Square Foot Gardening.....Does Anyone Else Do This?

[offgridgirl]

I am fairly new to gardening. I started my first garden 3 years ago. After researching I decided to try a square foot garden. The main reason was for simplicity. I didn't want a complicated garden or I might have given up. So here I am 3 years later and I have expanded my square foot garden.

The concept behind a square foot garden is to plant everything in 1 square foot sections, at least most vegetables,(using grids) in a raised garden bed using a special soil mix to prevent weeds. It is small concept gardening.

I have 2 gardens. One is 4x11 feet and the other 4x14 feet. I have a total of 99 squares to plant my goodies.
My garden as of last week
I finally got my tomatoes and peppers planted with the tomato cages in place

I have planted peas, onions, cucumbers, pole beans, bush beans, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, and tomatoes.


Next I will work on the netting for my cucumbers and beans and also a fence around the garden


Please share any of your gardening experiences and tips

 

[GardenWeasel]

Loved square foot gardening in the city. Actually gave my copy to my son when I moved and now have 3 acres. I still do a square foot raised bed for carrots radishes and beets. Do need to amend the soil more frequently as it is harder on the nutrients. My son is a solid convert. Your look beautiful!

 

[keljonma]

Great pic of your sqft garden!

Our very first year, we converted ds's 4x4x2 sandbox into strawberry beds. We have used the sqfts for years; with and without gridding.

One of our friends has started a small community sqft garden for the children who attend after-school and summer programs through our local program called Spiderweb. The kids had so much garden abundance, that some of their harvest helped with our church's twice monthly free community meals.

Anyway, I heard from my friend that a couple of the families became very interested in the sqft garden system and are now doing in their small yards.

 

[lwheelr]

I do block planting, but I am lazy about it. I estimate spacings, scatter seed a lot of crops, and then put flowers and other plants in the holes to fill them while things are growing. I often use the square foot gardening as a starting reference point, but figure that plants aren't that good at math, so I can be casual if I like about spacings.

 

[pinkfox]

i know that hill, lisa! its foxywench form city-data LOL!

were doing a form of sqft gardening this year, rased beds with the squarfoot method but using our own dirt mix (which is mostly composted chicken manure lol.)
its our first year doing it this way, but i thought this method would be easier for mum and dad to keep up when i move out and so far so good. everything is doing very well in their own little spaces

im plannng on continuing to follow this method for my personal and animal veggie gardens when i get my own place...if i begin growing enough for resale ill probably end up going for large tilled feilds, but for smaller needs this is a great method of intensive farming for smaller spaces!

 

[sunsaver]

I use a variation on square foot gardening. I have several beds that are 4 x 6 or 4 x 8, or even scalloped borders, and serpentine shapes. The idea is that i can reach across halfway from either side. These are permanent beds that i rotate crops into. I'm constantly amending my own soil, but i don't import any farther than my neighbor's leaves and my kitchen scraps. I also do intensive planting, only thinning things that have to be, like tomatoes, spinach, collards, broccoli and chard. Lettuce and turnip greens are left to duke it out. So are most beans and peas and even carrots don't really need much thinning.

I also use the no-till method, to save the lives of my earthworms. I loosen the soil with my digging fork by pushing it in and rocking it forward. This deeply aerates the soil. Then i rake the top out with a garden rake, and plant. Then i come back and mulch, thinly or sort of thick, depending on the size of the seeds i just planted. After that i just pull a weed here or there, or toss on some compost, spray some squash bugs with soap. There's a forest canopy to the west of all beds, so they only get a half day of sun, but thats plenty for Louisiana. The canopy also keeps everything mulched so that i don't have to weed that much.

 

[patandchickens]

I think there are a lot of good ideas in his books (especially the older one -- the new edition is a bit *extra*-too "Mel Bartholomew-y" for me and kind of gives me hives LOL) and I have used a lot of them.

I do not however do strict Square Foot Gardening in the quasi-religious way that he wants people to, where you follow every word that he's written. Cuz I think a lot of it is pointlessly overcomplicated or doesn't allow for equal or superior alternatives or isn't always the best idea in everyone's individual circumstances.

But, like I said, a lot of good stuff there and I've been doing that general sort of thing fairly consistantly since my first veg gardens "all my own" (i.e. not at my parents') maybe 25 yrs ago

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[BarredBuff]

We have two square foot gardens and then one BIG traditional row garden. One garden has nothing but peppers, brocolli, and cabbage.

 

[Our7Wonders]

last year was my first year gardening and I used SFG - loved it. This year I have two 5x4 boxes, each with a trellis net for climbing on one side and one 4x4 box. I have cleared another area to try Ruth Stout's method of gardening as well. I plan to put a box in each of a few awkward areas that wouldn't accomodate a standard garden very easily - we can build those boxes to be a good fit for what would otherwise be unuseable space.

 

[sunsaver]

I dont follow any rules, dont stick to any spacing guidelines, dont read any almanacs, although i do like to plant just before a full moon. It does seem to make a difference. I'd like to see some real science on that. But i think most garden lore is just that. I cram my plants in like sardines, all mixed together with strange bedfellows, and they always do great. I think people who have trouble growing stuff are probably over watering or over fertilizing. And if you mix tap rooted plants with shallow rooted plants, you can usually put them smack on top of each other. I've been growing stuff organically for nearly 20 years, and never have any serious bug problems. I guess it's because everything is so mixed up and spread out along the borders, mixed with flowers, etc.