Square Foot gardening

[ProudGrandma]

Does anybody here do this type of gardening? We are going to try it, I think, and would LOVE to hear from others who have tried it...was it a great idea, not so great, any tips or opinions would be awesome! thanks.

 

Amazon.com: All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! (9781591862024): Mel Bartholomew: Books

[DarcyB]

It's how we do it! We don't follow everything he says to a t. We do our own garden mix because we don't agree with using peat moss, and we do a few other little things differently, but it's the general idea of how we garden. Building up works so much better than digging down, especially if you have bad soil, hard soil, or shallow soil.

 

There are a ton of great videos on youtube of people using this method and how it worked over a season if you want to get some visual inspiration!

[ProudGrandma]

It's how we do it! We don't follow everything he says to a t. We do our own garden mix because we don't agree with using peat moss, and we do a few other little things differently, but it's the general idea of how we garden. Building up works so much better than digging down, especially if you have bad soil, hard soil, or shallow soil.

 

There are a ton of great videos on youtube of people using this method and how it worked over a season if you want to get some visual inspiration!

 

I am curious as to why you don't use peat moss and what you use instead. What other things did you tweak?

[Tammyla]

We use Mel's method and mix here with good success. We did try to tweak the mix with just organic soil mix and it didn't produce nearly as well, so we went back to mixing it. His system was and is easy, the first year was the most expensive, but now that I have the boxes the cost is much less. The raised bed, scissor method and no weeding work well for my back:001_smile:.

 

This will be our 4th growing season and I'm really looking forward to my garden. My library has a container garden series this month that I'm hoping to make for more ideas, and to meet some fellow container gardeners.

 

I do have to contend with squirrels that get around my necessary rabbit fence. :tongue_smilie:

[angela in ohio]

It's been great here. We had 16 4' squares, but this year we are moving up to 25. We did it on the cheap by putting down straw paths between the squares instead of building anything fancy and by not using all of the soil add-ins. Of course, we live in farm country, so the soil is decent here. We just added some vermiculite to the soil and a bit of specialized treatment for the tomatoes.

[Giraffe]

Starting it myself this season. Building my square (just one to start) out of old bricks lying about my rented yard. Will tweak the soil mix to what is recommended for our specific area (N. Texas). Can't wait!

[lea1]

The raised bed, scissor method and no weeding work well for my back:001_smile:.

 

What is the scissor method? I have read his book but don't remember this.

[Paintedlady]

We did it last year with mixed results. We built 4 boxes that were only 6" deep as the book suggests and 1 box that was 12" deep for root vegetables. The shallow boxes didn't seem to work as well as the deep box, despite mixing all the soil on a big tarp and filling all the boxes with it. The only noticeable difference was the depth of the boxes. We're going deeper this year with (hopefully) better results. We also built 2 potato box towers. The are 2'x2', six inches high and then you keep stacking another same size box on top and filling as the potato plants outgrow the previous box. Those worked rather well.

 

We also found his trellis idea to be genius but too expensive. Instead of using all metal conduit pipes with expensive elbow joints, we bought 2x4's and anchored those to the sides of the boxes with lag bolts, then drilled 3 holes into them at regular intervals (matched up the spaces on both pieces) and ran conduit pipe through the holes. Then we added the garden netting and tied it on to the frame/conduit. We picked all of it up at our local big box hardware store. This was was less expensive and very sturdy.

 

Be very conservative about climbing plants when planning out your squares. One plant per 2 squares doesn't seem like much when you first get started, but it fills that trellis space quickly.

 

I think one other thing I'd do differently this year is to put all of my broccoli, lettuce, kale and cabbage into one box and net the entire box since they don't need to be pollinated. That would help keep out the slugs and cabbage worms that do so much damage.

 

Here's a link to my Photobucket account if you want to check out my pics from last summer. If you start at page 3 and work backwards to page you can see the progression from beginning to end.

[ZooRho]

I will be in my 3rd growing season. but last year was horrible with the dry and hot weather,

 

and then we had a little mishap that poisoned a section, and well it was not helpful either.

 

I do plan to do some remixing this year and maybe making a 3rd box

[DarcyB]

What is the scissor method? I have read his book but don't remember this.

 

basically, instead of pulling weeds out of the ground which might damage young rooting plants, just cut them off at the level of the ground (with scissors). To me, this is good for things like lettuces and other plants growing in shallow depths, but otherwise, I'd rather pull the dandelions out as soon as I see them coming in :)

[Pam Wilhelm]

We are going to start this in the spring! I can't wait!!! I have plans for 4 beds at first and then growing from there each season. :D

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

We are planning our third year.

 

We live in squirrel country, and also have feral rabbits going around. Most of our neighbours have quit gardening. There's no way to beat those animals, and the neighbours have tried lots of things.

 

With our boxes, we have chicken wire to keep the critters away. It works great. But we can't have any tall plants in there. We're stuck with carrots, radishes and lettuce. At least we *do* get some things :)

[ProudGrandma]

We did it last year with mixed results. We built 4 boxes that were only 6" deep as the book suggests and 1 box that was 12" deep for root vegetables. The shallow boxes didn't seem to work as well as the deep box, despite mixing all the soil on a big tarp and filling all the boxes with it. The only noticeable difference was the depth of the boxes. We're going deeper this year with (hopefully) better results. We also built 2 potato box towers. The are 2'x2', six inches high and then you keep stacking another same size box on top and filling as the potato plants outgrow the previous box. Those worked rather well.

 

We also found his trellis idea to be genius but too expensive. Instead of using all metal conduit pipes with expensive elbow joints, we bought 2x4's and anchored those to the sides of the boxes with lag bolts, then drilled 3 holes into them at regular intervals (matched up the spaces on both pieces) and ran conduit pipe through the holes. Then we added the garden netting and tied it on to the frame/conduit. We picked all of it up at our local big box hardware store. This was was less expensive and very sturdy.

 

Be very conservative about climbing plants when planning out your squares. One plant per 2 squares doesn't seem like much when you first get started, but it fills that trellis space quickly.

 

I think one other thing I'd do differently this year is to put all of my broccoli, lettuce, kale and cabbage into one box and net the entire box since they don't need to be pollinated. That would help keep out the slugs and cabbage worms that do so much damage.

 

Here's a link to my Photobucket account if you want to check out my pics from last summer. If you start at page 3 and work backwards to page you can see the progression from beginning to end.

 

loved you photos...thanks for sharing this. I love the idea of the potato tower too...is that in the book or is that your own creation? If it is your's...will you share the details? thanks.

[Paintedlady]

loved you photos...thanks for sharing this. I love the idea of the potato tower too...is that in the book or is that your own creation? If it is your's...will you share the details? thanks.

 

I think it explains the concept in Mel's book, but I can't remember if he did it exactly like I did. I know he definitely builds the boxes up like I did, but he may have sectioned off a small part of bigger box to achieve the same results. For instance if he had a 4x4 box but only wanted to grow potatoes in a 2x2 foot section, he only built up that section, leaving the rest of the box at the regular height.

 

We built ours using 2x4's cut into 2 foot sections. We pre-drilled and used galvanized screws so they wouldn't rust and just kept building more and more of them. I think we finished off with about 8-10 of them. They grew rapidly and we just put another box on top and filled it. We heard you could use straw on the top levels instead of using all that dirt but again we had mixed results. The plants looked very healthy but we didn't get nearly the amount of potatoes we'd hoped for.

 

Seems like everything is a learning curve to get just the right amount of dirt/water/nutrients. But I do enjoy it very much no matter how steep the learning curve. And I'm looking forward to having much less expense this year since we already have all of the boxes built. Although this year one other change we're considering is building them up to be waist high so it's not so hard on the back and it's harder for the slugs to get up that high. Not to mention marauding bunnies. :D

[Delighted3]

Painted Lady, I love the pictures you posted of your gardens. Amazing. What is your climate like? I was also wondering about covering your boxes with plastic. Is that supposed to be a green house effect. When do you start your plants outside and how long do you leave the plastic on. We have had a square foot garden for about 3 years, but on a much smaller scale. I have some success and quite a few failures. My biggest problem is that my tomatoes have been blighted the last couple of years even though I tried them in 2 different beds.

I loved looking at your pictures. Any tips you might want to share would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Joy

[Paintedlady]

Painted Lady, I love the pictures you posted of your gardens. Amazing. What is your climate like? I was also wondering about covering your boxes with plastic. Is that supposed to be a green house effect. When do you start your plants outside and how long do you leave the plastic on. We have had a square foot garden for about 3 years, but on a much smaller scale. I have some success and quite a few failures. My biggest problem is that my tomatoes have been blighted the last couple of years even though I tried them in 2 different beds.

I loved looking at your pictures. Any tips you might want to share would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Joy

 

Thanks for the compliments Joy! I'm in the Chicago area so a fairly short growing season here. You can't safely put out plants without covering until Memorial Day in late May. The plastic wrap was to help harden off the new plants, not wanting to expose them to the chilly early spring air too soon. We tented them at night and just opened the plastic a little bit during the day for a few hours to get them acclimated.

 

I had a lot of failures last year as well so you're not alone. If you've had blight twice I'd maybe do some specific reading about that and see if there are any tips related directly to that. I haven't had that problem (yet!) but have fought off slugs, cabbage worms, cutworms and squash borers. I also had some sort of blight on my green beans and am at a loss for what went wrong. I plan on doing more reading/tweaking to see if I can improve from last year.

 

One other thing that made it more fun for me was to put potted plants and flowers around and next to the boxes to give it a more lush garden feel vs. a bunch of boxes on a cement pad feel. ;) I'd love to hear any tips you might have as well!

[ProudGrandma]

thank you for all of the ideas and opinions. I hope we are one of those who are successful...we haven't been in th epast with traditional gardening....our ground here is terrible...time will tell.

[Cricket]

I'm putting in some beds this year. I'm about halfway digging my first one. I live in the Phoenix area so our growing season is so different from other places. I read about lowered beds so I'm trying that. I'm digging a 10' x 3' hole that is 2' deep. Then I will fill it in with good soil about halfway up. That way the plants will be growing a foot lower than the soil level. The idea is to protect them somewhat from the heat of the sun. It makes sense. I hope it actually works! We've tried tomatoes and strawberries before in containers and once the hot weather hits, they just shrivel up and die no matter how much I water. And they were even in the shade all day. I'll will be planting using the square foot method. Paintedlady's boxes look so pretty! My plants here would die if I did that though.

[mamapjama]

We did it for the first time last year and had pretty good results. I don't think the regular box height is deep enough to support corn, so this year I'm going to make it deeper. I built the chicken wire cages like Mel suggests and I could use these for quite a while before having to remove them. Some of the boxes I just moved the cage off the back row which was trelissed, but kept it on the front section.

 

I built potato towers this year too and was thrilled with the results. I used chicken wire to build a round cage and began filling with leaves etc. If you google potato tower you should find some links and videos.

[Kebo]

I live in the Phoenix area so our growing season is so different from other places. I read about lowered beds so I'm trying that. I'm digging a 10' x 3' hole that is 2' deep. Then I will fill it in with good soil about halfway up.

 

Christy, I'd love to know if this works for you! I'm in the Phoenix metro area, too, so I understand the challenges. I had a great spot in the St. Mary's foodbank community garden before they closed, so I know a lot of things can be grown here if you time it right, and work HARD on soil quality -- not much grows here in the middle of summer, though. Even the community garden shut down in the summer months.

[Giraffe]

Christy, I'd love to know if this works for you! I'm in the Phoenix metro area, too, so I understand the challenges. I had a great spot in the St. Mary's foodbank community garden before they closed, so I know a lot of things can be grown here if you time it right, and work HARD on soil quality -- not much grows here in the middle of summer, though. Even the community garden shut down in the summer months.

 

I'm in Texas and blazing hot in summer here too. I'm splitting my growing season into two phases - spring/summer and fall. If the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers last through July & August, that's great, but I'm not counting on it. I'm starting seeds and will plant out in March. Everything should be done by mid-July, then I'll start seeds again and set them out in late August for the Fall garden (no eggplant or peppers for fall, but everything else).

[Paintedlady]

 

I built potato towers this year too and was thrilled with the results. I used chicken wire to build a round cage and began filling with leaves etc. If you google potato tower you should find some links and videos.

 

Did you fill your towers with dirt? My bottom box was Mel's mix but the top boxes I filled with straw and had a less than desirable crop of potatoes. The plants coming out of the straw looked fantastic though. :glare: Curious to see what gets the best results.

[Paintedlady]

I'm putting in some beds this year. I'm about halfway digging my first one. I live in the Phoenix area so our growing season is so different from other places. I read about lowered beds so I'm trying that. I'm digging a 10' x 3' hole that is 2' deep. Then I will fill it in with good soil about halfway up. That way the plants will be growing a foot lower than the soil level. The idea is to protect them somewhat from the heat of the sun. It makes sense. I hope it actually works! We've tried tomatoes and strawberries before in containers and once the hot weather hits, they just shrivel up and die no matter how much I water. And they were even in the shade all day. I'll will be planting using the square foot method. Paintedlady's boxes look so pretty! My plants here would die if I did that though.

 

Could you grow earlier in the season and take the hottest part of summer off? Maybe replant again when it starts to cool a bit? Thanks for the compliment on our boxes. We had a lot of fun with them!

[Paintedlady]

I'm in Texas and blazing hot in summer here too. I'm splitting my growing season into two phases - spring/summer and fall. If the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers last through July & August, that's great, but I'm not counting on it. I'm starting seeds and will plant out in March. Everything should be done by mid-July, then I'll start seeds again and set them out in late August for the Fall garden (no eggplant or peppers for fall, but everything else).

 

We must have posting at the same time.:tongue_smilie:

[ChrisB]

Last year was our first year for SFG. We used Mel's mix. I planted some tomato plants in the boxes and then planted (from the same little starter pack) some in a different location with the same amt. of sun. The tomatoes in the boxes thrived! The plants in the other location did fine, but not nearly as well. I planted baby watermelon in our trellis box and it failed. Mel says to use 2 squares, but I don't think that was enough. Overall, I really like SFG for many reasons, but especially because there were so little weeds.

 

As for Vermiculite, if you have a Menards close by, they sell Vermiculite in the attic insulation section in huge bags for cheap. I called the manufacturer and it is exactly the same as the vermiculite they sell in gardening centers.

[Sandragood1]

I have been using SFG for 3 years at a community garden plot. One of my neighbors had this great idea for heavy trellising: hog fencing. At least that's what they call it at the farm store. I bought a 12' section and cut it into two trellises. It is strong enough to support melons through a major thunder storm. I tie it to U-bars with heavy wire.

 

The problems I have are ants, ants, ants. They get into everything. Anyone have any good ideas?

 

Sandra

[nancy in nj]

I just have to say that I love, love, love the photo's! We purchased a house last year that has a huge concrete slab (25' by 40') in front (the location of the prior owner's private skateboard park)! Rather than spend $6,000 removing the slab, we decided to cover it with raised beds--we started with 2 last year and will add this spring. I am so inspired by your photo's. That's how I imagined our "skatepark" looking, but we are so not there yet! Just last night my husband mentioned that maybe we should remove the concrete after all, and he was completely startled when I jumped out of bed with a "no, no, no, you gotta see these pictures on the WTM!"

 

Anyway, thanks so much for sharing those photo's. I can't stop looking at them!

 

Nancy

[Paintedlady]

I just have to say that I love, love, love the photo's! We purchased a house last year that has a huge concrete slab (25' by 40') in front (the location of the prior owner's private skateboard park)! Rather than spend $6,000 removing the slab, we decided to cover it with raised beds--we started with 2 last year and will add this spring. I am so inspired by your photo's. That's how I imagined our "skatepark" looking, but we are so not there yet! Just last night my husband mentioned that maybe we should remove the concrete after all, and he was completely startled when I jumped out of bed with a "no, no, no, you gotta see these pictures on the WTM!"

 

Anyway, thanks so much for sharing those photo's. I can't stop looking at them!

 

Nancy

 

I'm glad you like them and that they gave you some inspiration. We too are the recipients of the concrete slab from the previous owners. :glare: It doesn't start out looking lush when you first plant b/c everything is so small, but as everything matures and fills out, it's quite nice. We even ended up putting some nice patio chairs out there for a tranquil place to read and relax.

[Happy]

We are long time conventional gardeners, but I was really tired of fighting our nasty black clay soil. We put in two 4x8 boxes last year...did Mel's mix. We did not dig down at all. I wanted the drainage. In fact, I layered newspaper thickly over the bottom to inhibit return of the bermuda grass.

 

We had a GREAT year! My beds were 7 inches deep...wished for deeper, but couldn't afford it. I watered EVERY day in the heat. Everything made it through a few weeks of 100 degree summer temps...when the temps dropped every thing went back into bloom and production.

 

We grew tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, and some herbs. We had enough tomatoes and peppers at the end of the season (November) to put up many pints of garden relish to use as Christmas gifts.

 

Water is the key...don't let the plants get dry.

[baybedaul]

Last year was our first year for a garden and it was a square foot garden too. We were really happy with the results and have plans to expand from 4 grids to 8 this spring. I was surprised how much we were able to grow, but we had terrible luck with zucchini and squash... I'm pretty sure it was the dreaded squash vine borer that everyone is always talking about. I think we approximated Mel's mix, but we didn't build boxes with bottoms, just raised beds.

 

our square foot garden

[MSNative]

Last year was our first year for SFG. We used Mel's mix. I planted some tomato plants in the boxes and then planted (from the same little starter pack) some in a different location with the same amt. of sun. The tomatoes in the boxes thrived! The plants in the other location did fine, but not nearly as well. I planted baby watermelon in our trellis box and it failed. Mel says to use 2 squares, but I don't think that was enough. Overall, I really like SFG for many reasons, but especially because there were so little weeds.

 

As for Vermiculite, if you have a Menards close by, they sell Vermiculite in the attic insulation section in huge bags for cheap. I called the manufacturer and it is exactly the same as the vermiculite they sell in gardening centers.

 

Thanks for the tip. I sent my dh to Home Depot to get some vermiculite. He came back with a huge bag of synthetic fertilizer that the guy at HD said was the same thing as vermiculite. :confused: Ugh. Will be on the lookout for a Menards here and will also look in the insulation section of Lowes to see if they have it.

[baybedaul]

Thanks for the tip. I sent my dh to Home Depot to get some vermiculite. He came back with a huge bag of synthetic fertilizer that the guy at HD said was the same thing as vermiculite. :confused: Ugh. Will be on the lookout for a Menards here and will also look in the insulation section of Lowes to see if they have it.

 

We ended up finding gigantic bags of vermiculite from a local pool supply company, they use it like sand under their installs. The bags were like 4 feet tall and $16/each I think. I believe it was medium grade vermiculite as opposed to what Mel recommends (coarse maybe? can't remember now), but I was tickled pink to find it after the people I asked at Lowe's and Home Depot looked at me like I had just made up a word. It's still only a seasonal item for the pool company here though, since they only keep it on hand during months warm enough to actually install a pool (we're in MO).

[MSNative]

We ended up finding gigantic bags of vermiculite from a local pool supply company, they use it like sand under their installs. The bags were like 4 feet tall and $16/each I think. I believe it was medium grade vermiculite as opposed to what Mel recommends (coarse maybe? can't remember now), but I was tickled pink to find it after the people I asked at Lowe's and Home Depot looked at me like I had just made up a word. It's still only a seasonal item for the pool company here though, since they only keep it on hand during months warm enough to actually install a pool (we're in MO).

:lol::lol:

 

Thanks for passing on the info. There is a pool company right down the street from me. I'll give them a call and see if they'll get any in soon.

[ChrisB]

Thanks for the tip. I sent my dh to Home Depot to get some vermiculite. He came back with a huge bag of synthetic fertilizer that the guy at HD said was the same thing as vermiculite. :confused: Ugh. Will be on the lookout for a Menards here and will also look in the insulation section of Lowes to see if they have it.

 

Your welcome! I think it is called MicaFlakes. On the bag it says it is made by Sun Gro Horticulture. I called the number and they said it is the same thing just packaged differently for the gardening crowd. It was $10.99 for 3 cuft.

[ZooRho]

vermiculite is the hardest thing to find I think. I googled it and looked for local places and found it that way. I think I found it at a True Value store.

[Heidi]

Wow, I'm jealous. I tried Mel's method and it failed three years in a row. First year.. I think it was the treated wood that we used for boxes. Not sure. Everything on the edges didn't grow.

Second year, as soon as everything blossomed, it died. ??? I'm a brown-thumb I guess.

Third year, just not a healthy crop. We noticed our friends who just put regular ol' dirt in boxes had a beautiful crop.

Fourth year we put it all in the ground. Nothing special. And had a great crop.

 

I don't know. I stink at gardening. :confused: I'll never do square foot again though.

[love2travel]

We purchased our vermiculite at our local Feed and Seed. It was 20.00 for a large bag that covers 4 cu.ft.

 

This will be our third year of SFG. The first two years, we only had a 4x4 plot. This year, we have expanded! :hurray: We are gardening two 4x10 plots at a depth of 12 inches each. We found the six inch depth wasn't deep enough. It's really hot during our summers and we thought a 12 inch depth might be better in the heat.

[ProudGrandma]

We purchased our vermiculite at our local Feed and Seed. It was 20.00 for a large bag that covers 4 cu.ft.

 

This will be our third year of SFG. The first two years, we only had a 4x4 plot. This year, we have expanded! :hurray: We are gardening two 4x10 plots at a depth of 12 inches each. We found the six inch depth wasn't deep enough. It's really hot during our summers and we thought a 12 inch depth might be better in the heat.

 

What zone do you live in? We live in zone 5 (northern Nebraska) and I wonder if we need to bother going deeper than 6 inches because of the heat...it gets hot, but not like Texas....or other places in the deep south. Anybody have a thought on that for me??

[love2travel]

We live in south Louisiana. Our summers get so hot! I am hoping the deeper beds will help retain water. However, I know very little about square foot gardening and this is all just one big experiment! :confused:

[Paintedlady]

What zone do you live in? We live in zone 5 (northern Nebraska) and I wonder if we need to bother going deeper than 6 inches because of the heat...it gets hot, but not like Texas....or other places in the deep south. Anybody have a thought on that for me??

 

We're also in zone 5, Chicago area, and our summers can be hot as well. I found that 6" beds just didn't seem to be enough and we're going to put in 12" beds this year. I guess if you do 6" boxes sitting on top of dirt so that just the first 6" is Mel's mix and the roots can go down deeper into the ground that might work fine. For us, the boxes have bottoms on them and they sit on cement and it just wasn't deep enough.

[kmacnchs]

I did it 2 years ago - tomatoes did well. Parsley & broccoli were horrible. Lettuce was okay. The aphids were EVERYWHERE so I had to take the beans out. Strawberries did okay and corn did less than okay. Overall I was so displeased, I didn't do it last year. I want to try it again this year so I will be checking in with you guys as the summer progresses! :)

[roxanne23]

.

Edited January 4, 2023 by roxanne23

[ProudGrandma]

for those who bought your compost, how hard was it to find 5 different types of compost? I would think this would be hard, but having never looked for 5 different types of compost, I don't know for sure.

[Paintedlady]

I ended up going to 3 different places. One was a BIG nursery, one was a small nursery and one was a big box type hardware store.

[ProudGrandma]

I ended up going to 3 different places. One was a BIG nursery, one was a small nursery and one was a big box type hardware store.

 

thanks...hopefully I will be able to find what I need and spend an arm and a leg doing it.

[Lady Florida.]

We're in our 3rd year, and the first 2 years were learning years. Actually, first year was a disaster. :thumbdown:

 

We now have raised beds, and we use Mel's Mix. I'm in Zone 9b. Our summers are hot and wet.

 

I do have to water often in the dry season, but I have a rain barrel. I don't bother with sprawling plants though. I planted sweet potatoes and pumpkins in the ground and let them go where they wanted to. Tomatoes, broccoli, bush beans, herbs, onions, and lettuce all do fine in my square foot boxes.

[RachelFlores]

This will be our second year doing it with two years off between. We moved after making two boxes with our first growing season and are planning on building two boxes this year at our new house. We live in the DFW area and the soil here is generally terrible, tons of clay and bermuda grass that won't die, not ever, SO we do boxes with bottoms and I love mel's mix since something that isn't weeds will actually grow through it. We do 6-8" of mel's mix and with watering every day didn't have a problem with the depth. I was very happy with the results and look forward to this new growing season. The only place I was able to find coarse vermiculite was Marshal Grain, very local, they have one store in Ft. Worth and one in Grapevine (for those that live in the area). To find 5 different types of compost, I got some from two different places. Box hardware stores will usually have about 2 types and then I can usually find 3 more at a local garden center. I think square foot gardening is the only way to go for places that have bad soil. HTH

[BBarnes]

I enjoy square foot gardening. The dirt is loose, and the sections are small. It just seems more manageable to me.

 

My squares are 6 inches deep, with wooden bottoms. Everything seems to grow fine.

 

For my tomatoes I prefer the cages over the recommended trellis. And I only used one kind of compost.

 

Yesterday I saw that the first spring plants are starting to pop up in my area. I am ready for the growing to begin!:D

[Kirch]

This will be our second year doing it with two years off between. We moved after making two boxes with our first growing season and are planning on building two boxes this year at our new house. We live in the DFW area and the soil here is generally terrible, tons of clay and bermuda grass that won't die, not ever, SO we do boxes with bottoms and I love mel's mix since something that isn't weeds will actually grow through it. We do 6-8" of mel's mix and with watering every day didn't have a problem with the depth. I was very happy with the results and look forward to this new growing season. The only place I was able to find coarse vermiculite was Marshal Grain, very local, they have one store in Ft. Worth and one in Grapevine (for those that live in the area). To find 5 different types of compost, I got some from two different places. Box hardware stores will usually have about 2 types and then I can usually find 3 more at a local garden center. I think square foot gardening is the only way to go for places that have bad soil. HTH

 

Thanks for the info on Marshal Grain. I was wondering if vermiculite would be hard to find. I'm getting ready to get started this week--I can't wait! How deep did you make your boxes? Any other tips for the DFW area (we're a bit west of FW)?

Edited March 14, 2011 by Kirch

[Poke Salad Annie]

Giving this a bump today. I found this book at Dollar General today for $5, though my copy is missing chapter 10 from the one listed on Amazon. It appears the rest of the book is the same, except for the absence of chapter 10, so it's still a good deal if you have a Dollar General store nearby.