Anyone have a square foot garden?

[Terri O]

I do a kind of sq ft garden...I mostly use it for my stuff that I replant like spinach, chard and lettuces. I call it my salad garden. The soil is so soft in there that I have decided not to include a patio tomato this year. I had it caged AND staked and it still fell over in the wind! Then my whole garden was messed up because the tomato plant took over! I also am not planting the peas in there this year. They were supposed to stay on the back fence and they didnt listen either! I wish I didnt have to fence...but my chickens love salad as much as I do! TErri O also in WI

 

[saddina]

I put a vertical bed next to the fence, and use that to support vine crops; tomatoes, melons, squash, cukes, passion fruit.

 

[rancher hicks]

What is a square foot garden?

 

[Whispering Winds]

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Do you have to have raised beds to do this, or can I just plant in squares? I thought this sounds like such an easy way to weed and keep control. Those long rows are so daunting when its hot and sticky and are endless when you are working away . . .but the squares just sound so much more manageable. I have also read where sweet corn that needs to pollinate does much better in square beds. Makes sense.

 

[saddina]

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Long and short...

Instead of tradational row planting, plants are grown block-style in grids. You get more produce/sqft compaired to row gardening.

 

[featherbaby]

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No....only mountain lions will do that.

 

[saddina]

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Do you have to have raised beds to do this, or can I just plant in squares? I thought this sounds like such an easy way to weed and keep control. Those long rows are so daunting when its hot and sticky and are endless when you are working away . . .but the squares just sound so much more manageable. I have also read where sweet corn that needs to pollinate does much better in square beds. Makes sense.

No you don't have to raise the beds, but you want to make some sort of fence/barrier so no one steps in your soil.

 

[Terri O]

You can use boards, newspapers, cardboard or carpet scraps to make divisions. That is what I do in my big garden. I went back to planting in rows there because I make an auto water system with soaker hoses. I put the carpet right up next to the rows with the hose under it to help with evaporation of water when it is really hot. Hopefully we will get some hot weather her in WI this summer...last summer was not really good for hotter crops--I certainly could have used black plastic instead of the carpet! It wasnt really good for the beach either--I only went once! Terri O

 

[ChickenToes]

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My tomatoes did not do well last year at all, I probably had at least 60 tomatoes left on the vine that got killed by frost. I'm hoping that I'll have more luck with the sq ft method this year.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

My goal (actually a game I play with my Dad) is to have tomatoes by the 4th of July. It depends on how fast it warms up in the spring if you can get "real" 'maters by then. The earliest I've gotten has been Cherry 'maters by Memorial Day but Pop wouldn't count those, lol.


I kind of use a combination of Square foot and Lasagna Gardening. I use my shredded documents as mulch. Plus birds come and steal it to use in the nests. Come fall I'll cover everything with leaves and chicken poop and let it break down over winter.