Square Foot Gardening Thread

[RonKayCoop]

I'm starting a backyard inner city garden in West Haven,CT. I'd like to prepare the ground (soil) for next spring,. What exactly should I do to get the soil ready to produce for me in the spring? I know that with each season my soil will get better and better with the right care...Plz help me with some solid advice. Thank you.

 

[Raech]

Providing you are starting with bare soil, I would put some good compost in there with some fertilizer, then cover with a thick layer of mulch. Come spring till it all together and it should be ready. If you are starting from grass or weeds, either dig out the sod and cover with cardboard to kill the roots or just rototill the area you want your beds to be and cover with mulch and cardboard. Then it should be ready to mix compost and fertilizer in the spring. I used newspaper and wet it down topped with decomposed rabbit bedding from a friend for one of my beds last year and my garden went nuts.

 

[lazy gardener]

Agreed: add just as much organic material as you can get your hands on. Lawn clippings and leaves make a great blend. Especially if you run them through your lawn mower first. You could also use the "lasagna gardening" method to get your first year underway. Read the excellent book authored by Patricia Lanza. If you don't have grass clippings, but are blessed with an abundance of leaves, shred them with your lawn mower, then layer them with a sprinkling of high nitrogen fertilizer, (there is also an option for a free high nitrogen liquid fertilizer that will really make those leaves cook. PM for details.) making the pile as wet as a damp sponge, cover with clear plastic, and let it cook through the winter. I'd aim to make a pile AT LEAST 3' tall and 3' x 3', or covering what ever foot print your garden will cover.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

HEY KASSAUNDRA - I've heard of this technique from some 'Old-Timers' and I'm trying my own "experiment" too! I didn't have any tires to make a "short-stack"as they call it like you,but I've got LOTS of chicken wire and fencing.As a variation on the tire stack,I closed off one end of one of my raised beds with a piece of fence (already surrounded by chicken wire to keep my beloved chickens out)This creates a space I can build up as the plants grow.I'm making the assumption that portions of the plant that get covered will develop roots (and then potatoes) I've always planted my tomatoes very deep to take advantage of this.


I must say the OP (Original Poster) who began this thread has got us ALL beat! 12 raised beds with (soon to be) grass pathways! *SWEET!* Can't wait to see what he plants!Hope he UPDATES!


OK - SHOW and TELL time!

I've always MUCH ENJOYED seeing other people's pictures and gardens-I hope you will bear with me as I share mine! Kinda "PIC-HEAVY" and presented "HOW-TO"style.

(I got a new camera for Christmas!) Here goes--


Started out adding some fencing to an existing raised bed

Then I bought some Yukon Gold seed potatoes ( $2.98 for a box of 7 or 8 from Ingles Market where I work) Such a great deal- I bought TWO!

 


Then I dug out a small "divet" for each and filled with a handful of my favorite bag soil-BLACK KOW. I LOVE this stuff-all organic and never burns!I use it EVERY time I plant ANYTHING! Make seed-beds and sew directly.Gives everything a great start. 

Covered 'em up with more Black Kow

Then the first of many layers of leaves

It wasn't long (two weeks) and they were UP!

Time to add the next layer! Started with (you guessed it) a little Black Kow up against the plants in what I hope will become the root zone

Then another layer of leaves(gathered and partially shredded by my push mower with bagger)

This is followed by a mixture of equal parts river sand(often called green sand) and coffee grounds(donated by my local Starbucks-also used to suppliment my compost in winter) I'm trying this mix as sort of a top dressing to hopefully turn all those leaves into a kind of "growing-medium" ( Hey, it's an experiment,right?)

Finally a few more leaves and we're up into at least ONE TIRE range

After some good rain,in a few more days the plants had shot up again!

Time for next layer--more soil at base

Leaves and another top dressing of coffee grounds and sand

Final layer of leaves raises bed up to just below active tops of plants

This latest layer was added just today - Easter Sunday. I believe we're up to about TWO TIRE height at this point.

I've been so impressed at the RAPID growth I've experienced so far with this first-time potato effort! I've always considered gardening to be a rewarding partnership with GOD.All we do is plant -He does all the rest- He makes the magic happen!You can water your garden all day long - but there's NOTHING more beneficial than the blessing of RAIN from above!The growth of plants and the harvest of their bounty is truly a WONDERFUL thing! I've found time and time again - If we just co-operate with GOD - HE will make the magic happen in our lives as well!


But enough preaching.I wonder how tall I can make this bed? Two tires? Top of the chicken wire?Will I get potatoes all along the buried plant?If any of ya'll have tried anything similar,please let me know how it went or what I'm doing wrong! ANY and ALL FEEDBACK is WELCOME!  Be sure to subscribe to this thread for updates ( HARVEST PICS! )


Also be sure to see my other gardening post to see how I encourage EARTHWORMS to help me in the garden!

*PIC-HEAVY* and no preachin'!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=5929886#p5929886

That's it!! That's my new potato way. I have a family of 7 so we eat a lot of potatoes and growing them looks super easy.

 

[Beekissed]

Just make sure you choose a variety that will send off new tuber roots as you stack the materials. Some have tried container spuds but didn't use the right taters and it didn't yield much at all. Also, make sure you add materials just as soon as those tops give you some space or you'll miss the chance for them to form new tubers at certain areas along the plant.

Here's a few other ways of building a tater "container" bed....one can just use four pallets scrapped together and just keep adding materials inside the square, hay or straw bales also make a good place to grow upwards on spuds. Another cool vid I saw on YT the other day for raised beds would also work very well for spud growing, simply because it would be easily removed and the spuds gotten to for the harvest. I've got a group of taters in my pallet compost bin right now for just such an experiment.

 

[lazy gardener]

Awesome photos of the potato bed. Looks like they are loving the green sand and the coffee grounds. I bring coffee grounds home from church when ever I can get them.

 

[Circle-M-Farm]

Quote: This is followed by a mixture of equal parts river sand(often called green sand) and coffee grounds(donated by my local Starbucks-also used to suppliment my compost in winter)
Greensand and River Sand are two different things.

River sand is just that river sand and is much like the sand used in concrete.

Greensand (which is always green/ blue green in color) is a mineral called Glauconite, is harvested from the ocean floor and used as an organic fertilizer.
Greensand contains 22 trace minerals, Silica, Magnesia, Iron Oxide, Calcium, Phosphoric Acid and Potash.

 

[Beekissed]

That's good to know. I'm wondering if river sand also contains nutrients, as it most likely captures much of the nutrition to be found in the silty river bottoms.

 

[Circle-M-Farm]

That's good to know. I'm wondering if river sand also contains nutrients, as it most likely captures much of the nutrition to be found in the silty river bottoms.

River sand is going to have some nutrients like silica and or calcium carbonate but it would take next to forever for it to break down in the soil.

Greensand is a hardened sediment not really a "true sand" and it takes time to breakdown into the soil but breaks down way faster than "sand" i.e. river sand.

 

[ClearSkye]

I've done square foot gardening like this for years and love it!