-type gardening is time. If I put down my newspapers, manure, compost, whatever, and let it sit for about 6 months (we live in the northern Shenandoah Valley, YMMV). Things rot down, and voila!, the soil is ready to go.

 

SFG is really just a well-worked-out plant spacing method. Mel has gone on to refine it, which is great for folks who like it very spelled out, but intimidating for those who don't have the $ or who prefer to tweak. Many others have done intensive plant spacing, noteably John Jeavons (of How to Grow More Vegetables fame). However, if you read Jeavons' book, you will come away thinking that you have to kill yourself double-digging that hard, cracked Texas clay. Also, in drought-prone regions, gardening on the flat can be better than trying to squeeze plants together.

 

Lasagna Gardening is a takeoff on Ruth Stout's "lazy" gardening method, that she perfected in the 1930's. I like how it's been modernized.

 

Combining methods works! Plants really don't care if you have fancy side supports for your beds, planting grids, or all of the ingredients in Mel's mix. Vegetables like good soil with lots of organic matter. If you have the money, I recommend spending it on peat moss, a bag of kelp meal to sprinkle sparingly, some bagged compost, and manure. The single best thing you can do right now is start a compost pile for the future. Your mindset should be, "How can I get more organic matter into my soil?"

 

GardenMom

[MomsintheGarden]

GardenMom,

 

I RESEMBLE your remarks! I have tried container gardening (FAIL), but have found it impossible to sq ft garden because I can't afford to do it. I can't afford the sides and I can't afford to fill up the boxes. And I can't imagine I'm gonna get so much yield to justify all that cost if I could come up with all that cost at one time.

 

But my dirt is horrible. A neighbor said he had two trucks of dirt brought in to garden. Well, THAT isn't a choice either.

 

So each year, I want to garden so badly and every year we get a few measly plants that give us 2 or 4 tiny veggies. What IS the point?

 

BTW, we're mostly raw vegan so it would be GREAT if I had a clue, at least for a few basics.

 

I think my biggest issue is my environment. I have NO shade in my yard ANYWHERE. I basically have an acre of weeds. The only place we have actual grass and life is around the septic system sprinklers. The yard is HARD and cracked all summer. Being in Texas, we have a very harsh and hot sun.

 

That's exactly why I said what I did! Mel's book is great - it makes you think you can really do it. Gardening supply catalogs LOVE his book, because it inspires folks to buy lots of stuff. All those fancy beds look so pretty, too. But you don't need them to grow plants.

 

Container gardening is very difficult in hot, dry regions. You would need to water several times a day, which would be very difficult for anyone to keep up with.

 

I suggest that you start small. How about concentrating this year on building up a manageable-sized bed, like one from 4'x8' up to 4'x25', whatever you have the space for and feel comfortable with? Lay down newspapers, overlapping, at least 4 sheets thick. Cover with whatever you can come up with. Compost kitchen scraps by tucking them in under the top stuff. Keep your eyes open for organic matter, and add that, too. Water every once in a while. By fall you should have a plantable bed. Since you live in TX, you can grow LOTS of vegetables all winter, by planting in the early fall (ask your extension agent for dates, or google).

 

Here is what you could potentially grow all winter:

short-day bulbing onions (like the Videlia type), bunching (green or spring) onions, carrots, beets, broccoli, kale, cabbage, Asian greens such as mizuna, mache, lettuce, spinach, anything that doesn't like the heat. You could also grow tomatoes, squash, beans, etc., started in late summer on into the fall.

 

To cut down on the summer sun, you can buy pre-made shade cloth and put it on hoops, to block southern exposure. This is standard practice for growers in Australia. Some crops love the heat, and I'd recommend researching which varieties are best suited to your region.

 

Start small, build up your soil, work with - not against- your seasons, and ask your extension agent for help with varieties and techniques that work in your region.

 

HTH,

GardenMom

[Tammyla]

Squarefoot-fans here.

 

We pretty much followed Mel's plan for 4'x4' boxes, soil, lattice grids(switched to heavy string) and crop planning. It worked better than any garden we've ever planted here, and there was NO WEEDING!

 

Loved, loved the organic veggies and we'll plant more this year. I was definitely surprised how many wonderful things you could grow in such small spaces. One minus for me was the heavy tomato plants and we'll be trying that Topsy-turvy hanger out here. There are plenty of ways to container garden without a lot of backbreaking work and time.

 

This year I'll be saving on seeds, since so many were left over from last year. The soil mix will be our only cost this time around.

[Hedgehogs4]

I have the worst case of spring fever i think i've ever had. last night i sat with my grid paper and tried to figure out what i want to plant this year. we have a 4x17 raised bed for vegetables and another exactly the same size exclusively for herbs...so TONS of squares. we used string last year to grid the thing and that was a big waste...the sun dry rotted it in no time. i like the grid concept but would like a different material.

 

this year we plan to add another 4 in garden tie to our bed to make it deeper, add a cucumber frame to the end of it, some bean poles to the middle...i'm excited. we should be able to grow tons if we do this right. we had tons of compost broken down from the last year of composting absolutely everything we could...

 

so far in my plan i have 15 tomato plants 4 pepper plants, 4 pole beans, 4-6 peas, lettuces, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, and cucumbers. i have 68 total squares for my vegetables...any one want to offer any other fun ideas? what have you grown that was easy and fun? this is our second year, so hopefully we'll have better success this time round.

[Brooketopia]

My DH got hooked on this last year and I was incredibly impressed by the bounty he harvested. It was the first year he was "in charge" of the garden and the yields were totally above and beyond anything I had ever managed to get that dirt to produce!

[the4Rs]

HA! I just posted about container gardens and then saw this...this looks very interesting. I don't have a good yard for square foot gardening but I will definitely keep it in mind. Now off to research lasagne garden....never even heard of such a thing.

 

Oh and i have heard that those topsy-turvy tomato plants work really well. Going to try those for sure.

[Frontier Mom]

how in the dickens can they keep people from having a garden??? DEFINE GARDEN! that is absolutely the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard.

 

I agree completely!! We are in a subdivision so people get around it by planting a few tomatoes with the shrubs, in pots, by the back deck, etc. This is our church parsonage so I didn't really have a say so. The house is extremely nice though so I'm not complaining.

 

The back is pretty much woods and natural area anyway. I think I will do some herbs in pots, as well as some tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. in some pots here and there.

 

It's in the subdivision by-laws. Believe me, the people on the board are retired with nothing to do except ride around and hand out notices. We haven't ever received one yet though;)

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

We tried SFG last year, with mixed success. We also got zero zucchinis..

 

Over here, the squirrels, rabbits, and racoons get into gardens. They're too clever for most barriers. With SQF, we had covers in chicken coop wiring. I could lift the covers and tend to the garden, then put the covers back.

 

My neighbour did a standard garden. She got almost nothing. A few tomatoes (which I got because they were ready when she was away in Florida for 3 weeks) and that's it. Carrots got eaten. Everything else got eaten! And she had most products to deter wild life. None of them worked completely.

 

As for us, the covers were pretty high, but not high enough for vine-like veggies. so zucchinis, peppers, and tomatoes were planted elsewhere, with no cover. Wild life got them all.