Square foot advice, please

This is not for myself but for a friend living abroad. He has very little land but would like to try Square-Foot gardening. His climate is sub-tropical, his posiition is fairly open and sunny and he is looking for advice on what vegetables would be best to grow.

 

I tried it once, in a VegTrug but, to be honest, in that space it was a total waste of time if someone wishes to be self sufficient.

Does your friend wish to try this in order to be self sufficient? How little/much land does he have? When you say "abroad", where (roughly)? What type of soil does he have?

More importantly, what vegetables does he eat!!? No point in recommending something only to find he hates the stuff How many does he wish to provide vegetables for?

See? You thought you were asking a simple question

 

Dont even know what Square Foot gardening is?

 

Gosh you are so "Old School"

 

just googled.. fancy way of saying raised beds that are square foot?

 

A raised bed only one square foot.
You cannot be serious?
Better off growing in containers, more space

 

Yep, Square Metre gardener me.

 

Hmm, sort of. But, there are websites which will tell you just how many plants (mainly veg) which will grow in just one square foot of space. So, for example, in one square foot of gardening space (be it in the ground, container, or in a raised space) you could grow:

• 9 parsips, OR
• 4 garlic, OR
• 2 basil plants

The thing is, there was a book by a guru who worked all of this out and really did his sums. Since the internet, plenty of people have jumped on the bandwagon and you will see plenty of conflicting advice on how many of a variety you can squeeze into one square foot of garden space (be it ground, raised bed or container).

Certainly, if you are short of space (think balcony gardening or small gardens) it is a useful way to make sure that each inch of space is put to good use without over sowing or under sowing.

 

ha @"M" beat me to it.. I was going to say judging this..
you'll get maybe 2 carrots, 1 half eaten cauli and 4 leaves of lettuce?


I actually seen this all on pinterest last year and thought it was quite crazy

 

And that is the whole point: some people only have a balcony garden ... or worse, a window box! So, the square foot gardening premise could mean the difference between those people growing something worth their while or just leaving an area to do nothing

I used a VegTrug for my experiment ...




... from memory, I divided the Trug into square foot planting spaces and endeavoured to grow: radish, peas, 1 courgette plant and ... buggered if I can remember

I just know that it really wasn't worth my while ... but then, at that point, I had a 1/4 acre garden to play with

 

love your web!

 

It's from a 1980's book, think it was called "how to grow more food than you ever thought possible, from less land than you've actually got"

or something like that

Basically a city dweller re discovered what a garden can grow and was amazed by it

 

I've seen that web and nearly fell in it

 

I would think ghat common sense indicates that whatever you can grow in a pot, can also be grown in a "square foot".... as has been stated, the possibilties are nearly endless.

I do lots of container growing and enjoy it.

 

Verticle gardening with automatic watering system is the answer its just that the world doesnt know it yet.