Author says that a row is no way to grow
By Pat Rubin - prubin at sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, April 19, 2008

http://www.sacbee.com/165/v-print/story/871567.html

If Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening (Cool Springs
Press, 2005, 272 pages, $19.99), could talk to gardeners all over the
world, the first thing he'd say to them is: "Stop planting vegetables
in single rows. Plant in square-foot grids instead."

Over the years he's honed that advice, first proclaimed to the world
in 1981 with the first edition of his book, originally aimed at
experienced gardeners.

"But the so-called experts never understood the concept. People who
had large gardens told me they didn't need a book like this. Turns out
it was the beginning gardeners and those who'd been frustrated and
discouraged in their previous attempts who loved and embraced the
book," he says.

He traces the idea back to a garden group he led in the mid-1970s.

"We'd meet to talk about our gardens and our problems, and I started
questioning some of the common gardening practices we all used that
mimicked commercial gardening. Why do home gardeners need 3-foot isles
on either side of a planted row? You've used more ground for walking
than for gardening," he says. "Why plant in rows at all? My method
uses 80 percent less garden space."

In fact, "Grow more in less space" became his mantra.

And while he now sells all the paraphernalia you'd need to use his
method, he proudly says that anyone the least bit handy with hammer
and nails can construct raised beds, build grids with lath or scraps
of wood, and construct tomato cages. And when you're done building,
all you'll need to maintain your garden is a trowel and your fingers
to pull a few stray weeds. (Well, I'd add a wheelbarrow, a place for
composting, perhaps a shovel, a bucket or two, garden gloves and the
like to the list.)

• First piece of advice, he says, is to put the garden where you see
it, where you'll walk by. If you see it every day, you'll be reminded
that there's food there and you'll take better care of it, he says.

• Definitely raised beds. "They only need to be 6 inches tall," he
says. "Really, that's all the soil you need. You can make them deeper,
of course, even waist height, or just put plywood on the bottom and
raise them up so you don't have to bend over to tend the garden."

• Don't worry about the existing soil, no matter how poor or rocky it
is.

"I used to tell people to dig up the existing ground a bit and mix the
new soil in some. No more. Don't worry about the existing soil," he
says.

Bartholomew's ideal soil mix for the raised beds is one-third peat,
one-third coarse vermiculite and one-third blended compost.

"This is a perfect soil mix, and you won't have to worry about
fertilizers and NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) ratios, and
suddenly you're all organic."

(Unfortunately, vermiculite is often hard to find. I opted for a blend
of plenty of compost and a garden soil mix that contained peat and
compost.)

• Put a grid on each bed, and leave it there.

"People often buy one grid, and use it to plant, then move it to the
next bed. That's fine, but if you leave the grid, it really brings
home how close you can plant and how much space you have in a 4-by-4-
(foot) bed, for example."

In his original book, Bartholomew advised stringing twine across the
bed and anchoring the ends with a small nail to make the grids.

"The trouble with that method is those nails are going to rust
someday, or you'll forget the nail is there and accidentally run your
hand across it."

• Make your aisles wheelbarrow width. They should be comfortable to
walk along, and leave room for sitting along the edges of the beds.

The book tells how many plants to put in each squa 1, 4, 9 or 16.

"In conventional planting, you'd plant a whole row of radishes and
throw away the packet. With my method, you plant 16 radishes in a
square foot, then save the rest of the packet to use another time. You
can stagger the crop over a period of weeks, and you'll still get the
same yield, but gradually so there's no waste.

"If anyone forgets those numbers, they're the square of 1, 2, 3, 4,
and that's how square foot gardening got its name. It's as easy as 1,
2, 3, 4."