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Learn how to get started with square foot gardening. Custom Search Square foot gardening is certainly the most brilliant system for those average home gardeners who wish to raise their own fresh organic vegetables, and yet not have all of the drudgery involved in a full-scale backyard garden. If you have always hesitated to have a garden because of space or time restrictions; square foot gardening is your answer. When I bought Mel Bartholomews’s fascinating book “Square Foot Gardening” back in 1990, I was hooked! The concept is simplicity personified. All you really need is small plot of sunny land, some 3 or 4 foot wide raised beds, some very basic hand tools and you are ready to grow your own organic produce.
• Building the bedsThe bulk of your labor will be in building the raised beds and boxes. The best way is to construct raised planting boxes with redwood, cypress or other durable lumber which has been liberally penetrated with linseed oil to prevent rotting. Pressure treated lumber or creosote treated lumber is not recommended as they contain toxins which may leach into your soil and thus into your vegetables. Find a good level site which receives at least six to eight hours of sunshine daily. Locate where you want your beds to be located using stakes and string, remembering to allow 2 to 3 feet between the sides and ends of each bed for access aisles. If your beds are located over existing sod, dig the sod it up to depth of about 3 in. and place it aside. Turn it upside down and cover with a black plastic garbage bag. By keeping it moist, it will shortly decompose and turn into wonderful soil. Construct the boxes of 2” by 12”s so as to get adequate depth for the beds, and locate where the ground has been marked. Be sure to construct the corners securely, preferably with screws. Level the boxes as best you can so that any vertical trellises which can be added will actually be vertical. Using nails and twine or thin pieces of wooden lath, create a grid over the top of your beds into 1 foot squares. This is important!
• Soil
Fill the boxes with Mr. Bartholomew's recommended soil mix which consists of one-third blended
compost,
one-third peat moss, and one-third coarse vermiculite. Use care not to ever walk on the soil to prevent the compaction of the soil. Good topsoil fortified with manure and compost will also work very well.
• Spacinghe 1 ft. square grid will accommodate one plant per square for larger plants such as broccoli, 4 plants per square for medium-sized plants such as lettuce, 9 plants per square for small plants such as spinach, and 16 plants per square for very small plants such as carrots. Select different crops for each square foot and rotate them as they mature and are harvested. You are now finished with the “hard” stuff. So let’s plant and harvest the results of your square foot gardening.
• Advantages
Much less work; because the soil is never compacted, it will remain loose and friable. Weeding will be much easier due to the size of the bed, the quality of the soil and because of the fact that the plants are planted so close together, they will form a living mulch and will shade out the weeds. By using a recommended soil mixture, these beds will not require as much water as other systems of gardening. Water can be placed very near the roots and can be done from a simple watering can. It is a good idea to leave the watering can in the sun so that the water will be warm and not shock the plants. A drip irrigation system is ideal for the square foot gardening method of growing vegetables. When harvesting your crop, use a simple trowel to add more compost or mulch as needed. Because we are talking about a one square foot piece of ground, this should take no time at all. Pesticides and herbicides should not be necessary in a square foot gardening because companion planting becomes very efficient in a closely planted environment such as a square foot garden. It is also much easier to visually see if problems are arising. Seeds and seedlings will be planted singly instead dropping in a whole package of seeds and then thinning out 80% of what you have sown. One of the wonderful things about square foot gardening system is that you can start with as many beds as you feel you need, and then grow from that point. One four by eight foot bed will probably keep two people very well supplied with vegetables for the growing season. A rule of thumb is that one four by four bed per person should be adequate. Structure such as trellises, bird netting, and deterrents against rodents and rabbits are easily into a square foot garden. A bottom can also be attached to the box so that it may be placed upon a table or a support. This will enable the “stooping and bending challenged” folks, such as myself to stand or sit while tending to their garden. I would strongly suggest purchasing Mr. Bartholomew’s book “Square Foot Gardening” in as much as there so more information in it that I could not even begin to cover here. It is fascinating reading and will surely have you anticipating the next growing season.
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