Square Foot Gardening?

[Marie]

Have any of you any experience with Square Foot Gardening?

Note: Photo is not my garden. We rarely have sunshine like this to get a decent photo

In short, it is a high output, intensive method of vegetable gardening, where your plot is separated into 12" squares and a specific type of plant is grown in each square, (depending on size, either 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants).

It is ideal for growing lots of different veg in a confined space, but takes a lot of work.. You are also able to continue with seasonal crop rotations, which can be made simpler with this method, and it's ideal for beginners as you don't need to invest a lot of money into the project to find out if it's right for you..

I wont go into complete details here, but it's worth researching :

http://journeytoforever.org/garden_sqft.html

There are several books out on the topic, too.


What are your opinoins on this method? Do you have any experience with it? I do tend to follow the idea loosely, but I don't have the patience and motivation to keep up any strict guidelines such as these. If I did, I could probably double the produce I can get out of the space I have, but I'm happy with my own methods for now.

 

[TheCrazyPlantLady]

I have a friend who is trying this out this year. I don't think he's getting great results yet, though.

I am a romantic - I like an old-fashioned garden, with different vegetables and herbs, and flowers all jumbled together. It probably doesn't produce as much, but it satisfies my esthetic sense more. If I only had a little space outdoors, or if I had more space indoors to store canned goods, I'd probably try it. I imagine it would be really effective for shared community gardens.

 

[ChanellG]

There's another thread for square foot gardening: https://www.gardening-forums.com/th...-beds-or-square-foot-gardening.298/#post-3375

When it started, it was the first I'd heard of it and most of us didn't have the growing space for it or were growing on a much larger scale already. I have a raised bed frame leaning against a storage building in the yard that my dad got for my grandfather. I've been thinking of turning it into a square foot bed, but there's no good location for it just yet.

 

[Marie]

I did try to have an old-fashioned garden, but I struggle to keep track of everything because there was very little 'organisation'. It looked very pretty, but I'd often forget to harvest plants because they were in a mass of others, and they'd go to seed, or runner beans would go stringy and not as tasty.. I think you're right about shared community gardens; even the allotments near my home are taking it up. About half of everyone there appears to be trying it in some shape or form. What sort of veg is your friend growing, do you know?


Ah, sorry for the re-post, I'd not seen it, as it was a few months ago. I say I follow"loosely" because I don't as such have raised beds. I'm currently building up the amount of compost each year in my garden (Soil was very very rocky to start off with. When I moved in the slate garden wall had collapsed, so there will always be fragments of slate and rock in the soil.. I always seem to be pulling it out!), so maybe one day they'll be high enough to be classed as raised beds. For now, the soil level on the plot is about house-brick depth higher than the paths, as at one point it was much lower.. and tended to flood a lot. My plot is so large, however, that buying in that much compost / top soil to bring it all up in one go would be too expensive for me to even consider.. I have 2-3 compost heaps on the go at any one time, so one day I will have enough..!
I've seen raised bed frames built out of reclaimed wood and pallets (such as from builders merchants) and I think they're so pretty, and practical too.

 

[TheCrazyPlantLady]

I'm not sure what all he has - I know he's got tomato, peas, beans, and carrots anyway, but it sounds like his stuff is behind mine. It's his first year trying it, so maybe it's one of those things that improves with practice.

Speaking of compost - late summer I got fed up with the lousy grass in our front yard (we have terrible Japanese beetle issues here) so we got our son to dig up the whole front, and pile the sod in a big heap on our old garden bed in the back. I added all our raked up leaves, watered it well and covered it with a tarp. I couldn't believe that by this spring it had already decomposed into beautiful rich compost soil - I thought it would take a lot longer to break down the sod.

 

[ChanellG]

I did try to have an old-fashioned garden, but I struggle to keep track of everything because there was very little 'organisation'.

...I say I follow"loosely" because I don't as such have raised beds. I'm currently building up the amount of compost each year in my garden... so maybe one day they'll be high enough to be classed as raised beds... For now, the soil level on the plot is about house-brick depth higher than the paths... buying in that much compost / top soil to bring it all up in one go would be too expensive for me to even consider.. I have 2-3 compost heaps on the go at any one time, so one day I will have enough..!

I have two compost bins. I started one at the end of December or the beginning of January and I recently decided not to add anymore material to it so that I could start using the compost. I have been thinking of putting a plank across the raised bed frame so that I can compartmentalize it and not need as much soil.

I like your idea of building of the soil level gradually; I'll have to look into plants that have roots that spread as opposed to reaching down deep into the soil. Of course, if I do that I'll have to start plotting the garden using rotating crops. For now, I am about to start making leaf mold.

 

[Marie]

I simply don't have the funds to raise my soil level any other way.

I remember the first year I began growing my own: I attempted carrots. They were pretty big, and tasty, but because of the rocks in my soil and the shallow depth of topsoil they were all curly and double pronged.. Amusing to say the least. I tend to grow carrots in containers now, just to get them somewhat more normal.. They seem to like our Council recycling boxes so I have 3-4 filled. (Not exactly Square foot method, but if it works, I'll give it a shot)

(Pic incase you don't have these boxes :S )

I don't really know much about roots that spread etc just that root crops haven't been a great idea for me until a couple of years ago when I finally had enough depth for beetroot and turnips etc. If you find out more about veg with spreading roots:-, do let us know

 

[ChanellG]

I am actually considering using storage bins for some food producing plants. I already have the bins, it's just a matter of getting dirt. MY first compost is just about ready to be sifted and there is a guy I got some from last year who sells it $5 for a 5 gallon bucket who I could call upon again. Between what I have now and what I will recycle I should be able to fill a few containers like this:

The only trouble with square foot gardening is the lack of mobility. I am about to prune our Japanese magnolia a bit to see if I can't create a bit more sun in a few spots and then I may consider placing the raised bed frame at the edge of the shade canopy where it can get patchy sun to grow some perennial vegetables.

 

[btatro]

The storage bins- THAT is an idea! I happen to enjoy of the idea of the organization (I'm a freak like that ) and think that there would at least be a bit of containment with this type of gardening. Definitely somethign I am going to look into some more, thank you for this post!

 

[Millenia]

I'm trying out a square foot garden this year. Here's a picture if I did it right.

I planted beans, peas, carrots, parsnips, pumpkins, zuchini, and cucumber seeds about a week ago. Most of them have sprouted since this picture was taken.

I have a lot more to plant but have to wait until later in August or September. My husband built the beds for me along with the grids and trellises. I mixed what they call Mel's mix, which is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost, and put it in the beds myself. It's my first garden. My husband's taking a wait and see attitude.

Millenia

 

[TheCrazyPlantLady]

wow, the boxes look great! I hope you have good success with them. Keep us posted!

 

[ChanellG]

Very nice! I have a raised bed frame that my dad bought for my grandfather that isn't being used that I have been thinking of utilizing for shade veggie square foot planting. I really like the way he did the grids on top of your beds; I think I could do that even with my limited tools. Of course, I would still need a whole lot of dirt, lol.

 

[Millenia]

Thank you. The grids are there for two reasons. One, they look great, and two, they give you a defined area to plant in. You plant sixteen carrots per square, 9 beans, 4 lettuce, 1 zuchini, etc. I plan to utilize as much verticle gardening as possible. I'm going to attempt to grow my zuchini up those two verticle posts by tying them on there as they grow. I've seen it on youtube and it doesn't look too difficult. Every time you replant a square, you add compost to that square. The dirt is very loose and easy to dig in and weeds are pretty much nonexistant.

 

[ChanellG]

You may want to use those cylindrical tomato cages for the zucchini; they provide better support. I understand about the grids, but I just wonder about the root space and if I should use something in the soil to keep the roots for each different plant contained in it's 1 x 1 space.

 

[Millenia]

As to root space, they say no. Actually, square foot gardening only requires a 6 inch depth for most plants. If you are planting something that needs more depth like potatoes or carrots, they add these boxes they call top hats to the top of the square and fill them with the mix. It's the mix that is key. Those who follow it exactly swear by it. I first took notice when I saw on another forum that someone got 100 ears of corn out of a 4 X 4 ft. box. I had no idea that was even possible. I started reading more of that posters posts and tracked it back to square foot gardening. You have to have quality compost, though, or it may fail. And you add more compost each time you replant a square.