Square Foot Gardening - Page 2

[AntoninBeGonin]

Originally Posted by cheenya

One of the reasons I like the sfg idea is the suggestion in the book (the new one) of making lift off covers out of chicken wire to keep animals out of the garden. We have a huge rabbit problem, so I'm really liking the idea. We'll see how it works, but it seems promising. I think the biggest challenge for me may be finding a source for organic (as in no chemicals) compost.

I just thought of something. If some or all of the produce scraps you compost isn't organic, does that mean your garden isn't organic either?

I got the sfg book off amazon or alibris last year. This year I'm actually gonna start a garden.

~Nay

[quirkylayne]

I got the book from the library! I'm going to try it, seems easy enough, right? Now I have to plan my plots!

[cjr]

I built 6 sq gardens last year. It was great. I experimented with what would grow so I can grow an amazing garden this year. I planted peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, 3 varieties of squash, bush beans, cucumbers, leeks, corn, and brussel sprouts.

The acorn and spaghetti squash did amazing. I was swimming in vines. The butternut needed help polunating and I only got 2 to grow. The spaghetti came up first, then the acorn and the butternut didn't mature until the end of the season.

The cabbage did great, except I kept getting butterflies. The brusselsprouts would have been great if not for the butterflies. I just couldn't keep up with the eggs.

The bush beans did fantastic as did the cucumbers, I planted them together. This year I will plant a lot more.

The corn did great, but we picked it too early and it was starchy.

The peppers didn't do so well, but it was most likely my zone.

Tomatoes did fantastic. I planted to 100's cherry. I planted 4 and we had bushels of them. When the first frost came we just picked the green ones and let them ripen in a bowl. We picked the red ones out every day.

I would never garden any other way. Very little weeds. We also planted flowers. Easy to maintain. Easy to water. Easy to feed.

It is a lot of work to get them started. Very labor intensive. So worth it.

[ShannonCC]

I got the book from the library and have been reading it. I'm so excited about this!

We're going to grow a lot of veggies the kids will eat and then a few that only I will eat (don't ask about dh, he just chokes them down).

I'm hoping to have two squares. I got a catalog from seedsavers and am deciding what I want

[calla&elsa]

We are about to start a garden at our house and this looks like a great way to go. But I have a question, it might be dumb, but is there enough room in the square to grow things that run, like pumpkin. It just seems like it would get stunted. I better get the book.

[kerc]

Originally Posted by calla&elsa

We are about to start a garden at our house and this looks like a great way to go. But I have a question, it might be dumb, but is there enough room in the square to grow things that run, like pumpkin. It just seems like it would get stunted. I better get the book.

My book is en route from my sister but a pumpkin plant sends out vines. I'm assuming they just go all over the place -- so the box is just for the roots. My girlfriend grew squash galore last year and her hubby just gently moved the vines to cut the grass once or twice.

[KariM]

We've done it for two seasons now and currently have a total of 288 squares in our tiny city backyard.

We absolutely love it and I can't imagine returning to traditional gardening. What I think I like the best is the lack of weeding! I generally have to weed once early in the season and that's it. Once our vegetable plants are up, there isn't space for weeds to invade.

[KariM]

Oh, and regarding vines - we do it two ways. Our beans we train up a trellis made of a mesh type fence fabric and the squash we just let run along the walking trails.

We didn't take pictures last year but we had two acorn squash plants that grew HUGE. We had probably 30 squash produced from each plant.

[EmsMom]

I have a question. I am trying SFG this year with one old bed and some new. If I was planting mesclun type salad mixes (as opposed to a heading or bunching lettuce) could I just lightly cover the whole 12 inch block with the seeds? Or is that just too much? I know to plant 4 heads of lettuce per block, but I want some mesclun greens (and wild greens) as well for continual cutting. Has anyone done this?

[KariM]

I planted a mixed green seed mixture two seasons ago and just spread it lightly over the square. We ended up doing too many squares to keep up with and ended up using a lot of the greens in our stock instead of salads, though.

I found that I adjusted his planting scheme on many things. In some cases planting more per square and in other cases planting fewer per square.

[wwinorth]

Are there certain plants that should not be planted next to each other? (other than for cross-pollination reasons, those I get)

[EmsMom]

Originally Posted by KariM

I planted a mixed green seed mixture two seasons ago and just spread it lightly over the square. We ended up doing too many squares to keep up with and ended up using a lot of the greens in our stock instead of salads, though.

I found that I adjusted his planting scheme on many things. In some cases planting more per square and in other cases planting fewer per square.

Thank you. I am going to try some mixed greens squares and some head type lettuces. I am looking forward to the spring!

[Abarat]

Originally Posted by wwinorth

Are there certain plants that should not be planted next to each other? (other than for cross-pollination reasons, those I get)

I know that some plants don't do well when planted with others and some are actually harmful to some other plants. For example, our wormwood we grow in pots because it really shouldn't be planted with others.
But some plants do very well when planted with those that compliment them. I'm sure you can look up anything you're planning to grow and usually a good guide will say what does and doesn't go well with it. I can't think of too many examples at the moment. I leave most of the gardening up to my dp as I'm busy with the babe and things in/around the house.

Plus, our square foot gardening went very well! We've modified it somewhat, especially for climbers and runners....we make rows the width of our garden and about a foot or two wide and place a trellis along the length of the row for whatever we want (cucumbers, squash, etc.). But we're amazed at how much we can grow in such a small space. We've just now used all of our sweet potatoes from last year!

Way to go everyone! It's so exciting with Spring here (or for some, on it's way)!

[kandkrose]

i'm going to be trying sfg this year too! i'm hoping to maybe do a mixture of sfg and lasagna gardening we'll see!!

[caeden&connersmom]

I just got my New Square Foot Gardening book in the mail today and I am SO ready for Spring!! We had a huge "regular" garden last year and it got so over run with weeds I hated going out to it. Totally psyched about trying this new kind of gardening. Already have the spot picked out for it too Right outside the kitchen door, its going to be so nice not to have to go to the back of the property just to get to the garden anymore.

My problem is going to be keeping it small to begin with Im all gung ho to do 12 boxes! (There are 4 of us in our house, and the kids are not veggie eaters either)

Also going to try to do some theme gardens, Salad, Salsa, Pizza, Kids, etc. Thank goodess we have 3 acres of lawn to work with!

[mimiharshe]

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[beemama]

We had a SFG for 2 years and our beds were run over by a utility truck last summer : so we're starting over this year... we had 2 squares & plan to do 4 this year.
I just saw Mel Bartholomew speak at our herb show and am so charged! We started our seedlings over the past couple of nights...Yay!

So, we have to start from scratch... can somebody with the new book (we have the first edition) tell me what types of compost we need for our 1/3 compost? I remember Mel saying that you needed a few different kinds.


... lol, at first I was thinking we'd use our personal compost but then as I was doing the math I realized we have nowhere near enough to get started. Not even close!

[TripMom]

OK - what's the concept with this? Anybody give me quick blurb? I have a 30ft x 2.5 ft garden -- and I've been looking for resources on spacing plants - seems like last year we "overplanted".

[silvermam]

Have a look at:
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

[MidnightCommando]

Originally Posted by wwinorth

Are there certain plants that should not be planted next to each other? (other than for cross-pollination reasons, those I get)

There is a book my mother swears by called "carrots love tomatoes" which covers companion planting and includes what not to plant next to each other and why.

A great resource I use is the gardenweb.com forums. lots of very knowledgeable people there covering thousands of topics.

I too am joining the SFG brigade. I wouldn't dare try any other way with our soil here (all clay: ). It took us two years of working our soil just to put in a lawn. SFG looks like a lot of fun. We might try one or two boxes built with wood and a couple with cinder blocks. The blocks run 1.57 each at Lowes - i think someone asked before.

My only reservation with this plan is Mel's mix. It seems like it is too much compost and runs the risk of burning your plants - even if you are using 5 types. It also seems like it might dry out very easy, at least around here. We live in a high desert climate where the summers are HOT during the day and chilly at night. Humidity is pretty much non-existent and the wind is always blowing. I might try one box with mel's exact recipe and one with the mix but adding in some actual soil.

I am so itching for spring to get here; this winter is dragging on and on and on and on.... I have to start most of my plants indoors since our last frost date is June 1 and our growing season is under 100 days. The joys of gardening in the rocky mountains I bought most of my seeds and starting gear this weekend and they are sitting on the table taunting me. I'm ready to get my hands in the dirt!!!