Square foot gardeners-a question.....

[rwalizer]

Now that it's spring and my beds have been sitting all winter, what should I do to prepare them for new planting? I can't find anything in the book to tell me how to prep the existing beds for new plants. I was thinking that I could just dump a bag of compost into each bed, mix it in, an start planting. What do you do? Thanks.

[MBM]

Now that it's spring and my beds have been sitting all winter, what should I do to prepare them for new planting? I can't find anything in the book to tell me how to prep the existing beds for new plants. I was thinking that I could just dump a bag of compost into each bed, mix it in, an start planting. What do you do? Thanks.

 

That sounds fine. I do the lazy method: clean up debris, put down about an inch or so of organic manure, and finish with about 2-3" of leaf mulch on top. I don't even mix it in. That job is for my hard-working worms. The final step is planting. So far, this has worked well for me.

[KC in KS]

Yup, that's all I did. Somewhere Mel does talk about freshening up his "Perfect Mix" each year - basically the vermiculite & peat moss doesn't need to be topped off, but the compost nutrients get used up by the plants and needs to be re-filled each year.

[*Jessica*]

Now that it's spring and my beds have been sitting all winter, what should I do to prepare them for new planting? I can't find anything in the book to tell me how to prep the existing beds for new plants. I was thinking that I could just dump a bag of compost into each bed, mix it in, an start planting. What do you do? Thanks.

That's what I do! I haven't updated it in a year, but this is the blog I use to keep track of my square foot garden and you can see photos if you're interested: A Little Dirt Never Hurt

[olan719]

This is pretty much what we did. Last year was our first year, and we used Mel's dirt formula. Stuff did grow, but many did not grow well enough to produce, or the produce was really funky...like the cucumbers were really fat and orangish! We didn't eat them.

 

Anyway, we pulled out all the weeds and growth from last year. We ended up getting rid of about half the dirt in the process. We added a giant bag of garden soil, 2 bags of compost/manure, and a couple of bags of top soil to each bed, and remixed. Then we planted. We'll see....I hope we have a lot better luck with production this year. We didn't plant as much variety this year, and I plan to supplement with plant food once the seeds sprout.

 

Hope this helps!

[elise1mds]

Loose soil on top should be fine as long as the roots are down in nice and deep and you're giving them a good soaking when you water. My very top layer of soil is loose, too, but the plants seem to be thriving. All I did to prep for this year was weed and throw on a few bags each of mushroom compost and manure. I only used organic fertilizer twice last year and everything grew like crazy, so I'm hoping to have a repeat. I planted more this year and am hoping I didn't go overboard! :)

[olan719]

Shanna, now you have me worried. This is our first year and I have a few things planted but it's still a little cold to get it all in yet. The soil is loose and the water seems to go right through. I'm worried about things drying out.

 

I started a blog last night but I have to get the photos into it hopefully today or tomorrow.

 

http://squarefootgardengoodness.blogspot.com/

 

CarolW, don't be too worried. After all, I blame most of our failures on our own lack of green thumb...:tongue_smilie:We had to deal with some regional pests as well.

 

For many people, they follow the directions and get fantastic results from the beginning. Take my experience with a grain of salt; after all, we are trying again! We just added "ready made" garden soil this year because my mother had such great success with her tomatoes in pots last year with this. I'm also keeping up with harvest dates better this year, and I am not going to get discouraged and give up if something doesn't do right.

 

If it makes you feel better, our sugar snap peas did great last year, as well as the peppers! Good luck!

[olan719]

I'm excited to read all of your posts. We are total newbies with the Square Foot Garden. DS and I bought the lumber, nails and lath boards yesterday. We hope to put two 4'x4' beds in at first. There's room for two more. Not sure how much produce to expect and I don't want to get in over my head. How many beds do you have?

 

I haven't mixed up Mel's mix yet. I liked all of your re-mix ideas.

 

We have three beds and you can grow a lot in those! My best advice is to start small - two beds is plenty I think. And I would choose a few veggies to start. I went completely overboard last year, and I think I just got overwhelmed and discouraged too quickly. This year I scaled way back - doing just cucumbers, green beans, squash, corn, and sugar snap peas. I may still put in some peppers, and we are doing our tomatoes in pots this year. Good luck!