square foot gardening?

[krissy]

i just heard of this yesterday and am wondering if anyone has done it and how hard it was?

i am green thumb challenged, (i was the ONLY person in the class with brown dead plants in plant science) i really want to become more self sustaining even though i live in the city. this square foot gardening looks doable and i have the right amount of space for it but wanted to ask around before i rush headlong into another new project

 

[Hazel]

I've heard of it but I've never done it. Did you know there is a forum for square foot gardeners? Here's the link if you haven't seen it.

http://www.squarefootgardening.org/faqs ... faqsnforum

 

[krissy]

i am planning on getting the book and going from there. it seems like i always get the itch to try this too far into the season, but it looks like i might be able to start with different things during different times of the year.

in reality what i need is someone to say go plant this_____ here. Then plant this plant here____. water _____ times per week. etc....

 

[Dragonkaz]

I've been doing it on and off in one form or another for many years. I've never bought a book, but followed ideas from reading and more recently the web.

One of the best ways is to get lengths of bamboo ... or something similar and then to join them in patterns. For example so you can plant six plants in each 'foot square' ... you sent the lengths of bamboo to allow six equal places, same goes for eight, nine and 12. If it's a big plant, then it may be only one per square foot, or two or three.

You can overplant these small garden areas, due to increasing the fertilisers and watering carefully and regularly. It's best to plant one kind of plant in each area, so that you can rotate more easily next season.

Last August ... in preparation for the heat of summer, I planted the following. One square of spring onions x30, one square of celery x9, one square of purple carrots x12, one square of coz lettuce x6, two squares with one zucchini in each, one square with x2 capsicum, 3 squares with x2 tomatoes in each, 2 squares with on cucumber in each, 2 squares with 3x climbing beans in each ... and I think that was all.

I love gardening this way and I use it in my raised garden beds which are divided into six 'square' gardens and I also have some large pots which are one 'square garden' each.

 

[krissy]

that makes sense wit the bamboo.

how deep does the dirt have to be for each square or container to make it grow well?

 

[Dragonkaz]

My gardens are raised garden beds, probably about 24 inches deep, but mostly they wouldn't need to be that deep, except for where you're going 'under the ground' veges like carrots. I have a separate area for growing purple potatoes, due to them spreading. I also use large pts that are at least 12 inches deep. Some 'square metres' have a trellis behind them, so that plants can be attached for support ... like tomatoes, beans and capsicum.

I've got silverbeet, beetroot and broccolini to plant. The silverbeet and beetroot will be planted 3x each square ... not in a row, but I use the bamboo that shows 9 gaps and I plant one in the centre of the top row and one at either end of the bottom row. This way there's plenty of space around each plant. With the broccolini, it's one plant per square ... for two squares.

Here's a photo of my newly finished gardens. I live in the driest state in Australia and the soil around my gardens is sand based. This meant that most of the soil in my gardens had to be bought in and there are heavy duty weed mats in each garden 'holding' the soil in. These mats are stapled to the top row of timber that goes around each garden.

My beautiful dog Wilson is having a wander round one of the new gardens.

 

[krissy]

thank you! the pic makes tings so much more clear for me. i talked to my mom and we are goingto do a version of square but go in circles (if i can find wine barrels) but do the same basic idea.

and we are going to de herbs too. i am getting excited! now if only it hadn't decided to snow last night... :?

 

[JackiK]

Check with your county extension agent. They have a wealth of informatin for your particular area of the country and oftentimes offer free seminars.

We're getting ready to start a community garden. I can hardly wait. We plan to get either the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts involved. I just love working with kids.

Good luck with your garden!

 

[Davika]

I started container gardening this year. I'd never really gardened before and have killed pretty much every houseplant that wasn't a cactus. (Let's be honest, I've killed those too.) I got off to a rough start because I got overly excited and bought every type of plant/herb/flower i could get my hands on. It was overwhelming and as a result most of them died and i wasted a lot of money. I still have a few that survived and are doing really well and it's a lot easier to manage while I am developing my green thumb. But until i really get the hang of it, I'm going to keep just the few plants i will use most frequently so I can give them the proper attention and then grow from there. Right now I have tomatoes, peppers, basil, rosemary, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries that have all survived my lack of gardening skills.

 

[moosie]

Re:

Here's a photo of my newly finished gardens. I live in the driest state in Australia and the soil around my gardens is sand based. This meant that most of the soil in my gardens had to be bought in and there are heavy duty weed mats in each garden 'holding' the soil in. These mats are stapled to the top row of timber that goes around each garden.

My beautiful dog Wilson is having a wander round one of the new gardens.

Wow! I love your garden! I have 2 small raised beds 4x4 and I'm trying square foot gardening for the first time this year, I just googled a lot and went from there. I marked off each square foot with string and then planted however many I could in each SF. I got the numbers of each plant from a website, I'll see if I can find it