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We finally have a house with a yard and I'm so excited to finally have a garden! I've been researching gardening for years, waiting for my chance (I grew up with a big garden, mom grew up on a farm), and now I need to make some decisions.

 

I think I want to try the square foot gardening method. My mom never did that, so I haven't ever seen it done. Have any of you done this with success?

 

Also, we have awful clay soil. I know that SFG uses its own soil mix, not local soil, but I'm wondering if I'll need to raise up my beds a bit for drainage purposes. Seriously, water just sits on our lawn because the clay is so dense (though the location I'm considering is on a slight slope).

 

Open to any and all tips, especially info specific to gardening in Virginia. Everything I know about gardening (which isn't much) is about gardening in Utah.

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We have clay too.  We just tilled the ground and then put the box on top of the tilled soil and then filled the box with good soil.  I find the estimates of how close the plants can be are a bit stretched in SFG.  But, I highly, highly recommend raised beds.  We have a tilled area and several large raised beds and the raised beds are millions times easier to care for on a day to day basis.  We would like to add one bed per year until our entire garden is raised.  Good luck

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We have pretty hard clay here and then rock just a few inches below that. I put cardboard on top of the grass and put my box on top of that. About 12-16 inches tall (depending on what I was wanting to plant in those boxes). My boxes are 4' x 8'. Any wider than 4 feet and it makes it hard not to lean on the soil and you don't want to do that. This is a good book, this one has good info on crop rotation and planting times. This is one of the ones that I first started with. Those three were some of my earliest books and ones that I have continued to refer to when I am trying to remember something or change things a little.

 

Having raised beds has increased my yields exponentially. I can get enough food for my entire family for the year out of 8 beds the size that I listed there. I do have raspberries, saskatoons, grapes, and apples planted elsewhere, but the beds cover all my veggies for the year and my strawberries. Some of my herbs I planted by the walkway to the house and in front of where we park as they tend to look pretty and smell nice.

 

I also plant companion crops such as peas with corn or beans with corn so that I don't have to put things up for the beans or peas to climb. Carrots with onions to discourage some pests. Adding kelp to the soil every year keeps the beetles out of my rutabagas and potatoes too.

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I have done the SFG plan. Things I will change now that we have moved to a new home:

 

- 6 inches isn't high enough for the sides. I believe it is high enough for the dirt (barely!), but then when you are working in there the dirt spills over the edges and it is a mess.  So when you are building your boxes use wood wider than 6 inches. Also I agree with the previous poster that you wouldn't want your boxes more than 4 feet deep. I am a small person and I really think 3 feet would be better for me, 4 feet was a bit of a stretch to reach crops or weeds in the middle.

 

- I would install a drip irrigation system into the boxes a few inches under the dirt. Much more efficient to hook up your hose and let it run for a while than to try to water your garden using any other method.  One summer it was a million degrees and never rained and my crops did terribly because I didn't have the time to water them correctly and I didn't have a very good watering system. My watering system was watering them by hand. Ha. :)

 

- I would leave grass in between the boxes. I tilled up my soil, put landscape fabric over the whole area, set the boxes on top (I had several boxes), and filled in the spaces in between with mulch. TERRIBLE IDEA! DON'T DO THAT! The mulch grew weeds so terribly, I had to weed my mulched area much more often than I had to weed the beds themselves. We did live next to 10 acres of wilderness which I'm sure attributed to the weed problem. But still. Never again!  

 

That's my advice! I hope to be able to build a new garden this year and I will definitely do the things that I mentioned above.

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The SFG works great- and the book is a wealth of information.  However, there are two things I find that need adjusting from the book's recommendations.  The first has already been mentioned- that you really want your boxes much deeper than he recommends. At the moment, my beds are 12 inches deep- ideally I'd like DH to build on a second layer to make them twice as tall. 

 

The second beef I have with Mel's book is his insistence that his special "Mel's Mix" is the only way to go.  I've watched too many people spend a small fortune on dirt trying to follow his exact recipe and directions.  (Five different kinds of compost from five different sources? What a waste of your time!)  Use what you can to fill the boxes, and then each year before you plant work in a few more bags of new compost (or your own compost if you have it). 

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Have you guys had problems with moles, voles, or gophers? How common is that? I have some friends who battled voles in Utah and it sounded awful. I'm wondering if I should just put the chicken wire in the bottom of my beds to prevent that. Easier to do it now than later, I guess. Of course, if I want to raise my beds up off the ground a couple inches (for drainage), that would solve both problems.

 

What do you do to keep deer out of your garden? I noticed in the SFG book that Mel has plans for a cage-type structure over the garden to keep deer and other critters out. It just looks kinda tacky. Is there any other way? I saw a motion-activated sprinkler (The Scarecrow) on Amazon. People seem to say it works. If we wanted to put a fence around the garden (mainly to keep dogs and soccer balls out), would that deter deer at all?

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Have you guys had problems with moles, voles, or gophers? How common is that? I have some friends who battled voles in Utah and it sounded awful. I'm wondering if I should just put the chicken wire in the bottom of my beds to prevent that. Easier to do it now than later, I guess. Of course, if I want to raise my beds up off the ground a couple inches (for drainage), that would solve both problems.

 

What do you do to keep deer out of your garden? I noticed in the SFG book that Mel has plans for a cage-type structure over the garden to keep deer and other critters out. It just looks kinda tacky. Is there any other way? I saw a motion-activated sprinkler (The Scarecrow) on Amazon. People seem to say it works. If we wanted to put a fence around the garden (mainly to keep dogs and soccer balls out), would that deter deer at all?

 

I'm putting wire in the bottom of my new raised beds because of moles.  Check the diameter of the mesh - moles are quite small.

 

Our deer don't come near the house unless there is snow on the ground, so I don't think there should be too much of a problem for me.  Deer fences need to be really, really tall  - we've never done it.

 

L

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I use the SFG method, but also with differences, as others have said. First, my beds are not "raised" so much as leveled. My garden site slopes, so my primary goal was to get the boxed areas set level.  Also, understand my dh was very reluctant to use the SFG method; he grew up on a farm and could not see why we should do it a different way. He didn't want me to buy pre-made materials (I didn't really want to anyway), so me home-made beds are not very tall. I think 4". I do think 4' wide is too wide and some of mine are 5' wide, again, because dh was using what he had. I don't love that because it is hard to reach the center area for weeding and harvesting.

 

I also did not want to spend a million dollars filling it with the World's Most Perfect Soil Mix. It's mostly my existing dirt, with compost from my own composting system, plus rotted manure from SIL's horses. My soil tends towards clay, but perhaps is not as bad as you are describing yours.

 

About pests: Deer - the dog is our deer deterrent. The garden area is in a corner of the backyard, adjacent to the dog's yard. There are deer *everywhere* on our property, but they have never come into the garden and I am certain it's because I have a dog leaving his scent all around there. Moles, voles and groundhogs - yes, big problem for us. One of my garden boxes was heaved up by a groundhog. Once, I came out to my garden and could not understand why dh would have weed-whacked my lettuce and carrots down to the ground.  :laugh:  He didn't. It was a groundhog. I lost most of my potatoes (which were planted in traditional rows) to something - groundhogs, moles or both. I'm planning to grow some potatoes in feed bags this year. I'm sure dh will love that idea he's never heard of!  :tongue_smilie:  That's our relationship in a nutshell - I always want to do some obscure thing he's never heard of and he wants to do what people have done for 200 years because that's just how it's done!  :toetap05:

 

For the between-the-rows, I put down black plastic. Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of plastic in general, but I was 100% totally happy with that idea. 2013 was the first year when 5-foot weeds didn't take over the garden by August! Putting in the frames and putting plastic down everywhere else shrunk the weeding chore down to a very manageable, simple 30-minutes-every-few-days task. 

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We have horrible deer here. Nothing keeps them away. My 4x20-something box has wire fencing directly attached to it, and I have to unclip the front to peel back the fence and tend to it. This means the deer can eat what pokes out, but it's not deep enough for them to jump in.

 

If I had a larger garden area, I would double fence the perimeter. Height doesn't stop them. Not getting a running start does!

 

Our local charity garden has a 7' deer fence. They still get in from time to time.

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I find the estimates of how close the plants can be are a bit stretched in SFG. But, I highly, highly recommend raised beds.

I second both of these! We got much better yields when we increased the spacing. I do understand that SFG spacing is supposed to involve a trade-off, but even so... Raised beds have helped me tackle other issues, notably pests, as I was easily able to cover the beds (lost most to bugs before I realised that). I used wooden raised beds, and after 3 years they are falling apart, warped and rotted - I'm not sure what the alternatives are, though. My raised beds are also wicking beds, which have been a definite success in our very hot, dry summers. I have to say that gardening where we live is a hobby, and an expensive one - there's no way I come close to breaking even in terms of crops produce v cost.

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If you put mesh underneath them to keep the moles out, make sure you make the beds deeper or your root veggies won't be able to grow very well.

 

Yes - we are going for 12" deep beds.  We over-ordered on local-government compost as well as topsoil, and I have a fair bit of my own compost ready to use, so I think we should be able to fill the two 4' by 4' beds.

 

L

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Short fence to keep the dog out and a dog to keep the deer away. That's the best thing. Or a 7' mesh fence.

 

I'm amazed by those of you who have success with dogs keeping deer away.

I have a Lab/Rottweiler and a German Shepherd/Rottweiler. (And pretty much all of our neighbors have Pitbulls.) The does and fawns pretty much ignore them unless the dogs decide to get really angry.  We've had bucks stand their ground and stare our dogs down, ready to charge. I've freaked out a few times going outside to read and looking up to discover I was surrounded by a herd.

 

Come to think of it, bears don't scare off around here, either. Dh had an hour long stand off from his car with a momma bear and 4 cubs who were completely unphased by his lights, horn, and even his driving right up the lawn while I banged pots and pans from the window.

 

I wish I lived with normal wildlife!

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Short fence to keep the dog out and a dog to keep the deer away. That's the best thing. Or a 7' mesh fence.

 

deer (here at least) can easily jump a 7' fence.  we stayed at a B&B that had deer fencing around the property. It was 10' tall plus the curved part at the top to discourage them from even thinking about jumping it.

 

where I am, I've only had deer a few times, and it was in colder years that caused them to venture further into settled areas.  (I want to know where the neighborhood dogs were.  I had four bucks in my yard munching away - where were the dogs?) 

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I love reading about everyone's SFG experiences. I agree deeper is better, especially if you live where it gets HOT in the summer. We have clay and started SFGing to eliminate drainage issues. It works perfectly.

 

We use Mel's Mix exactly--five types of compost are to insure you get a variety of nutrients. The peat and vermiculite are to hold water--I need that in my garden. Once you are set up, then all you need to do is refresh from time to time.  When I refresh the compost each winter, I usually aim for at least three types of compost--cow, mushroom, and generic. :)

 

I hand water in early spring. For me, hand watering is a quiet few minutes of my day. Very pleasant. Plus I can watch for bugs and weeds. As the summer gets hotter and I get busier, I switch to a timer and sprinklers in each bed. I check my gardens every day.

 

We've not had much success with corn, but we tried okra in the beds last year and it went gang busters. We do tomatoes, peppers, onions, squash, beans, melons (little success) and herbs. Last year I did a box just for the herbs--love it.

 

Happy Gardening!

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Hardware cloth beneath the beds attached to the wood to keep voles and woodchucks out.

Wooden sides 12 inches tall.

Beds 3-3.5 feet across (depending on the length of your arms) so you can reach all they way across without opening the fencing on the other side.

Two by fours 4 to 6 feet high  in each corner to support the fencing to keep out the deer and woodchucks. 

No special soil mix. Compost, composted manure, and garden soil. 

 

p.s. Moles are insectavores. They do not eat plants or roots in your garden. They only eat insects.

VOLES eat your garden. Last year one took ONE BITE out of each and every one of my potatoes. 

 

 

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p.s. Moles are insectavores. They do not eat plants or roots in your garden. They only eat insects.

VOLES eat your garden. Last year one took ONE BITE out of each and every one of my potatoes. 

 

Yes - the problem with moles is the incidental destruction: they are going after the lovely worms in your soil, but they leave the plants with their roots dangling in mid air as they tunnel through.

 

L

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We have horrible, hard clay soil too. This will be our third year using the SFG method. Our first year was spectacular, even with the limited sun we get. It was like the Garden of Eden back there! The second year, the trees had grown quite a bit and the pests found us *sigh* This year I'm better prepared with some pest control methods (I'm coming for you, squash vine borers  :glare:), and we had the trees trimmed back and thinned, so I'm hopeful again!

 

You've gotten good advice so far. I am of the "if we're going to do it, let's do it 110% mindset," so DH built 12-inch-high cedar beds, and we worked our tails off to find the five kinds of compost and blend the ingredients well to fill the beds. The soil has compacted to about 9 inches, but I'm satisfied with that. As Happy said, you only have to fill the beds with the mix one time, and then you just add compost to each square when you plant a succession crop (or to the bed over the winter). For that we just use the compost from our pile. Everything in our garden did so beautifully that first year, but it may have done as well with just one or two types of compost too--I can't say, since I can't compare. I do know lots of people on the SFG forums couldn't get all five, and they're still gardening, so it's probably OK. We just happened to have a few garden centers locally that could provide all five types, so we went for it!

 

The one thing I'm sorry we didn't do is put bottoms on the beds. We have a weedy, woody yard, and huge roots keep growing through our beds. Now THAT is a ton of work to remediate. But neither DH nor I is prepared to remove the fill and put in bottoms just yet. I wonder if metal mesh would help us there, hmmm.

 

If you do build your own wooden beds, consider springing for cedar. Last summer (our second), I found termites in one of the untreated pine supports that DH used in the corners of the beds. It was a small colony, and I treated with vinegar (and squishing), but it's something new to watch out for. 

 

I think the updated SFG book is a good investment. You might also want to invest in a "Month-by-Month Gardening in..." book if they have one for your area. I've found mine extremely useful. I also own The Vegetable Gardener's Bible to round out my advice :D These forums have also been very helpful:

 

http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/sqfoot/

 

Good luck!

 

ETA: Oh, the one thing I have found is that our potatoes did really well in the clay soil that we amended with some compost and peat moss--much better than they did in our raised bed. It was very strange, and it might be due to the trees vs. sun issue, but we had a few volunteer potato plants pop back up in crummy in-ground beds the second summer, and even THEY did better than the potatoes in the bed. They were HUGE. So if you're going to plant potatoes, they seem to prefer some adversity over raised bed luxury :lol:

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You can always talk to a farm store and see if anyone has any aged manure to mix in. We do this and we have more Clay like soil. It helps a lot!  I would go to the library and check out some books or talk to your local extension agent :) Gardening is the best!

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Deer can jump! I've seen a few clear our 7 ft fence. There are natural repellants out there.  Dogs can help with deer, moles etc. We did have a bunny family in a raised bed--found by our dog. :(  The critter population did get the message.

 

I've found aged rabbit droppings to be gold as far as manure is concerned.

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I'm amazed by those of you who have success with dogs keeping deer away.

I have a Lab/Rottweiler and a German Shepherd/Rottweiler. (And pretty much all of our neighbors have Pitbulls.) The does and fawns pretty much ignore them unless the dogs decide to get really angry.  We've had bucks stand their ground and stare our dogs down, ready to charge. I've freaked out a few times going outside to read and looking up to discover I was surrounded by a herd.

 

Come to think of it, bears don't scare off around here, either. Dh had an hour long stand off from his car with a momma bear and 4 cubs who were completely unphased by his lights, horn, and even his driving right up the lawn while I banged pots and pans from the window.

 

I wish I lived with normal wildlife!

 

I've found most of the larger dog breeds are fickle on whether or not they really feel like chasing deer away that day. Terrier breeds, on the other hand, seem to have a never ending amount of energy for whatever job they get set to. Our problem animal is a fox and he doesn't bother the garden, he just likes to take our dogs for a run regularly through the countryside. I'm sure it annoys the neighbours. Really though, I kinda like the cute fella.

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On Pinterest, a lot of square foot gardens are cinder block with herbs planted in the holes at the edge. It seems quick, easy, and you wouldn't deal with rotting wood in a few years. I haven't tried it.

 

My area is to shady for a garden. Years ago we did a SFG using the original book. It did really well. I don't remember anything about special soil.

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