Square foot gardening?

[ivy]

Anyone here tried square fot gardening? I've got some raised beds and am interested in trying it. I'd like to hear about your experiences.

[jorgiemom]

ivy, I have the book and tried it. Yes, it really does keep down the weed population. I enjoyed it. I was just learning about organic gardening at the time and through in the square foot methods then too, so it was highly experimental. LOL. I have not had a garden that size since. The kids came along....
Now, I'm playing with bees. The kids stay clear!

[panda]

I tried a square foot garden last year, and really enjoyed it. I was working with a small space in the city and didn't think I'd be able to have much variety, but I grew tomatoes, bell and hot peppers, several kinds of lettuce and mesclun mix, green beans, a few peas, onions, basil, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, marigolds, morning glory, nasturtium... I think that's about it. All in 5-3x4 foot blocks in the strip next to the sidewalk near my flat. I started with 3 and then after I got those blocks planted I couldn't help myself from expanding it to 5.

Who knew I could grow so many things in such a small space! Maintainance was easier than I remembered it in my mom's HUGE garden, but of course there wasn't enough harvest to freeze or can. There was enough for fresh eating, though. This year I'll try to plan a bit more carefully for a continuous harvest of lettuce.

This year I'm going to do things a little differently. I'll follow most of the square foot ideas, but I wasn't crazy about the way plants looked in the squares, so I'm dividing my blocks up a little differently. Still in clumps rather than in rows, but I want it to look a little more organic and natural, I guess.

Good luck. I'm trying to decide when to put peas in. Soon, I think! I need to call my grandpa.

[serenetabbie]

love it!

LLLOOOVEEE IT!
Did I say I love it?!? :LOL
We have been doing sq ft gardening for sometime now, before we even knew what it was called or that there was a book about it. Then we moved here to PA, right near the rodale place! What a great find. We got the book and perfected our ideas. We grow way more than we tought we could and last year when I broke my ankle and couldn't tend to the garden it still did great on its own!
We have 3 smallish beds....not really foot by foot squares, but odd shapes tucked into the landscaping.
heres what we grow normally:
bed 1
outfront: Flowers and herbs
irises, sage, coral bells, oregeno, chives, catnip, tulips, tarragon, sedums, some yuccas, and then other herbs and annual flowers. oh, and my little rose bush
Side:
6 to 8 tomato plants, 4 eggplant, hot peppers, broccoli, mint out the wazzoo

Back:
strawberries, lettuce, spinach, pole beans, peas, garlic, what ever else sonds good, bell peppers

of course we rotate and plant more things in other odd places in the yard...like sunflowers along the shed and pumpkins (failed 2 years in a row) by the back of the property. Some work and some dont!
we have 4 people to feed now, so we will have to expand, but in other years we had enough to have fresh tomatoes in to november and quite a few quarts of sauce, and frozen peas, beans, peppers, and spinach for months. Not to mention a years supply of herbs!
~~good luck..laura

[chocomoto]

This will be my first year square foot gardening. We have a very small yard, so saving space is my main concern. Last year, I had free standing raised beds and planted intensively. I was pretty happy with the results, but it was hard to decide where to put plants, how to succession plant, etc. with such a small space. Also, most of my plants were overcrowded, and I started way too many seeds indoors.
I like the square foot method because you know exactly how many of a certain plant will fit in a square. And you can leave squares open for continual planting (like for lettuce) so you can harvest all summer.
I'm really excited to see how it will turn out.
I started preparing my squares outside yesterday. I'm such a gardening fanatic that I have spent all winter deciding what I will grow, and drew up a map of my squares to play with inside. I've got each type of plant on little paper squares and I can move them around on my map. Dh thinks I've lost it!
Honestly, I'm not sure I like the look of the squares outside. It seems so rigid, especially right now since there is just bare dirt. I used 4 ft long bamboo sticks to partion the square into 16. This was the easiest/cheapest solution I could find. I'm curious if anyone has a better idea, or if it is really necessary to have each square so clearly marked?

[sadean]

Hmmm...Seems I've been doing this without knowing that there was any such thing. I have 2 8x8 beds which I subdivide into squares with string and stakes (after I've planted). I totally map it our on graph paper and use that when i go out to plant. I take the string and stakes down as soon as stuff sprouts. I'm looking to expand into other areas of my yard, as I tend to overcrowd. Last year I grew squashes for the first time (yellow, acorn and zuccini) and they shaded out much of my lettuce, so I think they may need an home of there own this year...: In all I was able to plant the sqaushes, green peppers, hot peppers, big tomatos, cherry tomatos, lettuce (2 kinds), spinich, arugula, pole beans, chives, basil, cilantro, sage, thyme, and two kinds of parsley. I also planted sunflowers along the fence, outside of the bed boundaries. I need to work on plant placement, but overall it was successful.