Does anyone practice this particular form of gardening? Any info or chatting we can do about it? Share your knowledge and/or questions
Square Foot Gardening
Anita,
I don't practice it - I think, but I did buy a book on it from the library. Does that help ;)
Anita,
How much land do I need for a square foot garden?
Remember that square foot kicker, he still has the record I believe.
Don't make me open my book up, I thought the idea was to cram as much stuff in as you can, I have just about completed that.
Dave, just a guess, but I'd say 12" by 12".
Anita, I think the teasing may be over with for now. Would you please explain to me what this is you're referring to.
Nothing is over until we decide it is.....John Belushi
It involves standing around in a red shirt obviously
I tried it a few years ago with veggies and liked it. Seems to work better for me with small ones like carrots, beets, Swiss chard and lettuce. I also grew some onions too (the only year my onions amounted to anything) Sometime I plan on trying it again. I believe Elliot Coleman is the author of the original book and he has a new one out this year I believe with his updated version of square foot gardening. He has a lot of good basic information in the book also.
I thought Mel originate the SFG idea and Elliot did the winter garden..or something to that effect?
Nancy - check this site out http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ I bought the original book ~15 years ago. I had just put in a raised bed [to grow some garlic] and thought about the concept again.
Mel Bartholomew wrote the "Square Foot Gardening" book published by Rodale Press. His basic message was that typical vegetable planting recommendations say something like "plant radish seeds 3 inches apart in rows one foot apart", and waste a lot of space. He would plant them 16 per square feet (i.e. 3 inches apart in all directions). He also recommends growing viny crops vertically.
I tried it and found one can indeed grow (most) crops closer together, although I am far from being an expert in conventional vegetable farming. Keeping your planting areas to 3-4 foot wide also made it easier to till and harvest. One problem was that not planting in rows made it harder to distinguish between the sprouts of useful plants and weeds. Nowadays I tend to start seeds indoors in cells and then transplant them out using the spacing Bartholemew recommended.
That's a good idea Don. I have a 3x3 raised bed that I wanted to experiment with garlic and thought I would use the SFG idea.
I used to use some of the ideas. Like not planting the radishes and carrots in long skinny rows. that never made any sense to me anyway.
Hi Don!
As we are practically neighbors I wanted to say "Hello" and welcome.
Dave
Yes you are right, I got the authors mixed up. I have both books.
Hi all, I'm new here today. SFG works great, get the book! I miss Mel's show on TV.
Tom
welcome Tom! Thanks for the input.
Hello Tommy!
This is a great idea, Anita, and though (as you know) I haven't enough room for one, if I had known about this a few years ago when I started gardening it would have been perfect for me. I think something like this is great! Jam-packed. Lots of color.
I think SFG is perfect for small gardens Nancy. Check it out, you might still be able to work it into your limited space?
Anita, since my small garden is between the two houses, there's not much sun. And the only available space is alongside 'their' house. Probably gets about 2 hours of direct sun/day. Do you think there's anything I could put there? Hostas and impatiens and little else? Please give me your opinion.
Nancy - my shade bed consists of: Hostas,ferns, toad lily, holly, bleeding hearts, chocolate eupatorium, columbine, astilbe, ligularia
This message was edited Oct 5, 2006 10:40 PM
Thanks very much, Al! I will definitely check those out!
ditto on what Al said. Keep in mind that there are small varieties of hosta, astilbe and fern. Toad lily is an upright grower so it doesn't take up alot of space. My Ligularia is huge and I'm not up to snuff on other varieties.
I could add liriope, lamium, cardinal flower and chelone (sp?: aka turtle plant) aruncus, anemone & lungwort.