I'm going to give square foot gardening an attempt this year

I built three raised beds 4' x 8' and one 4' x 12' nearly twenty years ago after tiring of the yearly rototilling routine and seeing plans in Kitchen Garden magazine. They were filled at the time with bulk garden soil from a nearby nursery. All I have done each Spring has been to turn the soil and rake in some peat moss. The results have been generally fair but never great - between very hot, dry weather, bugs, and other factors, we don't exactly get a bumper crop in any given growing season. After seeing square foot gardening mentioned elsewhere, I decided to remove some of the existing soil in the beds and replace it with somewhat the same mix called for by the book: 1/3 each of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss. I actually cheated and bought several bags of 'Kellogs Garden Soil', which was mentioned as a good alternative on a video, plus a large bag of vermiculite. I've always just used a watering can but may go ahead with drip irrigation as well; I think the watering has been a major source of some of our problem tomatoes in years past.

Anyone had good luck with this? I'll put up some pics depending on how things go. :)

I do recycle my soil and have found worm castings (aka worm poop) to be a Morales worker at reviving used dirt. Your local extenstion office (if you have one) might offer soil anaylsis for free or very little so you can find out exactly what you need.

Do keep us up to date on your progress! :hi:


(FYI, the forum is still a little sluggish these days, but should be picking up soon!)

The cherry tomatoes were out of control and the basil did well, but everything else (cukes, beans, snow peas, carrots, spinach) was so-so. I have a very shady yard. Sigh.

And I must have loaned out my book, because I couldn't find it the other day.

Anyway, I have a half acre but only a small spot for a garden. Much of my property is shaded by huge fir trees. I have to fence the garden because of deer and dh wasn't willing to give up all of the available space so I grabbed the sunburst spot.

After fencing it, I put in raised square food beds of various dimensions. I'm partial to 2' wide beds, because it's easier to reach through them especially once everything grow out.

This spring I've been digging the dirt out of each bed and lined them with hardware cloth. I use cobblestones for the edges of the beds, so I can't exactly nail the wire to anything. Tedious to say the least, but the moles were having too much fun tunneling in the beds. They'd undermined a few last year.

I've had good luck with the method.

Mel had a great concept in the SFG but I disagree with him (through experience) on several details:

- Mel's Mix didn't work for me. I now use Miracle Grow gardening mix (usually taken from last year's potted peppers/tomatoes) and my own compost with lots of worm castings.

- He advocates putting a different crop in each square foot. I did this the first year and found I really didn't have enough crop for much of anything. I now will plant 1 - 3 things in each of my SFG (I have 3), that way I have plenty of fresh and enough to can or freeze for the off-season.

- Planting seeds directly into the SFG also didn't work for me. With the exception of a few plants that don't transplant so well (potatoes, green onions, shallots), I plant starts in starter trays first and transplant them once they're large enough and strong enough for the move.

- He advocates planting 2 seeds for every one hole then, if both plants come up, cut the extra plant. I dig up the extra and either transplant it somewhere in the yard or put it in a small starter cup and give it away. I just can't bring myself to waste a perfectly good plant.

But having said all that, the SFG has been unbelievably prolific. I have a postage-stamp sized back yard and the SFG is perfect for small spaces. I just planted the third one yesterday so I will have: Gutas (Armenian cucumbers), green onions, red potatoes, zucchini and yellow squash. In the winter I have snow peas, spinach, swisschard, lettuce, and collard greens so basically, I'm harvesting something from there about 10 months out of the year.