Square Foot Gardening

We're (my wife and I) doing SFG for the first time this year. We've been reading books and reading articles on the Internet, but we realize that there's nothing like first hand knowledge. So if anyone has any hints, tips suggestions, ideas, etc please send it to me. I appreciate everyone's time with this. I hope everyone is doing well.

Greg

Greg, I don't do square foot gardening, but I have been growing tomatoes in self-watering containers since 2006, and I get enough tomatoes for fresh eating and some leftovers before frost to make a few jars of sauce for winter. 2 plants in 2 containers.
This year I am going to try growing parsnips in a bag type container designed for potatoes. Love parsnips but they are quit costly in stores, so I feel that growing from seed is the better way to go.
I use Gardeners Supply for a lot of my gardening needs. You might want to check them out for some of your square foot needs they have some frames and hardware that may help you.

Hey Greg!

My very first veggie garden in Marlton, New Jersey was done using the square foot method. This is a great way to garden.

What I did was build two 4 foot by 4 foot square boxes (from pine) and laid them on the ground. I used 12" wide lumber so my planting depth was about a foot. I then filled the boxes with a good quality potting mix -- I'd suggest spending the extra money and getting Miracle-Gro potting soil with water retention crystals and time released food.

Next, I put a pencil mark every foot along the top, bottom and sides so I would have 16 squares to grow in. You can change this method and have 2 foot squares if you like.

At each 1 foot point I drilled a hole and screwed in an eye screw. I laid out a grid with string and threaded it through the eye screws. I also built a trellis on one end and grew tomatoes and beans.

Those two boxes yielded a bunch of produce and herbs all summer long and I still use this method today.

Hope this helps. I spent a lot of years in Butler, PA and worked in Center City Philly for a while.

Best -- Victoria
http://www.myfrugalgardener.com
http://www.garden-rack.com

Expand your reading to include French intensive gardening, Greg. It's the same thing only without the grids and with double digging.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1980-01-01/Biodynamic-French-Intensive-Gardening.aspx