Anyone else do Square Foot Gardening?

[verthandi]

Gosh I didn't know that book was still in print. I had square foot raised beds years ago. They worked great and produced a lot more food than I thought they would. It was easy to maintain, I would just weed a couple of sections every night as I came home from work. I did add the peat to my soil and liked how easy the ground was to work.

 

[AhBee01]

We have't put in raised beds, but have started to plot them out. So we have plots and mulch path ways in between to walk on. We haven't decided if we will build the raised beds yet or just keep the plots. We have a pretty big garden and the raised beds may not be cost effective to build!
My DH wants to try to grow potatoes in tires, sounds neat, all you do is lay a tire down, fill with dirt. When the potatoes sprout, place another tire on top and fill with dirt, you stack them 3 or 4 high. When ready to harvest all you do is knock down the tires! No more hacking up the taters with the pitch fork!
They say tomatoes do well in the tires as well as peppers.
People are always throwing their old tires on our property, so we might as well put them to a good use!
I wonder how red necked the tire garden will look! LOL!!
Brenda

 

[hencackle]

Y'all need to join The Easy Garden, BYC's sister site.

My garden is rocky clay. DH built several raised beds from untreated lumber--they last about 5 years, that's ok with us because we don't want wood preservatives leaching into the soil.
The tire gardening topic was discussed and a couple of us don't recommend it for food crops because of the plasticizers (what keeps the tires pliable) leach into the soil and taken up by plants.

What I personally use for potatoes in my rocky soil are the metal cages that hold stone in place on the pallets. Cut them in half at the middle and you have 2 nice potato cages. Push the metal into the ground, line the sides with old feed bags (the brown paper part) and partially fill with your amended soil. The bags keep the soil from slipping through the wire--straw could work too. As your potatoes grow taller, you add more soil. I also mulch the potatoes with pine needles to help retain moisture. (raised beds dry out more quickly)
You could use chicken wire to make the cages.

Since my potato vines are kept upright, I've noticed very, very few potato beetles and I don't use insecticidal sprays.

 

[Ga Chicken Mom]

We had a great crop of tomatoes last summer from our one 4x8 raised bed and dh plans on building 2 more as soon as the weather gets a little warmer. No one has mentioned using pine shavings from the hen house. I plan on cleaning out the deep litter in early spring and tilling it into the beds before we plant them. We only have 9 hens and the litter is mostly pine shavings with some chicken poo. Will this burn the veggie plants if its not composed longer?

 

[Ga Chicken Mom]

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[quadcam79]

I just built two beds 4'x8' and abou 8" deep...let me just tell you buying bags of soil will get real expensive real fast. I got 4 bags of vegetable potting mix for around * each. then 15 bags of manure compost at walmart for $2 each and still only filled one of the beds.

 

[seminolewind]

I did SFG years ago and loved it, I wouldn't do it any other way. I had used raised beds the first year, and not again, I had to water them too much. Dried out too fast.
So I made a low wall just as an outline. I would use the clay. I think I would add compost or dried cow or horse manure, and some sand if you can. 1/3 compost to 2/3 clay is good. I usually mix by "feel", I mix in a wheelbarrow till I get the right "weight" on the shovel, and the right color. Sounds weird but works. With compost or manure, you need to add lime.
You make me want to run out and start a garden!

 

[Agilityscots]

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I actually have the newer version (although I read the older one). It's kind of gimmicky sounding, but I guess the author's just enthusiastic about his method. I think it was published in 2005 if I remember correctly...has lots of pictures and great charts.

Amy

 

[Agilityscots]

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Using our clay soil is just not feasible for an entire bed of this size, unless I want weeks of backbreaking work. This stuff is awful! It's rich, but it doesn't drain well, and you can't get through it.

Amy

 

[Agilityscots]

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I think it's okay to do this, if you let it sit for a season before planting...I wouldn't do it this late in the season, though. I think it would be too "hot" and would burn. Just my guess.

Amy