Square Foot Gardening
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How To Make a Square Foot Garden
Square foot gardening is a popular method of gardening which allows closer planting of vegetables, herbs and flowers, producing a bigger crop in a smaller space with less work.
After I left home, I had always wanted to grow my own vegetables, but my first attempts at starting and maintaining a vegetable garden were quite dismal even though I had a friend help me with digging over the garden bed to prepare it.
My first real success came when I started using the square foot gardening method. The vegetables grew better and I was able to stay on top of the weeding.
This page will give you an introduction to square foot gardening.
Table of Contents
- Mel Bartholomew - Introduction to Square Foot Gardening
- Have you ever made a square foot garden?
- 1) Square Foot Gardening Boxes
- Raised garden beds for a square foot garden
- 2) Square Foot Gardening Layout
- For more information on the best place to put your garden beds:
- 3) Square Foot Garden Soil Mix
- 4) Square Foot Gardening Grids
- 5) Square Foot Gardening Spacing
- Sample Square Foot Gardening Plans
- Software to plan your square foot garden - free trial
- All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!
- More Square Foot Gardening Pictures
- For more vegetable gardening tips...
- Do you have any tips on using square foot gardening?
Sample square foot garden plan made using this garden planning software.
Have you ever made a square foot garden?
1) Square Foot Gardening Boxes
With square foot gardening, you need to think squares and not rows. Your square foot garden boxes should be at least 6 inches deep and no wider than 4 feet. If the box is wider than 4 feet, you would probably need to step onto the garden bed when planting, weeding, harvesting etc and this would compact the soil. The square foot gardening boxes can be longer than 4 feet but the longer they are, the further you have to walk around to get from one side of the garden bed to the other. Each box needs to be able to be divided into foot squares, so the width and length need to be in whole feet, not fractions of a foot. (For example 4' x 5' is good, but 4' x 4½' is not.)
You can build your own square foot gardening boxes - I made my first square foot garden beds from old recycled house bricks. Alternatively you could buy a kit.
Raised garden beds for a square foot garden
from Amazon.com
The square foot garden plans on this page were all produced using this great online garden planning tool.
2) Square Foot Gardening Layout
Where to place your boxes
If you're going to have more than one square foot garden bed, it is best to lay them out with a path or aisle between the boxes of at least 2 feet, preferably 3 feet. A path of 2 feet is more space-efficient than a path of 3 feet but you may find 3 feet is more practical. A 3 foot wide path will allow easy access to each bed for working and harvesting. There will be more room for a wheelbarrow or gardening cart or just for kneeling down next to you garden.
When you build your garden beds, it would be wise to first remove all the weeds or place down a thick layer of newspapers or flattened cardboard boxes under the square foot gardening boxes to stop any weeds from growing through.
For more information on the best place to put your garden beds:
Vegetable garden design Information to help you decide the best position to place your new vegetable garden.
3) Square Foot Garden Soil Mix
Mel has a really simple recipe for his perfect soil:
1 part peat moss
1 part vermiculite (coarse grade)
1 part compost
Unfortunately. Peat moss is a limited resource which could be depleted in the USA in as little as 20 years. Possible substitutes for peat moss include more compost (you could make your own) and coir dust.
Soilsaver Classic Composter
Amazon Price: $62.31 (as of 05/27/2012)
List Price: $87.99
Make your own compost. Don't throw your green scraps away but turn them into nutrient-rich compost for your veggies and flowers.
4) Square Foot Gardening Grids
Click on the thumbnails below for a bigger photo
Once you have put your soil mix into the garden boxes, you will need to mark the bed into a square foot grid. In my first square foot gardens, I used string but this disintegrated too quickly. I have also used garden stakes laid in a grid on the soil. But there are other materials you can use, including Mel's recommendation of old venetian blinds.
wood
wood
string or coated wire
twigs
recycled fencing
string?
5) Square Foot Gardening Spacing
Now for the fun part! Plant a different vegetable, herb or flower crop in each square on your grid. You will plant 1, 4, 9, 16 (or sometimes a different number) of each plant (seeds or seedlings) in one square foot depending on its space requirements.
The garden planning software I use clearly shows how many of each veggie or herb to plant per square foot - see the picture on the right - e.g. 1 cabbage, 4 swiss chards, 9 beetroots, 16 carrots. In this garden planning software in SFG mode, when you click on a plant to place it on your plan, the number used in each square foot will appear in the top left corner.
My Suggestion: Take into account the final height of the vegetables. My silverbeet (swiss chard) took off and totally swamped my little lettuces which then had to stretch for the light.
Sample Square Foot Gardening Plans
Click on each thumbnail to see a bigger picture
2x2 square foot gardening plan
All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!
by Mel Bartholomew
All New Square Foot Gardening
Amazon Price: $11.57 (as of 05/27/2012)
List Price: $19.99
A very popular book which has over 300 5 star ratings on Amazon.
For more vegetable gardening tips...
Vegetable Gardening Tips A list of various vegetable gardening tips arranged by topic - from planning your vegetables garden to how to grow different vegetables and herbs to garden tools and safety in the garden and much more.
Do you have any tips on using square foot gardening?
Have you tried square foot gardening? Please feel free to share your successes, suggestions and improvements here.
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concept247
May 21, 2012 @ 5:05 pm | delete
- I have never heard or square foot gardening before i came across this lens but it given me some good ideas of what you can do with even the smallest of garden space. Thanks.
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RuralFloridaLiving
May 13, 2012 @ 2:42 pm | delete
- No, but it's interesting to read about!
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suzy-t May 12, 2012 @ 5:26 am | delete
- I've always kinda "winged it" when it came to laying out my garden and it sometimes ends up pretty crowded and tangled. I'm devoting a section to square-foot-gardening this year and I'm planting this weekend...so your tips are very timely. Thank you !
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Serj
May 12, 2012 @ 1:09 am | delete
- Wow this is a cool idea, especially with limited room gardens, like mine. Will need to show this to my mom.
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Questionaire
May 5, 2012 @ 3:39 pm | delete
- Hey. Thanks for this, it really helped. I am looking at the buisness side of a square foot garden. Specifically, I am trying to see how much money I can make in one year by selling the plants I grow at a retail price. One thing that wasn't clear; how exactly would you construct the raised bed? I know you make a box and lay down newspaper (thanks for the tip) but should the wood be treated? I would think not, (chemicals) but how about how thick the wood should be?
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RusticWeddingGuy
Apr 27, 2012 @ 12:07 pm | delete
- Very neat lens. I am going to give this a try, perhaps I will have more luck using this method.
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Pinkchic18
Apr 26, 2012 @ 2:00 pm | delete
- This was so helpful! Thank you for teaching us about this :)
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Whitwillow
Apr 25, 2012 @ 7:41 am | delete
- Good lens and a good way to get the garden back under control.
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IMKZRNU Apr 23, 2012 @ 5:40 pm | delete
- Great information. Thanks for sharing...now I am off to decide where to put mine!
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Ramonailona Apr 22, 2012 @ 2:02 pm | delete
- Very nice! I have the perfect place for a small garden. Will try this. Thank you.
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All New Square Foot Gardening Cookbook
All New Square Foot Gardening Cookbook
Amazon Price: $4.22 (as of 05/27/2012)
