Interesting concept

Square Foot Gardening is the practice of planning small but intensively planted gardens. The phrase "square foot gardening" was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in a 1981 Rodale Press book and subsequent PBS television series. The practice combines concepts from other organic gardening methods, including a strong focus on compost, closely planted raised beds and biointensive attention to a small, clearly defined area. Proponents claim that the method is particularly well-suited for areas with poor soil, beginning gardeners or as adaptive recreation for those with disabilities.

Basic Method


The original square-foot-gardening method used an open-bottomed box to contain a finite amount of soil, which was divided with a grid into sections. To encourage variety of different crops over time, each square would be planted with a different kind of plant, the number of plants per square depending on an individual plant's size. A single tomato plant might take a full square, as might herbs such as oregano, basil or mint, while most strawberry plants could be planted four per square, with up to sixteen radishes per square. Tall or climbing plants such as maize or pole beans might be planted in a northern row (south in the southern hemisphere) so as not to shade other plants, and supported with lattice or netting.
The logic behind using smaller beds is that they are easily adapted, and the gardener can easily reach the entire area, without stepping on and compacting the soil. In the second edition, Bartholomew suggests using a "weed barrier" beneath the box, and filling it completely with "Mel's mix," a combination by volume of one third of decayed Sphagnum "peat moss", one-third expanded vermiculite and one-third blended compost. For accessibility, raised boxes may have bottoms to sit like tables at a convenient height, with approximately 6" (15cm) of manufactured soil per square foot.

Rationale

In this method, the garden space is divided into beds that are easily accessed from every side. A 4' x 4', 16 sq ft or 120 cm x 120 cm, 1.4 m2 garden is recommended for the first garden, and a path wide enough to comfortably work from should be made on each side of the bed, if possible, or if the bed must be accessed by reaching across it, a narrower one should be used so that no discomfort results from tending the garden. Each of the beds is divided into approximately one square foot units and marked out with sticks, twine, or sturdy slats to ensure that the square foot units remain visible as the garden matures.
Different seeds are planted in each square, to ensure a rational amount of each type of crop is grown, and to conserve seeds instead of overplanting, crowding and thinning plants. Common spacing is one plant per square for larger plants (broccoli, basil, etc.), four plants per square for medium large plants like lettuce, nine plants per square for medium-small plants like spinach, and sixteen per square for small plants such as onions and carrots. Plants that normally take up yards of space as runners, such as squash or cucumbers, are grown vertically on sturdy frames that are hung with netting or string to support the developing crops. Ones that grow deep underground, such as potatoes or carrots, are grown in a square foot section that has foot tall sides and a planting surface above the ground, so that a foot or more of framed soil depth is provided above the garden surface rather than below it.
The beds are weeded and watered from the pathways, so the garden soil is never stepped on or compacted. Because a new soil mixture is used to create the garden, and a few handfuls of compost are added with each harvest to maintain soil fertility over time, the state of the site's underlying soil is irrelevant. This gardening method has been employed successfully in every region, including in deserts, on high arid mountain plateaus, in cramped urban locations, and in areas with polluted or high salinity soils. It is equally useful for growing flowers, vegetables, herbs and some fruits in containers, raised beds, on tabletops or at ground level, in only 4 to 6 inches (150 mm) of soil. A few seeds per square foot, the ability to make compost, to water by hand, and to set up the initial garden in a sunny position or where a container, table or platform garden may be moved on wheels to receive light is all that is needed to set up a square foot garden.

Benefits of Square Foot Gardening

• Much less work. Conventional gardening requires heavy tools to loosen the soil, whereas in this method, the soil is never compacted and it remains loose and loamy. Weeding takes only seconds to minutes, due to the light soil, raised beds, and easily accessed plants. Harvests per foot of garden are increased due to the rich soil mixture, well-spaced plants, and lack of weeds produced when following Mel Bartholomew's method.
• Water Savings. The soil mixture that is advised has water-holding capacities, so that the garden needs water less frequently, and in much smaller quantities than when using other gardening methods. Water is also spared by hand-watering directly at the plant roots, so that there is very little waste and tender young plants and seedlings are preserved.
• Very little weeding. One benefit of this close planting is that the vegetables form a living mulch, and shade out many weed seeds before they have a chance to germinate.
• Pesticide / Herbicide Free. Natural insect repellent methods like companion planting (i.e. planting marigolds or other naturally pest-repelling plants) become very efficient in a close space and thus, pesticides are not necessary. The large variety of crops in a small space also prevents plant diseases from spreading easily.
• Accessibility. A plywood bottom can be attached to the bottom of a box, which can then be placed on a tabletop or raised platform for those who wish to garden without bending or squatting, or to make gardening easy for wheelchair, cane or walker users.
• copied from Wikipedia

 

Very interesting. I had a little read up on this concept the other day. I am very tempted to give it a go next year.

 

Thanks for sharing, Walnut. I've been considering raised bed for some time, so this may just work for me as my gardening difficulty increases. In other words, do as much as I can while I'm able to. Cheers!

 

Hi Kathy.

Raised beds had been suggested to me last year, but I didn't take it onboard because I hadn't completed what I was doing at the time. For a wood that doesn't rot so easily, I thought of using old scaffolding boards if I can buy them locally. Their width should offer a reasonable depth of soil to work with, along with giving a really good solid border around the plots.

Standing on the soil isn't good for any sort of gardening, so I never do it unless I'm truly forced to, but even then very briefly. (Twinkle toes.):hehe:

Now, I know that the subject of slugs has come up elsewhere, but I thought that I would take a leaf out of Geoff Hamilton's book, and this is to use calcified seaweed around whatever planting I do. This also enriches the soil, so it can't be bad. He seemed to think that it worked for him against slugs, so I'm willing to give it a try. I think that because my garden has one area to grow produce on, while the rest is my wild garden, the slugs seem to thrive under these conditions. You should see what the flagstones are like during a good rain storm, ugh!:dh:

 

Walnut, my dear ... you have been hiding under those beautiful blooms far too long .. or cycling too far away ... or staring at the moon and stars .... or baking too much bread ..... or ...

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/square-foot-gardening-t8100.html?t=8100&highlight=square+foot+gardening

:luv:

 

Victoria - you are way ahead of us in so many things - especially blooming plants! :wink:

I can't make up my mind if this is something new or not. Essentially it is exactly the same as growing everything in large square pots, which will fit together well - otherwise just round pots. Pots can either be sat on the ground or on a table.

There are definite benefits of being able to suit the compost/soil in the pot to the plant. And I am coming round to the idea of growing more and larger things in pots, because you can move them around.

 

Walnut

Thanks for this, very interesting - I've been moving in this direction with my two raised beds.

I find that having a small, concentrated area for veg production really makes me plan more carefully than in the old days when I had much more space with a traditional veg plot.

The only disadvantage I've found is the blackbirds love the loose, crumbly texture of the soil in my raised beds and throw it all over the lawn. It's their favourite sport. They flatly refuse to let me earth up the leeks and chuck the soil over their shoulder, in the pretence of looking for insects.

 

I've tried scaffold boards before and I'm afraid they rotted remarkably quickly, so I don't think they are pressure treated. They are the perfect size though.

The question I would have Walnut about square foot gardening is if you squeeze plants together won't you end up with smaller less productive plants? I dunno..

 

"Is treated wood (with creosote) alright to use?"

No, not good :(

But you could treat it like that, and put a barrier (plastic) sheet between the board and the bed - which would probably further increase the life of the wood.

"if you squeeze plants together won't you end up with smaller less productive plants?"

With raised beds many of the plants have the benefit of the extra elbow room being around the edge of the bed. I read of Row and Plant spacing (when growing rows) and each-way-spacing when growing in beds (which is usually closer), but I've never understood how the plants in the middle of the bed fare!

I have tended to evolve my own spacing. All my beds are 4' wide and I either plant X-across the bed, or I plant X-the-Y-across - i.e. a diagonal system where Y is one less then X

Some things like Sprouts can "blow" if planted too close together, many crops don't seem to mind to much, and I tend to only grow a handful of each type at a time - so planting some lettuce next to, say, Brussels allows me to crop the lettuce before the Brussels are big enough to need the extra space