Square foot gardening
 

I was wondering if anyone had tried this? I read an article about it in a
gardening magazine & it seems like a good idea.

Thanks for any input,
Jayne

Square foot gardening
 

In article ,
"Jayne" wrote:

I was wondering if anyone had tried this? I read an article about it in a
gardening magazine & it seems like a good idea.


I was an avid square foot gardener when I was a renter and was lucky to
be allowed a little bit of dirt for a garden. It's a lot of fun. I
didn't always follow all the rules, but I sure followed the principles
(and still do). I think it changed my thoughts about planting in
general, and planting flowers and veggies in square foot "plots"
increased my yield. It works well when thinking about container
gardening as well. I didn't rigidly follow the whole rectangular grid
concept because I don't like that look, but I don't think that's
particularly important in the greater scheme of things.

There's a lot of information available for square foot and vertical
gardening (which is discussed in The Square Foot Gardener) out there and
people with small plots of land have been doing this for a very long
time. It just isn't always popular or necessary in the US, so I think
the concepts get overlooked, but planting in this manner can offer you a
really spectacular looking garden *filled* with interesting stuff.

Square foot gardening
 

On Thu, 01 May 2003 17:37:41 -0400, montana
wrote:


There's a lot of information available for square foot and vertical
gardening (which is discussed in The Square Foot Gardener) out there and
people with small plots of land have been doing this for a very long
time. It just isn't always popular or necessary in the US, so I think
the concepts get overlooked, but planting in this manner can offer you a
really spectacular looking garden *filled* with interesting stuff.

Having gardened both ways - traditional 'rows' and the
square foot method - I think the square foot method is also
spectacularly less work for the results you get.

It is readily adaptable to any size container as well - I'm
using big black plant pots and tires as containers this
year. I just measure the diameter (they're both circular),
calculate the area, and space the plants according to the
charts in Bartholomew's book.

Another thing I like about is that it's 'do-able' - if I
look at the garden as a whole - and mine isn't all that
large (maybe 30' x 40' now) - I think 'Oh, I can NEVER get
that all planted and I don't know where to plant
anything....and...' and I am very intimidated. I get scared
to the point of paralysis, almost, and don't get it done.

If I think 'Today I will plant two tires of plants', it's
manageable and it doesn't scare me! Or 'Today I will
transplant little plants into two big black pots.' It's
done in easy chunks of work. If you plant on a graduated
schedule - to get the cold-tolerating plants in first - this
works out very well. Anyway, it does for me.

Pat

Square foot gardening
 

Thanks for the comments all - I have quite a large garden but it has to
accommodate a dog, cats & children who love to play ball games & as I want
to make a veggie garden I was looking for something I could contain.
As Pat said - I also like the do-able aspect - my garden needs a lot of
"doing" & sometimes you just don't know where to start so this may be a good
launch pad for vegetable growing for me.

Jayne
"Larry Blanchard" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
I was wondering if anyone had tried this? I read an article about it in
a
gardening magazine & it seems like a good idea.

Works for me. As another poster said, I don't slavishly follow all the
rules, but I come reasonably close. Mostly I grow salad greens, beans,
zucchini, and tomatoes. This year I'm trying an Asian melon, but the
short season here makes it iffy.

You have to figure out the spacing on a lot of unusual stuff and I try a
lot of oddball greens just out of curiosity :-).

--
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we
are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Teddy Roosevelt

Square foot gardening
 

We moved to a new house (just across the street) 2 years ago. I had my husband
remove all the grass from the front lawn and build me 4 large raised garden
beds. I've been growing a variety of herbs and vegetables in two of the beds
using the square foot method with good result.

Pictures of some of my garden beds using the square foot method can be found at
http://members.aol.com/smythefarm/index.htm. The first year using the square
foot method I carefully laid out the beds using string to mark out each square.
The string rotted after the first year (which I knew it would). I decide I
didn't like the look of the string so I didn't replace it this year. I still
follow some of the square foot gardening techniques but on a more relaxed
level. I live in SE Florida and many of my vegetables grow much larger than
they would up north so trying to contain them in square foot sections according
to the square foot space allotments was a little confining for certain
vegetables. I love my raised garden beds but found the square foot method a
little too restrictive.

Two of my raised beds are backed by 8 foot tall sections of trellis which works
great for all my vine plants: tomatoes, pole beans, passion flower (for the
butterflies) etc.. We set up a drip irrigation system for the herb and
vegetable beds. It's going to be 90 degrees here today - yuck!

Take care,
Lynn Smythe
www.butterflygypsy.com

Square foot gardening
 

Love your garden Lynne! I'm enjoying my "walk" around it!

:-)
Jayne

"Smythefarm" wrote in message
...
Pictures of some of my garden beds using the square foot method can be
found at
http://members.aol.com/smythefarm/index.htm.